It is maybe surprising that maternity support garments (MSGs) are still a niche segment, even though women of childbearing age constitute approximately one-quarter of the populations of developed countries. Indeed, tubular bands made out of cotton and elastane are still commonly used instead of MSGs across the world. …

The Polish can manufacturing and filling industry continues to attract attention from major buyers and investors from around the world, aware that this strong and innovating national sector is able to rely on a strong, reliable workforce.

Global beverage giant PepsiCo, for example, has been drawn to the Polish can manufacturing industry.…

Australia’s development of biofuel and bioenergy production and consumption has been hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic and some diversion of effort into researching and manufacturing renewable hydrogen in the past few years. However, this is about to change with the Australian government working on a Bioenergy Roadmap, which, as Petroleum Review went to press, was about to be released.…

Growth in demand for and production of renewable diesel is set to disrupt the global liquid fuels sector, with major increases in refining capacity being developed now. Renewable diesel has major potential as a transitional alternative energy source, because, unlike standard biofuels, in its highest quality form, it is chemically identical to fossil fuel diesel. …

Sub-Saharan Africa has natural resources that aids the development of renewable energy, it has lots of sun, plentiful wind, and much potentially sustainable biomass. With the development of small-scale affordable renewable energy technologies, such systems have been promoted by major aid agencies keen to prevent deforestation and excessive reliance on fossil fuels, that – even where they are plentiful, have not usually led to widespread economic development.

THE FINNISH can manufacturing industry has been growing, with new production coming online in the past 10 years to diversify a sector that is able to draw on effective access to raw materials and a highly skilled workforce.

Both Rexam (now part of Ball) and Poland-based Canpack operate efficient Finnish can-making plants.…

INTRODUCTION

Think of finishing and some consumers may conclude that integrating chemicals with or within fibres will always be the most effective way to create a performance or protective textile. But the reality is that applying coatings to textiles and yarns is anything but superficial as a finishing technique.…

INTRODUCTION

While debates continue over whether Aristotle actually said ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, the concept that a system can deliver more impact than each element of its technology acting alone is well established in the textile sector.…

WHILE the imposition of age limits on the consumption of tobacco and other nicotine products remains very much a national, and in some cases sub-national jurisdiction decision, there is no doubt that the general trend worldwide is for tighter restrictions on younger consumers, even if they are often tough to enforce.…

INTRODUCTION

In a highly technical textile sector segment such as the manufacture of compressed garments, the use of detailed standards to guide production is not just useful in guaranteeing quality output, it can help manufacturers and brands’ marketing. Where products are associated with international, regional, national and private standards, this builds confidence in consumers, promoting sales.…

THE COVID-19 pandemic’s boom in web usage has created opportunities for hackers and fraudsters to attack the unwary through electronic networks, however, on the plus side the scope for open-source intelligence (OSINT) inquiries online to reveal useful information about these criminals is growing.…

The European anti-fraud office (OLAF) and European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) have struck a cooperation agreement to ensure their future work dovetails. They have agreed to exchange information; set guidelines on reporting and transferring potential cases; and deciding how to mutually support each other’s investigations.…

INTRODUCTION

THE MANUFACTURE of protective masks has been maybe the largest growth area in the international textile and non-wovens industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Billions of people have donned masks as they seek to avoid catching a disease that by June 11 (2021) had killed 3.7 million people and infected 175 million [1].…

COVID-19 has been a challenge for many industries and the tobacco sector has been no exception, with the disease disrupting consumption and purchasing patterns that underpin profitability and turnover.

Countries where smoking is associated with socialising have been particularly vulnerable and a good example is Bangladesh, where the disease has depressed consumption, temporarily.…

Long after the January 10, 2020, deadline set by the European Union’s (EU) 5^th anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD) (1) for member states to establish public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) registers, a Transparency International (TI) report (2) has alleged widespread non-compliance.…

Corruption increased in 2020 across the 27 European Union (EU) countries according to 32% of participants in Transparency International’s latest survey of over 40,000 people, the ‘Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – European Union 2021’ (1). As regards other respondents, 44% saw no change and only 16% a fall, year-on-year.…

INTRODUCTION

Graphene has been hailed as a wonder material by its promoters – and for once in the tarnished history of scientific hyperbole – these claims seem to have significant merit. The reality is that graphene does not only offer textile manufacturers the ability to improve the functionality of their products, it helps them achieve this in an environmentally sustainable way.…

Covid-19 has reshaped commercial crime, and one lucrative offence taking a real turn for the worse is tobacco smuggling and counterfeiting. Keith Nuthall reports.

The Covid-19 pandemic has depressed incomes worldwide and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled the black-market trade in illicit and smuggled licit tobacco products. The disease has depressed income and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

INTRODUCTION

NEW technology can deliver effective maintenance strategies to clothing and textile manufacturers, helping them go beyond reactive and proactive maintenance, moving into the more sophisticated world of prediction. The goal is to deliver an optimum maintenance strategy that enables manufacturers to get the most value out of their plant and equipment by spending the least amount of time, resources and money to deliver effective performance.…

The president of the United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) has warned that the military takeover in Myanmar could spark a significant shift in sourcing away from this south-east Asian country if democracy is not restored promptly. Julia Hughes told just-style: “If there is not a quick resolution, then yes we would expect a major shift to other Asian suppliers.”…

In the modern textile industry, coating, surface modification and laminating are the key means to tailor textiles and nonwovens to create functional products for specific, often high-performance, applications.

Such techniques have offered the sector potential advantages as it entered uncharted terrain in 2020, being at the forefront in humankind’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.…

BRITISH and European Union (EU) confectioners must take care to ensure their products meet new origin rules if they want them covered by the duty free goods provisions of the new EU/UK trade agreement struck on Christmas Eve.

The 1,256-page deal includes complex and comprehensive origin rules, such as for chocolate, which can be deemed made in the EU and Britain if all dairy, eggs and honey used are sourced locally, as well as at least 40% of grains, malt, starches and wheat, (which must also not exceed 30% of costs).…

Many of European Union’s 27 member states appear to have been dragging their feet when implementing a key provision of the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD) (1), setting up a public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) register.  The registers should have gone live for the corporate world on January 10, 2020, and two months later on March 10 for trusts.…

Traditionally a society of meat lovers, Russians are now developing a taste for vegetable and cereal-based products that reflect the taste and texture of meat – food manufacturers are eager to cater to this trend.

International companies have been entering this segment in Russia, while ambitious local startups are rapidly expanding their production capacities.…

Two studies unveiled before members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on November 19 in a joint meeting of the constitutional affairs and legal affairs committees have concluded that the European Union (EU) needs an independent ethics body. In his EP commissioned study ‘Strengthening transparency and integrity in the EU institutions by setting up an independent EU ethics body’, (1) Austrian management professor Dr Markus Frischuut suggested the body should have around seven ruling members and 50 staff. …

The European Chief Prosecutor (ECP) of the embryonic European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has challenged the 22 European Union (EU) states (1) that have signed up to an enhanced cooperation pact underpinning its existence to properly fund the new institution. Without enough money, the EPPO will not be effective, ECP Laura Codruţa Kövesi told Fraud Intelligence.…

LATIN America has been hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic – with Chile, Peru, Brazil and Colombia in the top-20 of countries regarding cases per million people – and its paint and coatings market and industry has faced a similarly rough ride.…

International efforts are stepping up to scope and map what it will take to wean chemical manufacturing off its high dependence on oil and gas feedstock for chemicals that are then used to make plastics, fertilisers and other important products.

Options include using building-block raw materials from biomass instead of fossil-fuel feedstock; boosting the yield of chemicals for a given quantity of feedstock; and, applying advanced recovery and recycling technologies in circular economy approaches.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector in south-east Asia has been looking ahead to how it emerges from the Covid-19 crisis, which has hit this diverse region in differing ways.

According to Finland-based Global Research & Data Services, sales of personal care products in Malaysia’s 31.6 million people market last year (2019) were worth USD557 million, based on UN data.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector in south-east Asia has been looking ahead to how it emerges from the Covid-19 crisis, which has hit this diverse region in differing ways.

According to Finland-based Global Research & Data Services, sales of personal care products in Malaysia’s 31.6 million people market last year (2019) were worth USD557 million, based on UN data.…

All five countries are also developed economies, whose consumers have money to keep their personal care product traders afloat.

According to Finland-based Global Research & Data Services, sales of personal care products in Norway’s 5.3 million people market last year (2019) were worth USD700 million, based on UN data.…

THE NORDIC region’s beauty market has, like every other country, been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the stability of societies in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland has meant that their retail sectors have avoided some of the chaos linked to the health emergency that that has harmed other markets.…

If there is one subsector of technical textiles that is regarded as well suited to environment-friendly materials innovation, it is surely the agricultural textile (ag-tex) sector. This is indeed the case, with research and development specialists creating clever solutions allying the functional and sustainability benefits of ag-tex with new biodegradable and naturally-sourced fibre.…

THE COVID-19 crisis has severely depressed sales of personal care products within Latin America and it is unclear when the market will pick up.

