Daily Archives: April 24, 2009

European Parliament: Highlight of the Week (10)

April 24, 2009 2:13 pm by Tony Barber

The European Parliament adopted a report calling for tougher action to crack down on the millions of infections that are picked up every year by patients in European hospitals. Among the measures proposed in the report, which was passed by a vote of 521 to 6 with 5 abstentions, are the recruitment of specialised nurses and more widely available information for patients.

The parliament’s vote expands on a previous initiative of EU governments by setting a target of a 20 per cent reduction in hospital-related infections, or 900,000 cases a year, by 2015 in EU member-states. Read more

Posted in EU Parliament |

Montenegro’s hopes of joining the EU get a (strange) boost

April 24, 2009 12:16 pm by Tony Barber

The European Union is truly a weird and wonderful thing. Take the question of enlargement into the western Balkans (an area once known as Yugoslavia and Albania).

As is well-known, France, Germany and other western European countries have been reluctant to move the enlargement process forward as long as the EU’s Lisbon reform treaty remains blocked. Among their concerns is the fear that their electorates will not take kindly to the prospect of yet more eastern Europeans piling into the EU at a time of extraordinary economic crisis. Read more

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Posted in Enlargement |