As the troubled euro celebrates its 10th birthday, European leaders have used their New Year’s addresses to stress the need for closer union to tackle the eurozone crisis.

European leaders have warned of a difficult year ahead, as many economists predict recession in 2012.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe was experiencing its “most severe test in decades” but that Europe was growing closer in the debt crisis.

France’s President Sarkozy said the crisis was not finished, while Italy’s president called for more sacrifices.

Growth in Europe has stalled as the debt crisis has forced governments to slash spending.

“Will 2012 be the end of the euro currency? My answer is I don’t think so,” IMF chief Christine Lagarde told reporters after meeting the South African finance minister.

The euro will not “vanish” this year, but problems within the eurozone will slow down the global economy, with the International Monetary Fund set to lower its growth predictions in an upcoming report, its chief Christine Lagarde said Friday (6 January).

It is perhaps not the best timing, but next month it will be the 10th anniversary of Euro banknotes and coins.

Ten years ago, on 1 January 2002, euro banknotes and coins were introduced in 12 Member States of the European Union. The European Union has produced a special video to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the euro on the 1st of January 2012.

The intro of the video looks slick, but after one minute it’s a boring promo about the history and benefits of the single currency. Ironically the voice-over warns that the anniversary also marks the end of the exchange period. You have only a few months left to exchange liras and drachmas for Euros.

The average price for a hotel room in the Netherlands costs about 110 euros per night, according to the Hotel Price Index (HPI) of Hotels.com. Amsterdam remains the most expensive Dutch city.

The hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI) is a regular survey of hotel prices in major city destinations across the world. The HPI is based on bookings made on hotels.com and prices shown are those actually paid by customers (rather than advertised rates) for the first half of 2011. The report largely compares prices paid in 2010 with prices paid in 2011.

Americans continued to see a weak U.S. dollar compared to other currencies, meaning travel outside the country’s borders was more costly than anticipated. Americans paid an increase of 11 percent at European hotels in 2011 compared to 2010; a 5 percent increase in North America; a 4 percent increase in the Caribbean; and a 1 percent increase in Asia.

Who are the World’s Biggest Spenders?
Japanese travelers are the new top spenders when traveling abroad, paying an average of $176 per room when they head overseas. Second in line are travelers from Switzerland and Australia, who respectively spend $175 and $172 in other countries.

The European Commission wants the life-saving eCall system to be fitted to all new models of cars and light vehicles from 2015. eCall automatically dials Europe’s single emergency number 112 in the event of a serious accident and communicates the vehicle’s location to the emergency services.

This cuts the time it takes in half for ambulances and police to arrive at the scene of the accident, writes De Volkskrant.

Euro commissioner Neelie Kroes, disclosed the obligation for the industry on Thursday, which is also confirmed by her spokesman.

The European Commission argued in 2009 for voluntary adoption, but that has not worked. Only 0.7 percent of European cars were then equipped with the so-called ‘eCall’ system.

Saving lives
The system has been developed with European funding, and indicates the position of the vehicle to the fire squad and the police. Who then only need half the time they usually needed to arrive at the scene of the accident. According to previous calculations, this would save about 2500 lives per year.

Every minute is crucial to save lives and reduce the severity of injuries when emergency services are called to a road accident. Yet people injured in an accident do not always have the reflex or the physical ability to call emergency services immediately. eCall devices address this problem by alerting emergency services immediately even if the driver or passenger is unconscious or otherwise unable to call. The technology speeds up the arrival of emergency teams by an estimated 40% in urban areas and 50% in rural areas. Once widely deployed, eCall will save several hundred lives in Europe every year, and reduce the severity of injuries and trauma in tens of thousands of cases.

Neelie Kroes, Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, said

The Commission’s aim is for a fully functional eCall service to be in place all over the European Union (as well as Croatia, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) by 2015.

Dutch internet users have access to the fastest Internet in Europe.

The Netherlands ranks 4th Worldwide, reports Tweakers.net based on a survey of Akamai which monitors 15 to 30 percent of global Internet traffic.

In the Netherlands average the Internet speed is 7.5 Mbps. Only in South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan internet access is faster.

The Netherlands ranks first In Europe. A year ago the Netherlands ranked seventh in Europe with an internet speed of 6 Mbps.