In Argentina, for example, a coronavirus-induced lockdown has pushed the economy deeper into recession, slashing sales of most unessential beauty and personal care products.…

ACCESSING the dark web once demanded some computing expertise. But dark web search engines and browsers continue being developed, guiding potential users to this encrypted corner of the web where commercial criminals ply their wares and illicit businesses avoid taxes. How should legitimate companies react?…

HUNGARY continues to be an attractive market for tobacco majors, with its populist government seemingly determined to fight the European Union (EU) for the right to keep excise duties below EU mandated  minimums, and the fact that, according to the OECD Country Health Profile 2019 official data (https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/hungary-country-health-profile-2019_4b7ba48c-en#page1…

Paint and coating manufacturers and retailers in North Africa have been struggling with the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, just as have their counterparts in other regions, however some markets and industries in the region seem better placed to cope with the pandemic’s economic impact than others.…

WANT to check the dark web for illicit services? Search engines accessible from the public web offer links to the dark web. One example is Finland-based Ahmia (https://ahmia.fi/), which yields interesting results from searches such as https://ahmia.fi/search/?q=hacking. A more recent variant that has attracted attention from the IT security press is Kilos – http://dnmugu4755642434.onion…

• 1MDB SCANDAL IN MALAYSIA SEES USD BILLIONS STOLEN AND HIDDEN

Malaysia 1MDB scandal is one of the largest money laundering cases ever, worldwide, with Malaysian courts considering charges over how at least USD4.5 billion was stolen and then spent or laundered from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad by former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his associates.…

Only five European Union (EU) member states out of the current 27 have fully and properly complied with a requirement to set up public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) registers by January 10 (2020) under the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD), according to research by campaign group Global Witness.…

AUTO manufacturers in Europe are facing a countdown to new European Union (EU) type approval rules, forcing them to install new safety technology on their vehicles if they want to secure permission to sell these autos in the EU and get them registered.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on EU member states and other EU institutions to work harder to fight the scourge of food fraud, which can damage the commercial health of legitimate manufacturers and risk consumer health. In a detailed policy statement (called ‘council conclusions’ in EU jargon), ministers said an EU “legal definition of food fraud” should be created that would underpin future regulatory actions fighting such wrongdoing, which can include deliberate mislabelling and the use of illicit ingredients.…

SHOWING consumers that dairy farming is sustainable, while surviving the less than favourable economic situation which all agriculture faces today, are the industry’s biggest challenges for 2020 and beyond, Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of European farming organisation Copa-Cogeca, has told Dairy Industries International.…

THE APPROVAL of a EUR3.2 billion set of subsidies by seven European Union (EU) member states could generate a major mineral supply and processing chain to manufacture lithium ion batteries within Europe. A decision announced yesterday (December 9) by the EU executive, the European Commission, loosening its usually tight control of national government support for industry, effectively greenlights a major collaborative project designed to strengthen European battery production.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has reached political agreement on creating a new EU-wide e-commerce VAT transaction database, which EU member states hope will help fight fraud. The move comes as a European Commission report indicates that the EU’s expensive battle against fraud continues to struggle to achieve results.…

Estonia, long known for developing its high-tech sector, innovation, and environment-friendly businesses, has seen its plastics sector gaining momentum. It has been expanding export sales, not only to neighbouring Nordic and Baltic countries, but as far east as China.

As regards volumes, regarding primary resins and plastics, 11,807.7 tonnes were produced by Estonian manufacturers this January-August (2019), an increase of 132.8% for the same period in the previous year.…

While the USA-China trade war currently dominates headlines, nonwovens analysts predict it will be a “relatively short-term” issue and not harm north America’s growing nonwovens market in the longer term.

With smart applications and sustainability driving the sector worldwide, the north American nonwovens market looks set to capitalise on these growth areas, aiding recovery from a past 10 years marred by economic weakness and volatile crude oil prices.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) fourth anti-money laundering directive had not even been implemented before Panama Papers revelations on massive tax evasion highlighted critical gaps in the bloc’s regulatory framework, especially regarding cryptocurrencies and prepaid cards. The result was directive (EU) 2018/843 of May 30, 2018 commonly known as the fifth anti-money laundering directive.…

A MEMORANDUM of understanding (MoU) has been signed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) with China’s ministry of finance and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) boosting SFC access to audit working papers from audits of HK-listed mainland companies.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

MARCH’S approval by the European Parliament of new European Union (EU) electricity market rules, designed to increase consumer choice, boost renewables access and cap power subsidies, were hailed by the European Commission as a new dawn for the creation of the EU’s much vaunted Energy Union.…

RUSSIA’S paint industry is slowly growing but upcoming chemical regulations could limit the output of some potentially hazardous products. There are two such laws in the pipeline. One is a technical regulation ‘On the safety of chemical products’. This was adopted and ratified by the Russian government in 2016, and will come into force in 2021 (on July 1), and bans the use of a range of hazardous chemicals, some used by Russian coatings manufacturers. …

THE RUSSIAN government has in the past decade has a policy priority of re-establishing it country’s industrial base, and reducing its reliance on imports, paid for by Russia’s energy exports.

These goals cover its paints and coatings sector, and by 2021 Sibur, a Russian petrochemical company, plans to launch production of key ingredient maleic anhydride, with a plant in Tobolsk, Siberia, producing up to 45,000 tonnes a year.…

Europe’s universities have been told how they need to be flexible when developing models to generate innovation with real value to society, ensuring this work meshes effectively with business partners.

The message came at the European University Association’s (EUA) annual conference, in Paris, on April 11-12.…

THE FINANCIAL Action Task Force (FATF) has been given an open-ended rolling mandate for the first time, with member governments underlining its value as the world’s premier AML/CFT international organisation. This decision – made in April – follows FATF’s latest February 20-22 plenary, where important issues such as the AML/CFT records of China, Iran and Brazil were discussed as well as fighting the continuing terror finance threat posed by Islamic State.…

Gluten remains one of the most commonly reported allergens in European Union (EU), despite the existence of an EU regulation (EU) 828/2014) harmonising information provided to consumers on the absence or reduced presence of gluten in food.

While this might be expected to pressure manufacturers to provide low gluten or gluten free lines, the rules have proved burdensome and complex to implement, say industry experts – blunting the law’s impact.…

Turku-based Hesburger is now building sales in Belarus, having announced it would move into this country in 2017. This follows launches in Ukraine in 2015, and Bulgaria in 2016. Having branched abroad into Estonia first in 1996, now has 207 overseas outlets in eight countries (also including Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, as well as Germany, close to 271 it has in Finland.…

EUROPEAN universities need to embrace change by continuing to forge alliances with innovative companies and independent research groups to use and develop their knowledge in cooperation with the outside world, experts agreed at the March 8 launch of the European University Association (EUA)’s new report ‘The role of universities in regional innovation ecosystems’.…

A FINNISH burger chain that has taken the plunge into some of Europe’s most challenging eastern markets now has almost as many outlets abroad as in its home market.

Turku-based Hesburger is now building sales in Belarus, having announced it would move into this country in 2017.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is getting tough in enforcing compliance with the 4^th anti-money laundering directive (2015/849), with a large majority of member states now facing infringement proceedings. The European Union (EU) executive said on March 7 that it had sent letters of formal notice opening legal proceedings to six EU countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, and the UK) over their failure to apply its anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules.…

THE TOBACCO industry in Europe needs to keep a close eye on the work of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the European Union’s (EU) chemical agency, which has a key role in banning or restricting the use of tobacco ingredients, by-products and manufacturing chemicals.…

EUROPEAN Union member states are dragging their feet implementing the fourth anti-money laundering directive’s (4AMLD 2015/849) beneficial ownership rules. Only five countries met the June 26, 2017, AMLD4 deadline for having an ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) register under national law – Britain, Denmark, France, Germany and Sweden- according to the European Commission. …

BRITAIN was among a handful of European nations that fell down in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perception Index, dropping out of the top-10 of the most honest jurisdictions in the 2018 rankings. The UK is now joint 11^th with Germany, dropping two points to 80 on the scale where 100 is seen as cleanest and 0 highly corrupt among experts and business people surveyed.…

THE SWISS government has decided not to fund project facilitation for a biofuel pilot project at Geneva airport to replace at least 1% of its jet fuel supplies with biofuel supplied by Finland oil refiner and marketer Neste Oyj. The company said it could not proceed as a result of the decision, which followed consultation by the Swiss federal government about the project, scheduled to start operations later this year (2018).…

A new report from Transparency International has found that only 11 major exporting countries in the world significantly punish companies that pay bribes abroad. The report, called ‘Exporting Corruption’, also found that more than half of world exports come from at least 33 jurisdictions, including several European Union (EU) member states, where companies that export corruption along with their goods and services face weak consequences. …

THE CONTINUED vulnerability of European Union (EU) revenue collection and spending to fraud has been brought into sharp relief by a new European Commission statistical analysis on financial crime.

