The commissioner in charge of data protection, Viviane Reding, will announce her "concern" about Facebook's recent moves in a speech today (9 February), durinng European Safer Internet Day celebrations in Strasbourg.

Despite growing pressure to improve data protection and the safety of social network users, Facebook surprisingly changed its privacy policy at the end of January, making it easier to access to personal information hosted on its platform.

Spain, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, will table a document assessing challenges facing the electric vehicles industry at an informal meeting of EU competitiveness ministers tomorrow (9 February).

It aims to adopt a common EU action plan in May to give Europe's car-manufacturing industry a competitive edge in the race against the US, China and Japan.

The outcome of a vote today (4 February) in the European Parliament's civil liberties committee appears uncertain, as the EU assembly's main parties have taken a conflicting stance on the issue.

The Parliament's leading faction, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), supports the deal but a majority of socialists (S&D group) and liberals (ALDE) have expressed their opposition to it.

The full House will vote on the issue next Wednesday (10 February) and might choose not to follow the advice of the civil liberties committee.

The leading Commission official said media reports were oversimplifying the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which wrapped up one stage of a series of negotiations in Mexico last week.

The official declined to be named due to a non-disclosure agreement.

The European Commission has been privy to secretive international trade talks on counterfeiting, which have been ongoing for two years.

A number of member states have called on the European Commission to develop links between economic, social and environmental elements of the plan, as well as demanding better links between EU '2020' and existing social policy.

According to the EU's overview of the 1,500 submissions received as part of a public consultation process, several governments have stressed the need for new investment in fresh sources of growth.

When asked how they collect information about people they plan to hire, 43% of European human resources professionals surveyed reply that they analyse the online reputation of the candidate, mainly through search engines, social networking websites, personal sites and blogs.

In Germany, 59% of recruiters make use of personal data collected on the Internet for the evaluation of a candidate, 47% in the UK, and 23% in France. The EU average is much lower than the US, where 79% of HR experts scan the Web in search of personal information for recruiting purposes.

When asked how they collect information about people they plan to hire, 43% of European human resources professionals surveyed reply that they analyse the online reputation of the candidate, mainly through search engines, social networking websites, personal sites and blogs.

In Germany, 59% of recruiters make use of personal data collected on the Internet for the evaluation of a candidate, 47% in the UK, and 23% in France. The EU average is much lower than the US, where 79% of HR experts scan the Web in search of personal information for recruiting purposes.

The document is now expected to be published in June and will fit into the 'EU 2020' strategy for growth and jobs. By that time, a clearer picture will also have emerged of the roles of the new European commissioners. 

The first clear sign of a delay came when MEPs grilled incoming Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani at his parliamentary hearing earlier this month.