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Fitch Ratings says the Polish energy market's increasing liberalisation and upcoming privatisation offer growth and diversification opportunities for European utilities. It also presents less expected volatility and risk compared to other countries where energy sectors were recently opened for foreign investors such as Russia and Turkey.

In July 2008 compared with June 2008, the euro area (EA15) industrial new orders index grew by 1.0%. In June the index dropped by 0.5%. In the EU27 new orders increased by 2.3% in July 2008, after remaining stable in June. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment industrial new orders fell by 1.4% in the euro area and by 3.6% in the EU27.

As news emerges that more people than ever will face increased financial pressures in the wake of rising fuel bills, the call for household energy efficiency measures have never been greater.

Climate Action Network Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and WWF have heavily criticized the outcome of today's vote by the European Parliament's industry committee on "effort sharing".

The Conference Board announced that the leading index for Germany declined 1.4 percent and the coincident index decreased 0.4 percent in July.

An analysis of recent data shows a moderation in overall labour market performance in the EU following the recent slowdown in economic activity. Quarterly employment growth fell to 0.2% in the second quarter of 2008, while the unemployment rate stabilised at 6.8%. Despite the slowdown, by the second quarter overall employment had still increased by 2.9 million from a year earlier. However, recent labour market performances vary substantially across Member States.

The development of renewable energy in Scotland has come forward in technical, economic, and political terms during the opening years of the 21st century. The natural resource base for renewables is exceptional by European, and even global standards.

An EU research paper on the UN Millennium Development Goals argues that the Goals are threatened by the challenges of high food and oil prices and global economic slowdown. The paper suggests that greater efforts are needed for more effective aid, investments in infrastructure to sustain growth, and that social protection should be in each country's agenda.

Workers in Greece tend to work more hours than the average European, 45.4 hours per week in comparison to an average of 38.4 hours in the EU27 Member States, according to research from Eurofound.

Currently broadband is provided by telecommunications operators to their subscribers via the same copper wires that have been used for telephony since its invention in the 19th century. However, new broadband services such as online gaming, high-definition TV and interactive applications require ever higher bandwidths that cannot be provided over copper infrastructure. To provide these services it is necessary to replace the copper infrastructure connecting the end-users to the local switches (the "local loop") by optical fibre. These new fibre-based access networks are referred to as "Next Generation Access networks" or "NGAs".