That said, a working paper noted that in terms of revenue through external import duties (called ‘own resources’ in EU jargon) detected fraud cases involving EUR10,000 or more alone in 2017 indicates losses have been falling – but still to EUR76 million.…

REGULATORY and other pressures are behind a recent international surge in construction of electric vessels.

Using battery-electric power instead of traditional fuels such as marine diesel to drive a ship’s propulsion and/or operate its equipment can reduce greenhouse gases and lessen health, safety and environmental risks, particularly when vessels are in or near port.…

SUPPORTERS of the European Union (EU) as a political concept stress how it has the vision, and the money, to promote energy projects of common interest (PCIs) between its (for now) 28 member states. Their goal is to promote an effective continent-wide energy market that offers European citizens more security in their supply of gas, electricity and to a lesser extent oil.…

CONSUMERS in Nordic countries commonly prefer quality environment-friendly products and the paint and coatings sector is no exception.

Denmark is a case in point, being home to major Hempel A/S, which launched its advanced water-based technology range of decorative paints under the Crown Trades brand in January 2017, group president and CEO Henrik Andersen told PPCJ.…

A CRACKDOWN coordinated by European Union (EU) police and judicial cooperation authorities, Europol and Eurojust, has caught a network of online scammers responsible for stealing some EUR18 million, with a total 19 arrests. With the ringleader in Cyprus and members in Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK, the gang was behind over 35,000 online fraud cases detected since 2012 in a six-year long probe called Operation Warenagent, managed by the public prosecution office of Dresden, and the Saxon state office of criminal investigation, both in Germany, and the Vilnius public prosecutor, in Lithuania.…

EUROPE can meet its goal of cleaning up the power sector several years earlier than by the European Union’s (EU) self-imposed deadline of 2050, according to Kristian Ruby, secretary general of the Union of the Electricity Industry – Eurelectric, the sector association representing the industry at pan-European level.…

A COMPREHENSIVE reform of European Union (EU) VAT reform, designed to reduce opportunities for VAT fraud, and helping regulators and law enforcers fight such crime has been approved by the EU Council of Ministers. It includes standardising communications between VAT regulators and insisting on more automatic tip-offs of suspicions about cross-border fraud.…

THE NORDIC region is associated with cleanliness, environmentalism and healthy living, so maybe it is no big surprise that sales of natural organic personal care products are strengthening in these markets. So engrained is this trend, say experts, colour cosmetics lines are increasingly being developed as natural organic products.…

THE MALAYSIAN government has effectively scrapped the country’s Goods & Services Tax (GST) reducing its rate from 6% to 0%, effective June 1. The move follows the election of a new administration under former opposition alliance Pakatan Harapan, defeating the incumbent Barisan Nasional.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has launched a wide-range of initiatives to fight fraud, counterfeiting and corruption as it seeks to help law enforcers gain an advantage against cross-border crime.

A key element of this work is the so-called EU ‘security union’, about which proposals were tabled by the European Commission in April.…

Enhancing the quality of passenger experience while maintaining maximum security was a recurring theme during the Dubai Airport Show 2018. The annual airport industry event, held from May 7 to 9, drew more than 7,500 visitors.

Covering 15,000 square metres of space across three halls of the iconic Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, its 18^th edition hosted more than 350 exhibitors from 60 countries.…

THE MARITIME industry has been slow to acknowledge the threat posed to it by cyber attacks but the increasing connectivity of technologies across all layers of the supply chain create a tempting target for hackers. Sarah Gibbons reports. 

WITH increasing levels of connectivity across global supply chains, the maritime industry faces a significant risk of cyber-attacks.…

AFTER years of sluggish growth and even contraction, the UK paint and coatings sector is set to rebound this year thanks to a booming domestic automotive manufacturing sector. However, this optimism has yet to be felt across the sector due to uncertainly the industry is facing ahead of Brexit.…

THE DECISION of the European Commission not to propose a harmonised European Union (EU) approach for excise duty on e-cigarettes and other novel tobacco products has been welcomed by the tobacco sector for avoiding punitive taxation on a nascent segment.

But should such rules ultimately be introduced the tobacco sector may not oppose them if they reflect the lower health risks involved in consuming such products by enabling lower excise duty bands.…

*A newly approved European Union (EU) directive on transparency requirements for tax intermediaries will insist that accountants designing or promoting aggressive tax planning schemes report them to national tax authorities. The requirements, approved by the EU Council of Ministers, apply from July 1, 2020, and member states will have to fine intermediaries, including lawyers and bankers, that fail to report.…

Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to build 16 nuclear reactors, both small and large, to generate 17GWe by 2040. While no tenders have yet been awarded, the kingdom is working with numerous international partners to develop its nuclear infrastructure and safety systems.…

Cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) are still very common in Russia, despite its continued ban on European Union (EU) pigmeat exports, imposed since January 2014 following a handful of cases in Poland and Lithuania. While outbreaks have continued in the EU, Russia – whose ban was imposed on live pigs, pork and pig products over fears importing ASF-infected meat and livestock, has from last July (2017) to today (January 30) notified to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) around 2,800 ASF cases of domestic pigs, and 90 cases in wild boars.…

China will boast the world’s number one cosmetics market in 2018 according to global financial services firm Morgan Stanley: it will account for 20% of total sales, compared to 17% for the second-placed USA and 10% for third placed Japan – overtaking America for the first time, it said.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers finally committed, on December 18, (2017), to a target of reaching at least 27% renewable energy out of overall energy consumption by 2030. While lower than the 45% or 30% demanded by green groups and the European Commission respectively, the biofuels industry has declared that its output should be instrumental in meeting this goal.…

OECD SAYS 49 JURISDICTIONS WILL AUTOMATICALLY EXCHANGE TAX INFORMATION THIS YEAR

THE IDENTITY of 49 jurisdictions that will automatically exchange tax information in 2017 under a global standard has been revealed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).…

COMPANIES and citizens defrauding European Union (EU) revenue collection (including customs duties and cross-border VAT fraud) and spending programmes, may from 2020 face direct criminal proceedings brought by a European Public Prosecutor. The EU Council of Ministers has approved establishing this new institution in 20 of the 28 EU member states – Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.…

COMPANIES and citizens defrauding European Union (EU) revenue collection (including
customs duties and cross-border VAT fraud) and spending programmes, may from 2020 face
direct criminal proceedings brought by a European Public Prosecutor (EPPO). The EU
Council of Ministers has approved establishing this new institution in 20 of the 28 EU
member states – Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal,
Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.…

A EUROPEAN Commission study has outlined the difficulties that would be faced in upgrading biofuels in the European Union (EU) from existing common E5, E10 and B7 blends to new bio-rich B10 and E20 blends. The report notes that while this would help the EU reduce its carbon emissions, “they cannot just replace” the existing blends, because “a large share of the current vehicle fleet is not compatible with these new fuels.”…

VIETNAM’S textile and clothing and textile sector is looking to sell more product into Asian markets such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, while solidifying its traditional export bases like the US and EU, the latest trade data indicates. 

Last year, Vietnam exported USD2.28 billion’s worth of clothing and textiles to South Korea – a 7.45% gain compared with 2015, according to Vietnam customs data analysed by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS). …

THE UNITED Arab Emirates (UAE) may hold an enviable portion of the world’s oil and gas reserves, at 4% and 3.5% respectively. But this has not stopped the country diversifying its long-term energy sources through developing nuclear power. With generation imminent, nuclear energy regulators and companies are watching closely how this rare event – a country embarking on a new civilian nuclear programme – rolls out.…

With an ever-increasing reliance on technology and global shift towards renewable energy to protect the planet’s resources, the Nordic industrial minerals sector finds itself at something of a crossroads in terms of sustainability.

Home to some of the world’s largest reserves of minerals used in critical technologies, with a profitable future predicted, the industry is being closely monitored by Nordic regulatory authorities to ensure mining is conducted as ethically and sustainably as possible.…

DAIRY robots might seem like science fiction, but their use has increased dramatically in Europe over the last 20 years. Ireland’s Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre (Teagasc) predicts 20% of cows will be milked automatically by 2020, with other reports citing a 50% rate in northwest Europe by 2025.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

EUROPE’S nonwovens producers again served up a solid performance in 2016 against the background of (uneven and) uncertain trading conditions for the industry.

