The year 2005 for the European union was simply different, there were too many decisions and debates to improve the EU econimically & politically.
Since 1 January, 12,000 large industrial plants in the power- and energy-intensive industries have been able to buy and sell permits to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
This Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) enables companies exceeding individual CO2 emissions targets to buy pollution allowances from greener ones. These can then turn investments in cleaner technologies into cash and help the EU meet its Kyoto commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The system has earned the EU the reputation of global leader in fighting climate change but has come under fire from industry circles who criticise the EU for "going it alone" on the world stage, undermining EU companies' international competitiveness along the way. Indeed, the EU is the only trading bloc with such a system in place but hopes it will show the way forward to other regions.
Environmental organisations were initially enthusiastic about ETS. But they now say the scheme is being undermined by excess allowances to industry, putting inflationary pressures on the CO2 market.
"Because of the over-allocation of allowances, there are hardly any incentives for industries to reduce emissions more than business-as-usual. As a result, the CO2 emission market will most likely see low prices and the environmental effectiveness of the system will be reduced", said Oliver Rapf, senior policy officer at the WWF's European Policy Office.
In addition, some countries were denied the right to start trading because their CO2 allocation plans was rejected by the Commission. These include the UK, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic. Greece is yet to submit its own plan.
As a result of the Tsunami disaster, The EU's foreign affairs, development and health ministers have agreed that, following the short-term humanitarian relief efforts, the focus should now shift to the rehabilitation and long-term reconstruction of the tsunami-hit regions.
Meeting in an extraordinary session on 7 January, the EU's foreign affairs, development and health ministers have agreed that humanitarian aid should be the main focus of tsunami relief efforts at this point. The Council highlighted the importance of actions to prevent the emergence of epidemics and protect human lives by ensuring food supply and access to drinking water, medicines and vaccines.
The EU will set out its ideas for helping the affected countries at a un-hosted donors' conference on 11 january.
The EU and its members have so far contributed over 1.5 billion euros in public donations to the disaster-stricken areas. The Council has called on the Commission and the European Investment Bank to devise a new financial instrument, called the 'Indian Ocean Tsunami Facility', which could provide funding of up to 1 billion euros. The Council would have organised a meeting on 31 January to assess medium to long-term response plans to the tsunami disaster.
The Council's conclusions underline that the aid given to help tsunami victims should not lead to a reduction in resources needed for African humanitarian and development aid.
About the relations between the EU & the U.S., the EU's ambassador in the U.S. John bruton has called in an interview with the financial times, has called for pragmatism and new relationship between the two countries.
He calls on Europeans not to take the rhetoric too literally and not to be put off by a tendency for some American politicians to place emphasis on religion:
"Rather than drawing conclusions, we should ask ourselves what is President Bush telling us. Are we saying that there is no such thing as evil in the world? And if there is such a thing, what is wrong with using the world evil?" asks Bruton and adds: "Europeans can penetrate the American debate. We just have to translate European into American... Clearly the president is not seeking God's advice on where to locate air strikes."
On the contentious Iraq issue, Bruton call for pragmatism: "We have to realise where we are now on Iraq: even if the US had the commitment of the French, Germans, Italians and Spanish, it would not change the fundamental equation. We need practical answers: what do Iraqi people need, how can the rest of the Arab world help, can we work with the Arab League?"
On the looming crisis over Iran's nuclear program, Bruton wants to see diplomacy and a soft power approach rather than tough military power.
According to the European efforts of fighting violence and intolerance, a conference were held in brussels on 3 of january for a three day conference condemning religious violence, where 150 rabbis & imams attended the conference to share opinions & ideas for how to avoid intolerance and violence on our earth.
the objectives of the conference, backed by peace organizations, religious bodies and the European union, are to create a dialogue between Islam & Judaism to find peaceful solutions for the current crises.
At the end they found that all blodshed should be ended and also the attacks against innocent human beings who have the right to live in peace.
The victory of mahmoud abbas -the new Palestinian president- according to the presidential elections on 9 january will open a "new avenue for peace in the middle east" says EU foreign policy minister javier solana.
solana added "iam sure that Palestinians & Israelis will take advantage of this opportunity, they can count on their european friends.
Hoping to return back to peace negotiotations, solana said that abbas should have the legitmacy required to move the middle east peace process forward.
The EU's foreign policy chief said that the scheduled March 2005 conference in London will be an "instrument to help" the Palestinians "to get prepared to assume the responsibilities of a new state". The Palestinians "are going to have a state and therefore they need to adapt their structures to the new reality of a state and we are ready and willing to help them with that."
and also prime minister tony blair commented on 9 january that "we have got a new Israeli government that is committed to trying to reinvigorate the peace process and you have got new Palestinian leadership that is committed to the same thing".
Something else important which is the youths health... A Commission study on young people's lifestyles and sedentariness underplays the role model function of adults in getting young people active, says a professor in clinical and health psychology.A Commission report published on 3 January does say that "good health starts at home" and mentions family as a 'reinforcing factor' encouraging physical activity but Professor Claus Voegele, from the clinical and health psychology research centre at Roehampton University, criticises it for "consistently downplaying the role model function of adults".The European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation (ENGSO) youth section places emphasis on young people taking their responsibilities. The President of the youth section of ENGSO, Rosemary-Paul Chopin, says that ENGSO sees adults as having "an accompanying and guiding role" rather than "an indoctrinating one".Reacting to the report's idea of special exercise courses for overweight children, he says such courses run the risk of excluding people and labelling them for no good reason. Indeed he fears the idea may backfire and lead to an overstatement of the importance of body weight. Ms Chopin says the report's recommendation should leave clubs and associations with room for manoeuvre on how to develop these courses (or other projects on this subject). She would see them as integrating those who are not overweight with those who are.
Because of the increase of terrorist attacks during the last couple of years, and especially after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. America is trying hard to co-operate with the international community to fight the so called terrorism. For that the secretary of the US department of homeland security, Tom Ridge, has announced that the US will send a senior representative on security and anti-terrorism to be based full-time in the European Union. Also it's very important for the U.S. to co-operate with a great power like the European union by a briefing on 13 january 2005 organized by the European policy centre. In a speech which emphasised the progress made in co-operation between the EU and the US since the setting up of the department of home land security (DHS) following the September 11 attacks, Mr Ridge said, "we are more strong and more effective together than we are apart. We need the integration of nations to defeat terrorism".