04 April 2008
News from the EU
Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs (2008-2010)
Meeting on 13-14 March 2008, the EU Member States leaders launched the next cycle of the Lisbon Strategy. The Spring European Council confirmed the validity of the Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs, adopted specific recommendations for the EU Member States, and asked the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council to focus on implementing the ten priorities laid down in the new Community Lisbon Programme as soon as possible. It was also stressed that, given the increasing uncertainty about the international economic environment, it is important to proceed with reforms, which include the pursuit of innovation and research objectives, with the removal of barriers to the free movement of knowledge by creating a "fifth freedom", as well as the implementation of the "flexicurity" principle when reforming the labour markets.
For further information, click here.
Eurobarometer: Europeans in favour of EU regional policy
The European Commissioner has published the results of a survey on how Europeans perceive the cohesion policy, realised by Eurobarometer as part of the public consultation launched by Danuta Hübner, the European Commissioner responsible for regional policy, in September 2007 on the future of regional policy (IP/07/1406). The results show that the vast majority of citizens are convinced of the benefits of the cohesion policy in their town, city or region and that they want EU action to be more ambitious and capable of meeting the new challenges of the 21st century, such as globalisation and demographic trends.
To read the report, click here.
Publications
New ICN Tools on nursing Regulation
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has published a set of publications on nursing regulations entitled “Nursing Care Continuum – Framework and Competencies”; “the Model Nursing Act” and “the Model Nursing Act Toolkit”, aiming to provide guidance to countries developing regulatory regimes for the first time and to offer a benchmark that can be used to redesign existing arrangements. These new publications will be useful to both government and non-government regulators and provide excellent resources to evaluate, develop and redesign regulatory policy.
For further information, click here.