As usual, the just-published returns from EDANA, the representative organisation for the USD30 billion nonwovens industry in Europe, show some important national variations.…

THE CHAIR of Finland’s Broiler Association (Suomen Broileryhdistys) Suvi Rantala-Sarjeant has told GlobalMeatNews that there is no consistent rise in levels of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL) and AmpC beta-lactamases – so-called drug resistant super bacteria – found in Finland-sold fresh chicken.

She was commenting on figures from the Finnish Food Safety Authority (Evira, or Elintarviketurvallisuusvirasto Evira) found in tests for 2016 that out of 309 samples, 53 contained E coli bacteria, which produce AmpC enzymes, while 15 contained ESBL-producing bacteria, which are resistant to drugs.…

The Russian government has told Industrial Minerals of its plans to help boost rare earth element (REE) production across Russia in upcoming years.

The government is initially setting aside USD350 million for direct and indirect support for the sector, said an official at the ministry of industry and trade.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched a comprehensive study into the healthiness of consuming sugar, that could guidance telling consumers when to stop eating sugary foods, such as confectionery. An ad-hoc working group with expertise in dietary exposure, epidemiology, human nutrition, diet-related chronic diseases and dentistry will examine the issue, along with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which requested the work.…

Investing and doing business in Bulgaria is not for the faint-hearted. Overseas companies are not only likely to encounter a few rotten and corrupt business partners, but rather systemic bribery, tough access to financing, policy instability, and an inefficient government and judicial system.…

THE EUROPEAN wipes market is a complex affair. This is a varied segment, in itself, but wipe use varies between countries with contrasting consumer cultures – meaning that in some states, wipes sales are increasing; in others decreasing; and in others, the kinds of wipes being sold is changing.…

Europe’s nonwovens producers again served up a solid performance in 2016 against the background of (uneven and) uncertain trading conditions for the industry. As usual, the just-published returns from EDANA, the representative organisation for the USD30 billion nonwovens industry in Europe, show some important national variations.…

The Russian government is planning to significantly increase the volume of the country’s domestic vanadium production, according to a statement sent to Metal Bulletin by Russia’s minister of industry and trade Denis Manturov.

He said: “Russia has the world’s largest deposits of vanadium-titanium magnetite ore.…

IMPROVING airport management is often a matter of examining good practice overseas and for airports wanting to improve the time taken to move transfer passengers from one flight to another, their executives might learn from Helsinki Airport.

Finland’s key international airport has the fastest passenger flow in Europe for transfer passengers going on to other European destinations, with a minimum connecting time between flights of just 35 minutes, according to Finavia, the state company that operates Finland’s 21 commercial civilian airports.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has taken a significant step towards the creation of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), but its chosen procedure may mean the powers of EU anti-fraud office OLAF will be undiminished, at least for some countries.

The latest European Council – the EU summit of heads of government – on March 9 agreed that the creation of the EPPO should be mandated through the EU’s ‘enhanced cooperation’ procedure.…

Ongoing concerns about underfunding and even the future abolition of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) could hamper the UK’s fight against bribery, according to the latest assessment report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) working group on bribery.…

THE CONTINUED success of Europe’ major technical textile fair, Techtextil, Frankfurt, (the next event runs from May 9 to 12) illustrates how the continent’s technical textile sector is thriving on its innovation.

“We don’t know what the future brings. We only know where it will be exhibited.…

KEY MESSAGES

*The nuclear industry has an ageing staff and needs to recruit new professionals as they retire

*Its strong health and retirement benefits packages could help it attract the new staff it needs

*The nuclear industry outside north America has a strong expat component, making it easier for recruit staff from abroad

INTRODUCTION

The nuclear industry sector is facing some significant human resources challenges, but new research carried out by Airswift and Energy Jobline indicates that the nuclear sector can still compete for talent.…

Natural gas, including its liquefied form LNG, can be the long-term growth story among fossil fuels but needs to withstand stiff challenges

The naming ceremony in February 2017 for offshore facilities for the Ichthys liquefied natural gas project in Australia was another milestone in the huge wave of investment in LNG production capacity globally in recent years.…

MORE than two thirds of countries rated for public sector corruption in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) failed to score 50, the halfway point between 0 and 100, with zero regarded as totally corrupt and 100 as unimpeachably clean.…

HONG Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange have put listed companies on notice that they will closely monitor rights issues and open offers that substantially dilute the interests of non-subscribing minority shareholders.

In a joint statement, the SFC and the exchange have said they fear in some cases deals have been conducted without complying with requirements to give fair and equal treatment to all shareholders. …

CHINA’S central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), has issued a new anti-money laundering and terror finance reporting requirements for all financial institutions inside the country. The rules come into force July 1. They cover banks, brokers, foreign exchange, online and mobile payment systems and insurance companies, who will have to file reports to the central bank, via their headquarters or via representative institutions, if a client requires daily cash transactions exceeding Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY50,000 (USD7,261) or a larger amount of USD10,000’s worth in foreign currency.…

THE HONG Kong and Pakistan government have signed a comprehensive agreement on avoiding double taxation. Pakistani tax paid by Hong Kong companies will be credited against Hong Kong taxes on the same profits, with the reverse applying for Pakistan companies. Pakistan’s withholding tax rates for Hong Kong residents on royalties and fees for technical services (both currently 15%) will be capped at 10% and 12.5% respectively.…

FINLAND’S independent contract car maker Valmet Automotive (VA) is experiencing a remarkable renaissance thanks to orders from Germany’s Mercedes-Benz, growth that is expected to continue with support from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

VA’s breakthrough came when it signed a deal with Daimler in July 2012 to make more than 100,000 Mercedes Series A models between 2013 and 2017.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat has released comprehensive EU-wide air passenger data revealing increases in traffic in all 28 EU member states. Overall, 918.3 million passenger flights were undertaken in the EU in 2015, up 4.7% on 2014, and 22% compared to 2009.…

WHILE Japan has freed up its electricity market, in 2015, end-user price regulation was still applied to household electricity markets in 12 European Union (EU) member states (46% of electricity and 54% of gas price offers from different service providers), Europe’s electricity industry association Eurelectric spokesperson Anamaria Olaru told Energy World.…

A new European Union Observatory for Nanomaterials (EU-ON) database is set to go live in summer 2017. Its establishment will relieve the cosmetics industry which had feared earlier proposals to create a mandatory nanomaterials register, regarding it as a potential bureaucratic nightmare.…

THE EUROPEAN Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is investigating if European Union (EU)-wide controls are needed to protect consumers against substances used in tattoo inks and permanent make-up (PMU) – with one solution expanding the scope of the EU cosmetics directive.

While the printing ink industry has suffered a recession, the tattoo and PMU ink sectors are booming in the wake of a huge increase in purchases of tattoos EU-wide.…

FACED with the twin threats of Brexit and a new US President-elect who prefers bilateral relations to multilateralism, the European Union (EU) and its institutions are nonetheless pushing ahead with forging a collaborative system of anti-fraud law enforcement.

In a sign that such initiatives draw overwhelming backing from European Parliament political groups, the EU’s elected assembly, its plenary has backed by 545 votes to 91 a detailed call for the European Commission to review its legislation against corruption and organised criminals.…

MILLIONS of Euros have been released by the European Union (EU) to fund projects deepening the international gas pipeline network in eastern Europe, a key element of EU plans for forge an ‘energy union’.

One major project is a EUR179 million plan to create the Bulgaria–Romania–Hungary–Austria (BRUA) system of gas lines.…

THE DEVELOPMENT of electricity interconnectors crossing national borders is simultaneously a technical and geo-political act, requiring careful planning and skilled installation of technology, along with an eye towards promoting security of power supplies.

Such investments are a priority of the European Union (EU) and its member states under its Energy Union programme.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s latest EUR500 million support package for European farmers, finalised at an August 26 European Union (EU) committee in Brussels, will not ease the dairy crisis, European dairy groups have warned.

“Production cuts is the label used to describe the current package of measures,” said the EU farm lobby group European Milk Board (EMB)’s president Romuald Schaber following the initial announcement of the plans in July.…

IN an ever more interconnected world, where reliable energy flows are of critical importance to sophisticated developed economies, the role of diplomacy in helping keep oil and gas flowing is perhaps more important than ever before.

