Acknowledges the setting up and development of the SCI, which plays an important role in promoting cultural change and improving business ethics, and which has resulted in the adoption of a set of principles of good practice for vertical relationships in the food supply chain and a voluntary framework for the implementation of those principles which only in the second year of its operation already numbers over one thousand participating companies from across the entire EU, and those mainly SMEs; welcomes the progress made so far, and believes that efforts to promote fair trading practices in the food supply chain ...[+++]should make a real impact but cannot currently be considered sufficient to tackle the problem of UTPs in the food supply chain; stresses, however, that the effectiveness of the SCI, as recognised by both the recent Commission report and external evaluation, is undermined by a broad range of shortcomings, such as weaknesses in governance, limitations in transparency, no enforcement measures or penalties, a lack of effective deterrents against UTPs, and not allowing for individual anonymous complaints by potential victims of UTPs or own-initiative investigations by an independent body, which consequently leads to under-representation of SMEs and farmers, in particular, who may find the SCI inadequate for its purpose; recommends the setting up of similar supply chain initiatives in other relevant non-food sectors.

In Canada, Rotarians raised $2.2 million through Pennies and More for Polio, which was matched dollar for dollar by CIDA and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to highlight Rotary International's Pennies and More for Polio initiative.

Until March 1, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will match each dollar raised by the Canadian Rotary Club for its global polio eradication initiative.

1. An installation is deemed to have partially ceased operations, provided that one sub-installation, which contributes to at least 30 % of the installation’s final annual amount of emission allowances allocated free of charge or to the allocation of more than 50 000 allowances, reduces its activity level in a given calendar year by at least 50 % compared to the activity level used for calculating the sub-installation’s allocation in accordance with Article 9 or, where applicable, with Article 18 (hereinafter ‘initial activity level’).

Such financial instruments at Union level include, inter alia, Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the European Regional Development Fund , amended to allow increased investments in energy efficiency in housing; the public-private partnership on a ‘European energy-efficient buildings’ initiative to promote green technologies and the development of energy-efficient systems and materials in new and renovated buildings; the EC-European Investment Bank (EIB) initiative ‘EU sustainable energy financing initiative’ which aims to enable, inter alia, investments for energy efficiency and ...[+++] the EIB-led ‘Marguerite Fund’: the 2020 European Fund for Energy, Climate Change and Infrastructure; Council Directive 2009/47/EC of 5 May 2009 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards reduced rates of value added tax , structural and cohesion funds instrument Jeremie (Joint European Resources for micro to medium enterprises); the Energy Efficiency Finance Facility; the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme including the Intelligent Energy Europe II Programme focused specifically on removing market barriers related to energy efficiency and energy from renewable sources through for example the technical assistance facility ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance); the Covenant of Mayors; the Entrepreneurship and Innovation programme; the ICT Policy Support Programme 2010, and the Seventh Research Framework Programme.