The EU is to introduce a new tyre labelling system in three years' time to encourage fuel efficiency, safety and noise reduction.

The new regulation was adopted by the European Parliament on Wednesday, following agreement with the EU members' governments.

Tyre firms will have to display tyre performance data in advertisements.

The use of better tyres might produce the same CO2 emissions cut as taking 1.3 million cars off EU roads.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A new report on hedge fund and private equity regulation, published by an influential MEP on Wednesday (25 November), highlights the diverging views held by European parliamentarians and the Swedish EU presidency on the matter.

The report by the French centre-right MEP Jean-Paul Gauzes says fund managers should be forced to agree on pre-determined levels of borrowing before making investments, a significantly tougher position than that currently adopted by the Swedes on behalf of member states.

In an explanatory memorandum attached to Mr Gauzes's report, the MEP says fund managers should "define [leverage] limits in advance for every fund they manage".

"To fix these limits, they must define the guiding principles," wrote the MEP charged with steering draft legislation on the topic through the parliament. "The managers are obliged to inform the national supervisors about the limits they chose."

However, Sweden's current compromise would let industry watchdogs alone decide whether or not to limit individual hedge fund borrowing, a move seen as less restrictive.

Correction: EUobserver was initially informed that Mr Van Rompuy's first trip as president-elect would be to Latvia and Finland. But it later learned that the first engagement will in fact be in Denmark.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The newly-appointed president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, will mark his first semi-official engagement in the role when he visits Denmark next week.

The trip, to Copenhagen, on 30 November was originally planned for Mr Van Rompuy in his capacity as Belgian prime minister as part of a grand tour of 26 EU capitals in preparation for Belgium taking up the rotating EU presidency in mid-2010.

But following his appointment to the EU post last week, Mr Van Rompuy is to step down as Belgian leader on Wednesday (25 November), handing back the baton to former Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme.

Mr Van Rompuy will not formally begin work as EU president until 1 January. But his staff told EUobserver that he plans to go to Copenhagen anyway in his interim capacity as EU "president-elect."

EU unemployment levels will continue to rise and are expected to breach the 10% mark in 2010, while young people are the worst affected by mass joblessness, a report by the European Commission has found.

The 2009 'Employment in Europe' reportexternal  - released by the Commission earlier this week - paints a gloomy picture, with best-case projections predicting the loss of more than seven million jobs over 2009-10, and EU unemployment levels exceeding 10% sometime next year.

The gains made in EU employment growth earlier this decade have largely been reversed by the current economic crisis, meaning that the employment targets set by the EU's Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs will not be met.

The Baltic countries, Ireland and Spain are the EU member states hardest hit, with unemployment rates doubling or worse since the crisis began.

Broad new telecommunications rules for the European Union have finally been fully approved, carrying various customer benefits. When a customer chooses to change service providers, the company will be required to transfer the same mobile phone number to the company that has landed the customer, within one working day. And the automatic downloading of personalised information to a user's computer when he visits a Web site will need the customer's consent.

Viviane Reding, the EU's information society Commissioner talked about further assurances as well: "When data are lost -- personal data -- the person should be informed immediately. Internet access could not be cut off without first going through a judge, and so on. So, we see that consumers' rights are central to this new legislation."

A European Parliament vote confirmed the reforms will enter force next month and have to be transposed into all EU countries' national laws by mid-2011.

For an outside look at Europe moving forward, euronews sought out an American expert in international relations who specialises in the EU: Dr. Kathleen McNamara, an associate professor at Georgetown University.

...

euronews: "Why should anyone in Washington care about the Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton nominations?"

McNamara: "I think the general public is sort of befuddled by the EU. I think the pundits and the media inside the US are often frustrated that it doesn't act like a nation state. I think more interestingly, the Obama administration is starting to get excited about what the Lisbon Treaty might portend for Europe."

euronews: "About President Obama... he enjoys a high international approval rating... Van Rompuy's charisma level, how will that go over in the US?"

McNamara: "Well there were some that really did want to see a very charismatic figure, like say a Tony Blair. The New York Times today has written an extremely critical article about this whole process, saying that if, in fact, the Europeans wanted to have a higher profile, they did the opposite by picking the Belgian prime minister. But I think that's a very short sighted view. I actually think that in the long run a conciliatory person who is able to bring about consensus among widely disparate views is actually a good choice for the EU. And I think in the long run, people inside the Obama administration understand that these are complex issues that they face within the EU -- projecting power on the part of these 27 governments is a very complex thing.

The UK received intelligence days before invading Iraq that Saddam Hussein may not have been able use chemical weapons, an adviser has said.

Foreign Office official Sir William Ehrman told the war inquiry that a report suggested that such weapons may have been "disassembled".

A separate report suggested Iraq might also "lack" warheads capable of spreading chemical agents, he added.