Of course, oil and gas has always been an international business.…

Accountants share responsibility with banks to direct their small-and-medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients towards sources of finance, a Brussels conference has been told. Rebecca McNeil, head of SME lending at Barclays, said at a July 13 Brussels conference on ‘Capital Markets Union: delivering new opportunities for SMEs through venture capital’, declared: “We all have the duty of care, banks, accountants … to signpost SMEs to sources of finance.” …

THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused six European Union (EU) member states of failing to detect enough fraud in EU spending programmes where their governments have a significant management role. In its latest annual report on the ‘Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – Fight against fraud 2015’, the Commission said Austria, Britain and Finland had reported “a very low number of fraudulent irregularities, in particular in relation to the amount of frauds allocated to them” for  EU agricultural spending.…

Europe in 2016 has been witness to significant milestones passed in deployment of new, full-scale demonstration and commercial tidal stream and wave energy projects.

This is encouraging for the European Union (EU), which wants clean, renewable ‘ocean energy’ to provide a tenth of its power by mid-century.…

Finland is always different from its neighbours across the Baltic. Not Scandinavian, but still Nordic, Finland’s personal care product market has been experiencing hard times, as the country of 5.5 million people sees its economy seesaw between contraction and mild grow (-0.7% – +0.5%) in the last three years.…

AS the UK and the European Union (EU) digest the result of the June 23 referendum vote to leave the EU, all options are under consideration. However, short of an unexpected collapse of the movement towards Brexit, reformed future EU-UK relations are likely to complicate existing civil aviation arrangements within Europe.…

LARGE European Union (EU) energy companies and their major customers are now required to undertake energy audits under the EU’s energy efficiency directive (directive 2012/27/EU). They were supposed to have started assessing their energy usage and output by last December (2015) and must now complete such a study every four years.…

THE EUROPEAN nonwovens industry has been pushing ahead, maintaining consistent growth above increases in GDP for the whole economy, increasing its international collaboration, and the successfully exploring new markets. And while it is rarely prudent to make anything more than short-term predictions about cost and tariff problems, such difficulties faced by the European nonwovens sector seem have been pushed into the background. …

THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) has highlighted its continuing concern about intellectual property rights violations in the pharma sector, citing claims that 20% of medicines sold in India are fakes.

In its annual ‘Special 301 Report’, the USTR said it notes “its particular concern with the proliferation of counterfeit pharmaceuticals that are manufactured, sold, and distributed in trading partners such as Brazil, China, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Peru, and Russia.”…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it will propose a ‘services passport’ system by December 31, designed to simplify administrative procedures for service providers, such as accountants, auditors and bookkeepers, who want to expand to foreign member states. EU internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska said: “The cross-border provision of services in the EU is underdeveloped, in particular in the area of business services – such as accounting…” The passport system would give accountants more information, boosting legal certainty and clarity about relevant professional rules in another member state.…

A COST of maintaining nuclear generation capacity of between 95 GWe and 105GWe in the European Union (EU) until 2050 and beyond will cost between EUR350 and EUR450 billion over the next 35 years, the European Commission has concluded. (That is between USD398 billion and USD511 billion at current exchange rates).…

MULTI-COUNTRY regions such as eastern Europe do not always follow the same script when it comes to market performance. Sometimes, when major events happen, such as the global financial crisis, it is difficult for national coatings markets to buck the trend, but with the recovery now established, weakening economic headwinds, the latent differences between national markets can become clear.…

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) working group on bribery has criticised three European Union (EU) member states for their “limited efforts” to comply with the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. It is also concerned about their weak response to the working group’s recommendations for improvements made to Belgium in 2013, Finland 2010 and Slovenia 2014. …

CHINA’S central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), has issued a new anti-money laundering and terror finance reporting requirements for all financial institutions inside the country. The rules come into force July 1. They cover banks, brokers, foreign exchange, online and mobile payment systems and insurance companies, who will have to file reports to the central bank, via their headquarters or via representative institutions, if a client requires daily cash transactions exceeding Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY50,000 (USD7,261) or a larger amount of USD10,000’s worth in foreign currency.…

Flushable wipes range from adult moist toilet tissue to feminine hygiene wipes, and the sector has been steadily growing for years. According to UK-based market researcher Euromonitor International, the global retail volume for personal care wipes nearly doubled between 2003 and 2013, from 93 billion units to almost 170 billion units sold, respectively.…

COMPETING fastfood chains are snapping at McDonald’s heels in Finland as the global player closes branches. McDonald’s now has just 72 outlets after chopping 10 in 2015. The remainder largely consists of franchises (59) with the rest owned by the Finnish subsidiary (13).…

The European Commission has noted that while the number of patent settlements in the European Union (EU) pharmaceutical sector declined in 2014, it is still optimistic that such deals will be used to avoid legal action in future. It says in a report that there were 76 patent settlements concluded between originator and generic companies in the EU pharmaceutical sector in 2014.…

THE EUROPEAN Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has called for more flexibility in proposed revised European Union (EU) good manufacturing practice (GMP) guidance on qualification and validation. Europe’s pharma industry federation thinks this would encourage the use of new technologies and methods going forward.…

BRUSSELS DETAILS UPCOMING EU VAT REFORMS

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a statement outlining the subject of planned VAT legislative proposals to be made next year (2016). These will reduce the administrative burden on businesses through VAT regimes varying between European Union (EU) member states.…

THE ONWARD march of nonwovens production in Europe appears to be relentless, but the drivers behind it have changed in recent years. Early markets for disposable products have matured and levelled off in many countries and newer applications have taken up the slack.…

New domestic and foreign suppliers are entering the growing organic meat sector in Denmark, encouraged by its long term prospects, strong consumer demand and government backing.
Growth in both production and sales of organic chicken has been particularly impressive in Denmark since 2010, achieving a 26% increase in 2014.…

THE VOLATILITY of the global energy market is presenting several challenges to the European Union’s (EU) biofuel sector. Low oil prices, recession, slumps in demand and political uncertainty in key oil producing areas are all raising questions of an industry that was meant to mitigate or provide solutions to many of these issues.…

The UK is lagging behind many other European Union (EU) member states when it comes to energy efficiency and is fiddling the figures to show it is making better progress than in reality, according to the latest report from the Brussels-based Coalition for Energy Savings.…

GERMAN-made automobiles were the largest source of reports regarding potentially dangerous motor vehicles made to the European Union’s (EU) RAPEX consumer alert network in 2014, analysis of its data shows.
There were 194 notifications to the system relating to automobiles and parts last year, the fourth largest category following toys (650), clothing and textiles (530) and electrical appliances (217).…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project is developing new water-repelling coatings and application processes for Europe’s expanding wind power sector. The Euro EUR4.2 million HYDROBOND project has created metal and ceramic-based coatings applied by cold gas blasting process, which propels nano-scale powder particles onto a surface at three times the speed of sound, compressing and strengthening the resulting coating.…

IN the highly competitive cosmetics and personal care market, producers of secondary packaging are creating ever more advanced, innovative shapes and decorations to attract consumers. Whether it conveys a message of sustainability, luxury, or simplicity – secondary packaging continues to play a crucial role, often communicating multiple ideas and emotions to consumers in an instant.…

Finland’s Atria is pushing ahead with plans to reduce its cost base in the face of lower revenues that are mainly being generated due to lost meat trade with Russia, following European Union (EU) and Russian tit-for-tat sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.…

PepsiCo has agreed that Finland brewer Olvi will market the US giant’s biggest brands in Belarus. Pepsi will use the Finnish company’s Belarus subsidiary Lidskoe Pivo to sell and distribute Pepsi, Mirinda, 7 Up and Adrenalin Rush immediately, with local production beginning later this year at Lidskoe Pivo’s facility in Lida, western Belarus. …

AIRPORT development projects are a key part of the Euro EUR315 billion development plan released before Christmas by the European Commission. A keystone of the pro-growth policies of new Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the plan involves the EU, especially the European Investment Bank (EIB), leveraging public funds to generate private capital.…

AFTER two years of talks, Finland and Estonia have reached an agreement (on November 17) to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) Balticconnector pipeline under the Gulf of Finland between the two countries by 2019.

“There are no negatives in this investment.…

RUSSIA’S combined heat and power sector is poised to undergo a radical transformation that will use the open market to rejuvenate and update the industry, according to the country’s energy minister.

Speaking to the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, energy minister Alexander Novak announced last November that creating a competitive market for combined heat and power (CHP) was a key priority.…

The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) is reaching out to higher education institutions in other neighbouring countries to establish collaborations that will encourage more foreign students to enroll for distance learning.
University vice chancellor Professor Tolly Mbwette said the institution’s board hoped to spread its influence regionally: “We are now the largest distance learning university in the region and our plan is to take distance learning to most countries in East Africa and those under the Southern African Development Community [SADC] by 2016.”…

As a matter of urgency, the European Union (EU) should get involved in the common purchase of gas, Maroš Šefčovič, newly installed European Commission vice-president for energy has told an international meeting of experts in Brussels.

