65. Stresses the role that corporate social responsibility plays by adhering to high environmental and social and labour standards abroad and applying best available technologies; believes these should be promoted through relevant fora such as the G8, G20, WTO, OECD, UNCTAD, UNEP and its International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management, the international metals study groups and other bodies; applauds, in this context, positive contributions through the UN's Global Compact; calls on EU companies to develop an appropriate code of conduct for those operating in third countries and to base their activities on the OECD guidelines fo ...[+++]r multinational enterprises and ISO 26000; calls on the Commission to take measures which ensure compliance with social, environmental and labour standards by European companies mining natural resources in third countries; calls on the Commission to come forward with a proposal of its own on country-by-country reporting concerning conflict minerals and to establish legally binding requirements for extractive companies to publish their revenue payments for each project and country they invest in, following the example of the US Dodd-Frank bill; supports the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the global network Publish What You Pay (PWYP); believes that these standards should, in particular, be applied to projects receiving EU funding, for example from the EIB; urges the EU to investigate how the importing of illegally traded or extracted minerals can be prevented; asks the Commission to investigate whether ‘fingerprinting’ technology could be used in this context and to promote pilot projects based on the experiences of the ‘coltan fingerprint’; calls on the EIB to undertake a regular analysis of the expected impacts of its lending in the extractive industry;

The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition by Swedish company Ericsson over the Multi-Service Switching Business of Canadian Nortel Network Corporation.

The transaction concerns the acquisition by Flextronics, a Singapore based company, among the world-wide leaders in electronic manufacturing services (EMS) to original equipment manufacturers (“OEM”), of the manufacturing activities of Nortel, a Canadian company active in products and services that support the Internet and other public and private data, voice and multimedia communication networks using wireline and wireless technologies.

In Case IV/M.1113 - Nortel/Norweb, the Commission recognised that electricity networks using "digital power line" technology could provide an alternative to existing traditional local telecommunications access loop, paragraphs 28-29.

Nortel Networks is a global supplier to corporate customers of networking solutions and services that provide the infrastructure for the internet and other public and private networks.

Keith Powell, senior vice-president of Nortel Networks, will announce the establishment of the $10.3 million Nortel Networks Institute for Advanced Information Technology at the University of Waterloo.