The study also shows that the Netherlands has 8.2 million unique IP addresses. In Belgium, this example is 3.9 million.

South Korea has the fastest internet in the world, with 14.4 Mbps. Sudan, ranks last with a speed of 600 Kbps.

Two-thirds of people in the Netherlands contribute money to charity every year, according to an international survey on the topic of charity and donations, conducted by the GfK Verein in 14 countries.

Germans are less generous than the average European or US citizen, according to the findings of the international “Charity” survey.

One in five Germans donate money every year, and around the same proportion give their time or goods instead. Almost half have no involvement with charitable causes. Of those who donate money, just under three-quarters of Germans give between EUR 1 and EUR 200 a year. Children’s charities, antipoverty programs and disaster relief projects are the most popular causes supported by Germans.

Only 20% of Germans say that they donate money to charitable causes every year, which means that Germany is bottom of the rankings when it comes to monetary donations. In Europe and the USA, the percentage of individuals who give money every year is considerably higher, at 35%.

Dutch, British and Swedish people appear to be particularly generous in this respect: two-thirds of people in the Netherlands and half of those in the UK and Sweden contribute money to charity every year. However, the number of those who do not donate money but instead give up some of their time to support good causes is slightly higher in Germany than in other countries, at 5%. In addition, 13% of Germans state that they donate goods such as food or clothes (Europe: 10%). Almost half of Germans say that they do not donate anything; when asked why, 35% say they cannot afford it, while 14% claim to have no interest in charitable causes.

Turkish Airlines has been named the winner of three distinguished awards by Skytrax, according to the results of the 2011 evaluation: “Best Airline in Europe,” “Best Premium Economy Seats” and “Best Airline in Southern Europe.”

Skytrax is a world recognized brand associated with air travel excellence in the 21st century, providing unique expertise to the world airline and airport industry through the most professional Audit and Service Benchmarking programs of Product and Service Quality.

The Skytrax World Airline Awards Ceremony took place in Paris, France. During a 10 month survey period, 18.8 million airline customers from over 100 different nationalities participated in this customer satisfaction survey. The award was given to Turkish Airlines’ General Manager Temel Kotil, Ph.D. by the CEO of Skytrax, Edward Plaisted.

One of the fastest growing airline companies in the world, Turkish Airlines has received several “Passenger Choice Awards” by Skytrax over the years. In 2010, the airline won the Skytrax award for the “Best Airline in Southern Europe” in addition to the award for the “World’s Best Economy Class Onboard Catering” for its partnership with the world-renowned Turkish Do&Co.

The year prior, Turkish Airlines won the “Skytrax World Aviation Award 2009,” also known as the “Oscar of the Aviation Industry.”

For airports with ‘over 25 million passengers’, this year’s ACI EUROPE Best Airport award went to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. A previous winner in 2009, this year the judges deemed that the airport is a model in terms of efficiency, facilities offered, continuous infrastructure development and attention to the environment.”

It was the conclusion to a day of intensive exchanges and debates between more than 400 top industry representatives, including airports, airlines, air traffic management experts, national government and EU oficials, under the themeofthisyear’sevent “Overcomingnew economicandoperationalrealities,whileimprovingthe passenger experience.”

This years’ judging panel was drawn from a wel-respected group of independent experts including ACI WORLD, EUROCONTROL, ECAC and the Disabled People’s Association (Denmark). ACI EUROPE counts around 400 airports in 46 European countries among its membership and this year’s competition saw a high level of entries in each of the four categories.

The ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards* cover 4 categories of airport and aim to recognise achievement in core activities such as customer service, retail, security and environmental awareness.

The awards were presented to the winning airports by Angela Gittens, Director General ACI WORLD, António Mendonça, Portugal’s Minister of Public Works, Transport and Communications, Carolyn McCall, CEO of easyJet, David McMillan, Director General EUROCONTROL, Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE and Max Moore-Wilton, Chairman of Airports Council International and Chairman of Sydney Airport.

The first award, recognising airports in the ‘1-5 million passenger’ category, went to Bournemouth Airport (owned by Manchester Airports Group). The judges awarded the prize to the airport for its dynamic business approach in recent years, its commercial renaissance and exemplary care for passengers with reduced mobility.

