Search Results for: European Court of Justice

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to lend Euro 14 million to a Czech subsidiary of French agri-business company Groupe Soufflet so it can expand its malting interests in the east European country. The money will enable Malterie Soufflet République Tchéque to acquire shares in Obchodní Sladovny, the malting subsidiary of Czech company Tchecomalt Group.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to seek authorisation from European Union member governments to negotiate the EU’s formal accession to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Brussels said that as a non-member, the EU carried little weight in the adoption of essential international transport rules, being able to participate only if specifically invited.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has approved the lending of Euro 300,000 to help finance a Euro 1.8 million feasibility study into the viability of extracting strontianite ore at Kangankunde, in Malawi, southern Africa, and then processing it into marketable strontium carbonate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LITHUANIA is trying to pressure the European Union into paying it massive financial support for decommissioning Ignalina nuclear power plant by 2009, which Brussels is demanding as a condition for allowing Vilnius to join the EU. In ongoing accession negotiations, Lithuania claims it cannot afford to carry out the work, estimating that it will cost Euro 3 billion.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency is offering to check how countries are implementing environmental treaties such as monitoring the growth of forests under the Kyoto Protocol or their rate of shrinkage under the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. Its Treaty Enforcement Services using Earth Observation can use ESA satellites to check the extent of national woodland stocks.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission will propose the creation “as quickly as possible” of an EU administrative system for verifying the legality of imported wood products. This will be part of a promised EU action plan against illegal logging discussed at the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade workshop held in Brussels from April 22 to 24.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has agreed to exempt Poland until 2009 from new rules setting higher levels of minimum excise rates on cigarettes when it becomes a Member State, maybe in 2004. A current proposal would raise the minimum threshold to Euro 60 per 1,000 cigarettes from July, maybe doubling cigarette prices in Poland, damaging legitimate sales and reducing tax revenues.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered Belgian synthetic fibres conglomerate Beaulieu to repay Euro 2.8 million owing to the regional government of Wallonia. It had tried to settle a BEF 113 million debt by handing over 9,704 shares in the Verlipack II company.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Reconstruction has awarded three new contracts to international consortiums to boost Kosovo’s electricity sector, which relies on the province’s coal mines. In particular, the agency has awarded a Euro 9 million contract to a SwedPower led group, to give training, management support and technical assistance to Kosovo electricity company KEK, notably so it can better manage its coal supplies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has been rapped for delaying the establishment of import quotas allowing European Union clothing exporters to sell into this huge emerging market. Under the terms of China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation, quotas should have been created by January.…