The meeting was called to discuss energy policy and competitiveness, topics claimed as one of the top ten priorities of the new Commission of president Jean-Claude Juncker, and policies that Šefčovič is charged with coordinating, with new energy and climate action Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete.…

Sweden’s meat sector has established Svenska Köttföretagen (SKF), a new broad-based trade organisation that will promote the industry’s special interests and provide expert advice to members.

The SKF’s founding owners comprise Sweden’s biggest slaughterhouses, including Skövde Slakteri, Dalsjöfors Kött, KLS Ugglarps, Dahlbergs, Ginsten and Nyhléns Hugosons.…

IRELAND has been especially hard hit by the latest expansion of Russia’s ban on European Union (EU) meat exports, figures released today by the European Commission reveal.
Moscow has expanded its existing import restrictions to cover beef offal and beef fats.…

THE COMPREHENSIVE Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union (EU) will make it easier for both jurisdictions to recognise each other’s nursing certifications. Political leaders celebrated the end of negotiations in September in Ottawa, Canada (Sept 26).…

INTERNATIONAL Financial Reporting Standards’ (IFRS) are not perfect, but their benefits to the European Union (EU) have outweighed their costs, an Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) event in Brussels heard on September 25. The European Commission is carrying out its first public consultation on the impact of IFRS in the European Union (EU), seeking formal comments by October 31, helping it generate policy proposals by the end of this year.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has ended the special measure giving private storage aid to manufacturers of cheese of bearing European Union (EU) geographical indications suffering from Russia’s import ban, but it continues it for butter and skimmed milk powder.

Brussels decided on September 23 to end the cheese storage aid scheme “following a disproportionate surge in interest from cheese producers in certain regions not traditionally exporting significant quantities to Russia”, a statement released on the day reads.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has ended the special measure giving private storage aid to manufacturers of cheese of bearing European Union (EU) geographical indications suffering from Russia’s import ban, but it continues it for butter and skimmed milk powder.

Brussels decided on September 23 to end the cheese storage aid scheme “following a disproportionate surge in interest from cheese producers in certain regions not traditionally exporting significant quantities to Russia”, a statement released on the day reads.…

THE AVERAGE tax burden in the developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) have continued to rise, up 0.4% in 2013, to 34.1% of GDP, compared with 33.7% in 2012 and 33.3% in 2011. A new OECD report said the largest 2013 increases were in Portugal, Turkey, Slovakia, Finland, and Denmark, which has the highest tax-to-GDP ratio among OECD countries – 48.6%, followed by France, 45%, and Belgium, 44.6%.…

A NEW team of European Union commissioners, impacting on metal industry-related policies for the next five years, was unveiled today in Brussels. The incoming Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced his team, who will be charged especially with promoting job creation and economic growth across the EU.…

BRITAIN might not be reliant on Russian gas to keep warm, but British utilities are only too well aware that if Moscow turns off the taps this winter, there will be significantly increased demand for alternative gas supplies.

As a result, utility executives will have been keeping a close eye on talks in Berlin this weekend, where the European Union’s (EU) energy commissioner Günther Oettinger has been trying to broker a deal with Russia and Ukraine to head off a supply freeze.…

ECUADOR, an important confectionery exporter to the European Union (EU), has struck a new bilateral free trade agreement with the EU, which will eliminate tariffs on imports to Europe. The new trade deal is supposed to take effect in late 2016, and until then a system of preferential tariffs will be in place.…

The cogeneration market in Turkey is in flux. Overall combined heat and power (CHP) capacity has dropped over the past decade from 15% of total energy capacity in 2004, to 14% in 2013, primarily due to high oil and gas prices in the wake of market liberalisation that made CHP less cost effective.…

THE LATEST European Commission annual report on European Union (EU) anti-fraud measures has highlighted concerns that member states may be doing far too little to detect EU-related financial crime. Keith Nuthall reports.

A 2013 Report on the Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests noted that some member states reported “very low numbers of fraudulent irregularities” – but the Commission does not believe this is because they are clean.…

As European Union (EU) and US officials began their sixth round of negotiations on an ambitious EU-US free trade agreement in Brussels this week, American poultry practices threatened to become a lightning rod for European public unease about US food standards.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched the second phase of its fuel cells and hydrogen joint undertaking, sinking EUR1.33 billion into hydrogen-based energy and transport fuel technology until 2020. The European Union (EU) is planning to contribute up to EUR665 million, leveraging at least EUR665 million from private sources.…

Green energy support schemes across the European Union (EU) have survived a tough and potentially damaging legal challenge at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has ruled such subsidies are legal – even if they skewer cross-border electricity sales.
EU member states have agreed to increase their energy production from renewable sources.…

THE LATEST European Commission annual report on European Union (EU) anti-fraud measures has highlighted concerns that member states may be doing far too little to detect EU-related financial crime.
Brussels’ 2013 Report on the Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests noted that some member states reported “very low numbers of fraudulent irregularities”.…

European Union (EU) police agency Europol has hailed as a success a two-day operation against illicit scrap dealers, which yielded 271 arrests and identified 146 cases of theft across Europe. Law enforcement teams, backed by the EU unit, checked 8,300 scrap metal dealers in 20 European countries.…

HELPING AND ADVISING EUROPEAN CONSUMERS SHOPPING AND TRAVELLING ABROAD

WHEN CAN ECC-NET OFFICES HELP YOU?

• Air travel

So much can go wrong: flights can be delayed or cancelled; luggage can be lost or damaged; and hidden fees can be charged.…

SOME eight months after the European Union’s (EU) new system for regulating the use of biocides became operational, the implications of the changes are sinking in. Biocides, widely used by paint and coatings manufacturers as preservatives, and in some cases to impart special qualities such as mould resistance, are far more toxic than most chemicals and require special approval rules.…

RUSSIA is challenging the European Union’s (EU) third energy package at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), claiming its requirements for market access and unbundling break EU WTO commitments for open trading with other countries. Moscow is concerned the law will, for instance, allow competitors access to infrastructure such as the South Stream pipeline it wants to build across the Black Sea.…

WHEN Finland’s Tobacco Act came into force on October 1, 2010, it made news around the world. For the first time a country had stated explicitly it wanted to end smoking on its territory and gave a date: Finland would be non-smoking by 2040.…

The Nordic paints and coating market is competitive and growing, being dominated by a handful of strong players headed by Tikkurila and Teknos in Finland and Jotun in Norway. In Dyrup, the region could boast a fourth major local player, although American corporation PPG Industries paid the Danish firm’s parent, Monberg & Thorsen, EUR115 million for the company in 2011.…

NORWAY may have suspended military cooperation with its neighbour Russia over the Ukraine crisis, but it seems less keen to mothball its coordination on energy policy, notably in the high Arctic.

Norwegian and Russian energy companies have long been eyeing the potential hydrocarbon resources in the Barents Sea to the north of the Russo-Norwegian border, and both sides want to exploit them without causing major environmental problems.…

FINLAND’S Stallhagen brewery is recreating French beer found aboard an 1840s shipwreck in the Baltic Sea in 2010 (along with 145 champagne bottles). The company will sell 2,000 0.6-litre bottles of Stallhagen Historic Beer 1842 (approx abv 4.5%) brewed by a specialist team at Hogeschool Gent, Belgium, who developed a recipe based on five French beer bottles found on the wreck, which includes a wild yeast ingredient.…

REPRESENTATIVES from Europe’s sugar industry want sugar to be excluded from the current free trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union (EU). Speaking at an EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) briefing in Brussels, Oscar Ruiz de Imaña – the deputy director general of the European Association of Sugar Producers (CEFS), warned of the uncertainties in the sugar markets on both sides of the Atlantic.…

THE RUSSIAN publishing and bookselling sector is shrugging off the risks posed by potential wide-ranging economic sanctions that could be imposed on their country by the European Union (EU) and USA over the Ukraine crisis.