The winner of the ‘5-10 million passenger’ category was Edinburgh Airport (owned by BAA). There are a lot of airports in this traffic category and as with number of the top candidates, the airport excels in all the key areas of operations. However the judges singled it out for the dedication of its management and staff.

This year’s award in the ‘10-25 million passenger’ category went to ICF Antalya Airport. In the past decade the airport has been transformed both physically and commercially, facing fast growth with the best answers in terms of efficiency, quality and environmental awareness.

This year’s Eco-Innovation Award, which is awarded by the independent Advisory Board of Airport Carbon Accreditation went to Zürich Airport for its comprehensive and systematic approach to environmental management.

It also became the first airport to implement an emissions-related charge, thereby “creating a wave of change through out the industry”–resulting in its home carrier, as well as other airlines, reconsidering their choice of engines in favour of the most advanced environmentally-beneficial options.

Finally, a new award, the WBP Recognition Award, was presented to Harry Diehl, retired top executive of Gebr. Heinemann, in recognition of his leadership in advancing airport retail and developing increased cooperation between airports and their commercial partners through his involvement in ACI’s World Business Partner programme.

The 22nd ACI EUROPE Annual Assembly, Congress & Exhibition will be hosted by Aena Spanish Airports and will take place in Madrid in mid-June 2012.

The difference between the percentage of positive and negative answers fell from 59 to 52, reaching the lowest level in seventeen years, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

In April 2011, the proportion of Dutch consumers who thought their financial situation would allow them to put money aside in the next 12 months was much higher than the proportion who thought they would not be able to save. But the average eurozone citizen is pessimistic when it comes to saving in the near future.

Their optimism sets the Dutch apart from other European countries. The difference between the percentage of positive and negative answers to the question whether consumers think they can put money aside in the next 12 months was 29 in favour of the pessimists in April. Only residents of Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden were more optimistic than the Dutch, but on average, pessimists on this issue have prevailed in the European Union over the past decade.

Most Dutch still think it is a favourable time to save, although they were considerably less optimistic in April than in March. The difference between the percentage of positive and negative answers fell from 59 to 52, reaching the lowest level in seventeen years. On average, consumers across Europe think the past months were a more favourable time to save.

Source: CBS

This is evident from the 2010 annual report of the European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros, which was published Monday.

In 2010, the European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, received the greatest number of complaints about the EU administration from German (375) and Spanish (349) citizens, companies, NGOs, and associations. Relative to the population, however, the greatest proportion of complaints came from Luxembourg, Cyprus, and Belgium.

In total, the Ombudsman received 2 667 complaints in 2010, compared to 3 098 in 2009. The number of complaints received, which lay outside his mandate, decreased by more than 400. This reduction was achieved thanks to the Interactive Guide on the Ombudsman’s website, which advises users of where to turn to seek redress, be it at the European, national, or regional level.

In over 70% of all cases, the Ombudsman was able to help the complainants by opening an inquiry, transferring a case to the competent body, or giving advice on where to turn. The number of opened inquiries (335) and closed inquiries (326) remained stable in 2010 as compared to the previous year.

The most common subject matter of inquiries closed by the Ombudsman in 2010 was lack of transparency in the EU administration (33%), including refusal to release documents or information. Other cases concerned problems with the execution of EU contracts or calls for tender, unfairness, abuse of power, or discrimination.

At the presentation of his Annual Report 2010 in Brussels, Mr Diamandouros said: “The Ombudsman’s main priority is to help the EU administration to become more open, proactive, accountable, and citizen-friendly, in order to increase citizens’ trust in the European public service. Quite a lot remains to be done in this respect. I am, however, delighted that in more than half of the cases I closed in 2010, the institution concerned accepted a friendly solution proposal or settled the matter.”

In 2010, the Ombudsman issued 33 critical remarks (35 in 2009) and sent one Special Report to the European Parliament concerning the failure of the Commission to cooperate sincerely and in good faith with him in an access to documents case (see case examples).

Most of the inquiries opened in 2010 concerned the European Commission (65%), followed by the European Personnel Selection Office (10%), the European Parliament (7%), and the Council (2%). Taken together, the EU Agencies accounted for 10 % of all inquiries opened in 2010.

The Ombudsman’s Overview 2010 (in the 23 official EU languages) and the full Annual Report 2010 (in English) are available at: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/activities/annualreports.faces