EU-Africa Forum: offering support to African cotton producing countries The recent fall in world cotton prices has had a serious impact in several West and Central African countries, where cotton is the main source of income. On 5 and 6 July, the EU-Africa Forum on cotton gathered in Paris to define a roadmap with measures in support of African cotton producing countries. Discussions centred around: getting fairer trade conditions on international cotton markets: the EU supports the calls from the four African cotton producers (Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad) to pursue a reduction in trade-distorting subsidies, better market access and the elimination of all forms of export subsidies in this sector in the on-going WTO negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda; supporting African cotton producing countries in implementing comprehensive plans for the development of their cotton sectors: developing inter-professional and public-private cooperation; promoting responsiveness to evolutions of markets and technologies; boosting quality recognition; developing mechanisms to mitigate price risks; as well as ways to develop the processing of cotton into textiles and clothing. "This Forum illustrates the European Union's desire to establish an open and constructive dialogue with our African partners," said Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy. "Our joint ambition for this partnership must be that it is much more than a simple reaction to current circumstances, or a short-term mobilisation. It must be an enduring co-operation." The forum built on the Communication on the cotton sector in Africa adopted in February 2004.

Although Europe is a world leader in chemical production, holding 28 percent of the world market, its proportion of global trade has dropped by 4 percent over the past decade. Chemical and biotechnology sector organisations CEFIC and EuropaBIO, with the support of the European Commission, launched a European 'Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry' on 6 July to establish a long-standing public-private partnership with a view to increasing investment on research and innovation and boosting European competitiveness in this sector. The platform will bring together industry, research centres, the financial world and regulatory authorities at European level to tailor a strategic research agenda for the sector. Issues to be addressed include three key technology areas for Europe: industrial biotechnology, materials technology, reaction and process design, and an area for cross-cutting issues including the environment, health and safety, education and skills, research infrastructures, and access to risk capital.

Mobile broadband services are an economic locomotive in their own right. To ensure that data can be accessed anytime, anywhere across the EU, and that the EU retains its lead in this area, the Commission released a Communication called 'Mobile broadband services' on 30 June. The latest generation of mobile and wireless technologies will combine the benefits of high-speed broadband connections and high-volume data-carrying capacity with mobility. For example, mobile users will be able to shop and pay on-line and receive a whole range of audio-visual services such as music and video. The ability to link the mobile workforce with company headquarters and exchange data at high speed will change working processes and improve organisational efficiency. The challenges ahead include ensuring that services can be supplied seamlessly to a variety of devices, making the technologies and networks that carry them interoperable, and providing adequate intellectual property protection for services with high value-added content. These challenges call for targeted R&D, both on basic research and to accelerate technical innovation.

Seven recommendations. This is what came out of the high level group on textiles meeting on 30 June. In order to ensure that the EU textiles and clothing industry keeps its world leader status, participants proposed to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, to improve education, training and employment and to enhance competitiveness. They also proposed to re-focus regional funds in support of textiles industry and to simplify rules for access of SMEs to R&D and innovation programmes. The Group concluded that it is essential for the EU textiles industry to increase its access to third countries by obtaining tariffs at the lowest possible level. They also stressed the growing importance of the Chinese market.

The European Central Bank (ECB) launched a new version of its website on 26 June. The website's design has been revamped and the contents restructured in order to make it more user-friendly. The two sections of particular interest to the general public, 'The European Central Bank' and 'Banknotes & Coins', are now available in all 20 official EU languages. The ECB is the central bank for Europe's single currency, the euro. The ECB's main task is to maintain its purchasing power and thus price stability in the euro-area. The euro-area comprises the 12 European Union countries that have introduced the euro since 1999.

In today's world, health challenges are increasingly global in nature. The European Commission and the World Health Oganisation (WHO) therefore decided to further reinforce their joint efforts to reduce poverty and improve health conditions in developing countries. "HIV/AIDS is just one example of where high level political commitment is needed, not only to fight the epidemic, but also to protect people living with HIV/AIDS, to fight the stigma and to safeguard their human rights," said David Byrne, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. "The EU and WHO share goals and are natural allies. It makes sense that we join forces to meet the challenges that confront public health systems today." Particular attention will be given to improving the health of mothers, reversing the advance of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; and strengthening systems for generating information about the performance of health systems. The selection of WHO as one of the strategic partners in the field of development underlines the European Commission's commitment to the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and recognises the critical role that must be played by the United Nations' specialised agencies in achieving them.

120 million people worldwide suffer from depression. An EU-funded research project launched recently will help to uncover the genetic factors linked to depression to develop new drug treatments. The Integrated Project, named NEWMOOD, has received €7.2 million in funding from the EU's Sixth Research Framework Programme (FP6) and aims to identify genes involved in triggering depression. This will help researchers to develop new drugs over the next five years to treat it and improve understanding of its causes. The drugs are set to revolutionise antidepressant drugs, which have not changed much over the past 30 years. The project, co-ordinated by the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) involves partners from 13 laboratories in 10 European countries including Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Spain.

At the conference "Brain drain, brain gain: new challenges" held on 29 and 30 June in Paris, European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin launched the new European network of mobility centres for researchers ERA-MORE. Bringing together 200 centres in 33 countries, this new instrument should help to improve information and practical assistance for researchers in Europe. This network is one of several European initiatives to make Europe a better place to do research. In July last year the Commission launched the Researcher's Mobility Portal, linking some 3,000 sites relating to moving across Europe.