Thus far, asset freezes and visa bans have been introduced against a number of Russian and Ukrainian officials, and some Russian banks have seen their international payment systems shut down.…

THE INSTABILITY prompted by the crisis in Ukraine is increasing the risk of crime-tainted Russian assets being moved into new safe havens to avoid the effects of possible sanctions. With EU member state Cyprus long favoured by Russian investors, and likely to be covered by any sanctions, could the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) offer an attractive alternative?…

AUSTRIA

The location of ECC Austria in central Vienna means many consumers drop by to receive advice or lodge complaints in person with the ECC’s five staff members. A top priority in 2013 was increasing public awareness about e-commerce fraud; a brochure aimed at combatting the problem was published and more than 600,000 were distributed throughout Austria.…

PHARMACEUTICAL manufacturers in the European Union (EU) can only protect their active ingredients against exploitation by generic manufacturers for 15 years, even when securing patent protection expiring at a later date. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the maximum combined duration of protection gained from patents and supplementary protection certificates approved during patent applications is 15 years.…

MANY European Union (EU) countries are unsure whether imposing mandatory labelling requirements for the country of origin of meat used as ingredient in processed food products would bring benefits that justify the costs, a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels yesterday (24 March) revealed.…

NORDIC nonwoven companies Suominen, Ahlstrom and Fibertex are fast emerging from the post-2008 economic downturn fitter and leaner. This follows five years of cost-cutting and market re-alignment projects that included unit divestments, strategic acquisitions, and increased use of automation to reduce costs and strengthen profitability.…

DETAILED work is under way to create a plan to further diversify the European Union’s (EU) energy supplies routes, after EU heads of government agreed to “address the issue of external energy dependency.” The urgency follows concern sparked by Russia’s annexation of the Crimea from Ukraine.…

A NEW chair of the European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) scientific committee has been elected –Professor Maria Beatriz da Silva Lima, a pharmacology and pharmacotoxicology specialist from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. The vice chair will be Professor Markus Perola, of Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare.…

A COMPREHENSIVE European report has informed consumers across the European Union (EU), Norway and Iceland about their legal rights to credit card refunds.

Written by a publicly-funded network of European Consumer Centres (ECC-Net), the report explains what rights are enjoyed by all EU citizens, and those in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – members of the EU-associated European Economic Area (EEA).…

EU VAT FORUM PILOT EXTENDED ONE MORE YEAR THE EUROPEAN Commission is to carry out an evaluation of the European Union (EU) regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 that says EU listed companies must use international financial reporting standards (IFRS) to produce their consolidated accounts.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has increased legal pressure on Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, France, Slovenia and Finland to ban individual pregnant sow stalls, claiming they have flouted European Union (EU) law by continuing to allow the practice.

A Commission note to these countries says it is prepared to invoke legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) should piggeries in these six countries continue to seclude pregnant sows in separate stalls.…

THE USE of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in the food and drink sector might have grown exponentially in the past 10 years, but the technology is likely to become even more ubiquitous worldwide. UK-based retailers and pioneers in the use of the technology Marks & Spencer and Tesco can now chalk up a decade of experience in the use of RFID, from distribution centre (DC) operations right through to retail floor item-level tagging.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

THE USE of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in the food and drink sector might have grown exponentially in the past 10 years, but the technology is likely to become even more ubiquitous worldwide. UK-based retailers and pioneers in the use of the technology Marks & Spencer and Tesco can now chalk up a decade of experience in the use of RFID, from distribution centre (DC) operations right through to retail floor item-level tagging.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

An interim report from the European Universities Association (EUA) on the pattern of public funding for universities has highlighted how the character of funding for HE institutions in Europe is changing, largely though not entirely, as a result of the economic pressures facing governments.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening to take legal action against Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Finland unless they demonstrate by January 20 how they will comply with the European Union’s (EU) falsified medicine directive. They were supposed to have implemented written the law (directive 2011/62/EU) into their national legislation by January 2 earlier this year (2012).…

Is European higher education generally delivering the right kind of qualifications for EU citizens gearing up to tackle the challenges and opportunities of today’s world or is it missing the target somewhere along the line ? The question isn’t a new one but it has been given a fresh twist by the 2013 Education and Training Monitor released last week by the European Commission.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik today revealed the EU’s long-awaited plan to reduce the 8 billion plastic bags that the European Commission believes are “littering” Europe today.  He has proposed altering the EU’s packaging and packaging waste directive so member states have a commitment to reduce consumption of single-use plastic bags.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian oil exporters are to benefit from a new free trade deal struck between the EU and Canada. Once the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been ratified (probably in 2015), it will lead to all existing non-food duties imposed on goods traded between the parties being scrapped.…

ONCE upon a time, an overly curved cucumber could not be labelled ‘cucumber’ in the European Union (EU) because it did not comply with ‘official’ definitions of the fruit, which included limits on curvature. The European Commission eventually modified the rules: ugly and misshapen fruit and vegetables now sell freely under their own time-honoured names.…

The 5th European Innovation Summit, organised by Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) and held at the European Parliament (EP) 30 September-2 October, found the big names in EU research agreed that it was high time for a “wake up Europe” call.  A five-point declaration addressed to EU policy-makers and the EU member state governments was agreed at the summit after several speakers had sought to identify and suggest ways of removing the obstacles standing in the way of Europe becoming a successful innovation economy.…

A major international survey of education standards has found serious weaknesses in the EU countries when compared to levels in other parts of the world. In spite of the heavy investment in higher education in recent years in the EU, the study suggests that a fifth of the working age population has worrying low literacy and numeracy skills and a quarter of adults lack the digital skills needed to effectively use ICT.…

The ongoing investigation into Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera’s involvement in suspected money laundering (ML) and bribery in Uzbekistan has prompted a fresh push by government to introduce tougher reporting rules for a broader range of ML offences in 2014.

Significantly, the new measures will give law enforcement agencies greater powers of arrest and asset seizures where money laundering is suspected.…

A EUROPEAN Commission study has called for an increase in spectrum allocated to wifi, to help communications service providers deal with growing demand. It noted that 71% of all European Union (EU) wireless data traffic in 2012 was delivered to smartphones and tablets using wifi, possibly rising to 78% by 2016.…

TECHNICAL and security experts have gathered at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to consider how to roll-out developing automated border control (ABC) systems, which offer hard-pressed airports the ability to better process surging passenger numbers.

Staged at ICAO’s headquarters, in Montréal, Canada, from October 22 to 24, the agency’s ninth symposium and exhibition on MRTDs [machine readable travel documents] biometrics and border security debated ABC developments such as newly-emerging technologies; trust issues; reliability; non-intrusiveness; biometrics; effective inspections tools; trusted traveller programmes; challenges to border integrity and ways to address them.…

A SPECIAL European Union (EU) VAT scheme allowing travel agents to pay one VAT payment on the profits they make from selling services applies to all their customers, and not just travellers, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. The European Commission argued at the ECJ that the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Poland and Portugal should not allow travel agents to use this perk for non-travelling customers buying non-core services, but its case was rejected.…

NEW biocides to preserve oils and fats products, and oil and fat containing products with biocidal properties, have to be registered under the European Union’s (EU) biocidal products regulation (EU) No 528/2012) starting from September 1 this year.

The regulation builds on and replaces the EU’s biocidal products directive (98/8/EC), except for a few transitional arrangements.…

FOOD technology innovation could have a European Union (EU) budget of Euro EUR4.1 billion to tap from 2014 to 2020 under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. Political agreement over its funding and spending rules was secured in June, creating an overall pot of EUR70.2 billion, from which EUR4.1 billion could be earmarked for food and food-related research projects.…

The European co-generation sector has been looking hard for a competitive edge and one area of innovation that has helped it improve its energy efficiency is in the convergence of software, control and instrumentation, internet and wireless communication, and smart grids.…

WITH Europe’s economy still struggling to deal with the fall-out of the global financial crisis, its co-generation sector has had to fight to expand, or in some cases hold its position. Tightening national government budgets have meant that the co-gen industry has had to argue persuasively for public subsidies and tax breaks, or even the right to have equal treatment with renewable energies.…

IN signing up to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) multilateral agreement on tax information transparency, Singapore has moved to address a major paradox that applies to its banking, business and financial operations.

Singapore scores exceptionally highly in global anti-corruption indexes – in 2012 it was ranked fifth by Transparency International out of 176 nations, behind only Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Finland, for its lack of perceived corruption.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has questioned the legality of Euro EUR52 million’s public subsidies to convert Gdynia-Kosakowo airport from a military to a civilian facility. The money was paid by local authorities of Gdynia and Kosakowo to operating company Port Lotniczy Gdynia-Kosakowo Sp.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have agreed reforms to the EU’s VAT directive 2006/112/EC enabling member states to swiftly impose reversed charge VAT mechanisms to fight tax fraud. They would act when faced with a sudden onset of large-scale VAT fraud, forcing suppliers to pay the tax, rather than final consumers.…

Making money in the mobile communications sector is always about the art of the possible, but ambitious companies will always seek to tap the most revenue streams. The question, as ever, is how to achieve such goals, without being weighed down with additional layers of management that eat into those vital profit margins.…

China in April successfully conducted a maiden test flight of the first aviation biofuel entirely processed on its shores, joining the US, Finland and France as only the fourth country in the world to independently research and develop a bio-jet fuel production technology.…

REVISED European Union (EU) nuclear safety rules proposed by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, may undermine the authority of national safety regulators and complicate the work of nuclear operators, according to Foratom, the organisation representing the interests of the European nuclear industry.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) funded research project called Quantomics has been investigating the hereditary information of cattle and chicken to discover the genes that make them more resistant to diseases and infections. The results should help livestock breeders know which animals and birds are likely to develop diseases such as mastitis in cattle or E coli infections in chickens and select the genetically healthiest for breeding.…

EASTERN European textile and clothing companies used to have a cost advantage in serving wealthy western European markets, but that has long been eclipsed by Asian competition – added value technical textiles may offer them a sustainable future.

