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In 2007 the European business community missed out on a record amount of EUR 250bn as a consequence of outstanding invoices. Southern Europe heads the league of payment defaulters, while the Nordic countries are the best payers overall.

Increasing demand for Internet based services means that there would not be enough addresses to support this expected growth, if no action is taken. Encouraging internet users and providers to adopt the latest Internet Protocol (IP version 6 or IPv6) will provide a massive increase in address space, much in the same way as telephone numbers were lengthened in the 20th century. The European Commission set Europe a target of getting 25% of EU industry, public authorities and households to use IPv6 by 2010, calling for concerted action at European level to get all actors prepared for a timely, efficient change to avoid extra costs for consumers and give innovative European companies a competitive advantage.

In the Communication "Better careers and more mobility: a European Partnership for Researchers ", the European Commission seeks a partnership with Member States to ensure that the necessary human resources are available to sustain and enhance the contribution of science and technology to a knowledge-based European economy.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Commission will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at furthering coordination of European Union external lending policies. The objective of the MoU is to strengthen the consistency of EIB lending with the external policy objectives of the EU by reinforcing dialogue and planning between the two institutions, so as to optimise the use of grant and loan resources.

To improve the internal market for construction products, the European Commission has proposed to replace the “Construction Product Directive” (89/106/EEC) by a new Regulation aiming to remove all remaining regulatory and technical obstacles to the free circulation of construction products in the European Economic Area.

The European Commission is moving a step closer to making it easier for companies, in particular Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), to bid for public sector contracts anywhere in the EU; a crucial step towards achieving the Single European Market. The Commission will co-finance a pilot project, driven by eight European countries that will create the conditions to link existing national electronic public procurement (e-procurement) systems. Simplifying cross-border procurement will generate savings on administrative and transaction costs and will benefit taxpayers who ultimately pay for public purchases. The project will invest more than € 19 million over three years, € 9.8 million of which will come from the European Commission's Competitiveness and Innovation Programme.

Overall emissions of CO2 from businesses in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) increased by 0.68% in 2007 when adjusted for changes in the number of installations covered, according to the information provided by Member State registries. While well below the 2.8% growth in the EU's Gross Domestic Product recorded last year, the slight increase in emissions underlines the need for the tighter emission caps that have been set for the 2008-2012 trading period.

Rules providing for systems providing mobile satellite services - such as broadband internet or mobile TV - to be selected at EU level in the future were backed by the European Parliament. MEPs approved a first-reading compromise, negotiated with Council beforehand, which aims to improve accessibility, speed, and quality of electronic communications services especially in rural areas.

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents decreased from 8.0% in February 2008 to 7.0% in March. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 1.3% in March 2008, the same as in February.

In adopting a resolution on rising food prices in the EU and the developing countries, MEPs say that priority should be given to investment in agriculture, aquaculture, rural development and agribusinesses in developing countries.