In Poland’s hard-pressed textile industry, its fast-growing technical branch may constitute the future of the national industry, experts in the country’s industry say.…

DETAILED guidance notes for the European Union’s (EU) new biocidal products regulation (BPR), (EU) No 528/2012 that is applicable from September 1 emerged as a pressing industry concern at an open day in Finland, on June 25, staged by the Helsinki based European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) negotiators are approaching the final decision over the future of EU sugar quotas, with a deal expected between the European Parliament and EU Council of Ministers by the end of June. What is almost certain is the current phase-out date of 2015 is dead.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a detailed action plan designed to boost energy innovation and new technology across the European Union (EU). Written as a ‘communication’ policy paper, it stresses: “EU energy technology and innovation strategy is an integral part of the EU energy policy.”…

Poland confirmed plans in 2012 to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with a view to importing supplies from Qatar, it seemed like the latest example of eastern European energy ministries trying to avoid energy dependence on Russia. Plans to develop shale gas in Poland and the Baltic States fall into the same category, along with policies to build energy infrastructure linking Poland and its Nordic and Baltic neighbours.…

 An interim report from the European Universities Association (EUA) on the pattern of public funding for universities has highlighted how the character of funding for HE institutions in Europe is changing, largely though not entirely, as a result of the economic pressures facing governments.…

THERE are many ways to maintain and repair a road, so it always makes sense to look widely at good practice examples. Here The Surveyor has used its foreign correspondent team to assess techniques in some diverse pars of continental Europe.…

SUMMER 2013 marks an important milestone in the evolution of the European Union (EU) regulatory framework and financial support for Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E) that will contribute towards the European Commission’s goal of a single-energy market for gas and electricity. Oil and carbon dioxide (CO2) transport from carbon capture and storage systems also figure in the picture.…

WHEN a titanium Russian flag was audaciously planted on the seabed 4,200m below the North Pole in 2007, it took the world by surprise, suggesting Russia was serious in its claims to the Arctic.

Russia is not alone. In all five Arctic coastal nations – the USA, Canada, Norway, Russia and Denmark (through Greenland) have laid claims to a slice of the Arctic.…

ALTHOUGH China is known for skilled workers making clothing for big brand names, the country still relies heavily on imports when it comes to high performance nonwovens used in the medical, automotive, environmental protection and other fields, according to Beijing-based China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA).…

SUCCESSION issues are a significant and growing challenge for companies and could be an opportunity for qualified accountants who may step up internally or be drafted in to even become the next CEO or CFO.

“Many businesses spend very little time, if any, thinking through who will lead the various aspects of their business in the future,” said Karen Young, a director for the senior finance section of global recruitment experts Hays, and whose remit includes qualified accountancy jobs including finance director, financial controller, management accountant, financial accountant, or practice accounting.…

IRELAND has the most higher education graduates per head of population in all 27 countries of the European Union (EU), a report from EU statistical agency Eurostat has revealed.

Looking at the proportion of people aged 30-34 who had completed tertiary education, Eurostat said in 2012, 51.1% of Ireland residents had degrees.…

Slovenia was once considered the clean corner of the Balkans. No longer. Protests against corruption have followed a devastating official report which toppled the prime minister. Mark Rowe reports.

IN January, a general strike by up to 100,000 public sector workers called not only for their jobs to be safeguarded but for an end to what a growing number of Slovenians see as a culture of graft among the rich and powerful.…

WITH AREVA celebrating 30 years of operations in China in 2013 its head of operations in the country is hoping for an expansion of joint ventures as well as overseas collaboration with Chinese partners in uranium sourcing.

Speaking in Beijing, Rémy Autebert, senior executive vice-president for Asia, explained how he hopes to see a doubling in the number of joint ventures with Chinese partners, from the company’s current four.…

LITHUANIA’S plans to build the Visaginas nuclear power plant, hailed the first modern nuclear alternative to Russian energy in the Baltic States, have been stalled since Lithuanian voters opposed the idea in an October 2012 referendum.

However, a general election held the same day as the referendum and the resulting newly elected Social Democrat-led government has formed a commission within the energy ministry to recalculate the project’s cost estimates, reporting in March.…

The Talvivaara Mining Company (TMC) has secured a permit to discharge 1.8 million cubic metres of neutralised waste water from the Talvivaara mine, which should be sufficient for it to recommence nickel ore mining operations. The permit, which was issued by the municipality of Kainuu on February 12, will not however allow TMC to release the neutralised waste water in to the nearby Vuoksi and Oulujoki waterways.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed Thailand lifting its longstanding ban on bovine product imports from European Union (EU) member states, but has complained that Bangkok is insisting on expensive inspections for approved exporters.

Live cattle, beef, veal and other bovine products from Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia and Spain have been prevented from entering Thailand since 2001 over concerns about BSE.…

PHARMACEUTICAL companies seeking pharmacovigilance and pharmacoepidemiology information from across the European Union (EU) can now consult two new databases. Created by the public-private partnership PROTECT project, they are the Drug Consumption Database and the PROTECT ADR [adverse drug reaction] database.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) police agency Europol has released details of a major football scam at global level with Asian betting syndicates at its heart. It is now up to national prosecutors still investigating some of the cases to unveil the names of football clubs involved in match fixing.…

OVER the past 10 years, solar panels have become increasingly popular through growing demand for green energy. But with recent developments in ‘smart’ coatings that will make photovoltaic (PV) solar applications more efficient, their future is looking even brighter.

Despite continuous developments in their production, solar cells and other PV applications are not always efficient, as they often reflect too much sunlight and create high maintenance costs. …

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A REPORT released by the European Union’s (EU) umbrella groups for gas and electricity regulators has claimed wholesale energy prices within the EU are beginning to converge, as cross-border sales develop. Consumer prices still varied significantly between the EU’s 27 member states, however.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

It was a tight call but the money came through in the end and students signed up for the European Union’s (EU) Erasmus student exchange programme will get funding after all next year.

The Erasmus cash had been caught up in a budget deadlock lasting months and the issue was only resolved this week, when the European Parliament rubber-stamped a deal agreed a few days earlier by EU ministers.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

Finnish semi-state industrial group Ruukki will have been helped in its plans to streamline its steel and engineering businesses by the European Commission’s approval of a new joint venture Fortaco, a senior manager involved in the deal told Steel First.…

BY MARK ROWE

ANYONE looking for straightforward conclusions about the impact of the recession on eastern Europe’s cosmetics market is likely to be disappointed. Some countries, such as Poland, fared relatively well in the crisis, while others such as Latvia faced punishing economic contraction, therefore signals coming from the region in these uncertain and ever-changing times, are hugely varied.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S new airport policy network Airpol has started showing its operational worth, helping coordinate a two-day operation targeting 28 airports in 15 European counties, where 10 smugglers of cash, drugs and counterfeit goods were arrested. Airpol was launched late 2010 and has since developed operations as a coordinator of European network police.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

MAJOR personal care product brands are targeting Finland for expansion, feeding off the country’s strong domestic demand economy, with Kiehl, The Body Shop and Denmark’s Tiger all expanding sales outlets.

The Bank of Finland is forecasting a 6% increase in consumer spending on middle to high-end luxury goods in the fourth quarter of 2012, and a 3% increase January-June 2013.…

BY BLAKE BERRY, IN WARSAW; JOHN PAGNI, IN HELSINKI; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA, ITALY; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND ALAN OSBORN

IF you are a biofuel manufacturer, you could be forgiven for being frustrated with the complexity of the market in Europe.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON, LEE ADENDORFF, IN LUCCA, ITALY; MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW; AND JOHN PAGNI, IN HELSINKI

THE POTENTIAL of micro-CHP (combined heat-and-power) for industrial businesses, residential complexes and individual homes is becoming increasingly clear across Europe.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW; LEE ADENDORFF, IN ITALY; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; AND ALAN OSBORN

STANDARDIZATION remains the main hurdle European Union (EU) countries will have to pass to see an increased uptake of electric vehicles, auto industry specialists at a recent conference in Brussels organized by the Public Policy Exchange has determined.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI, AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE SWEDISH government is using the publicity over the resignation of European Union (EU) health commissioner John Dalli in October over a snus lobbying scandal to restate its case that the EU should legalise the sale of snus in all member states, a market area that Sweden’s snus producers say is worth Euro EUR2 billion annually.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THERE is no more need to test healthy livestock in Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Spain to be 95% sure they are not affected by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), a scientific report from by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has recommended.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE INCREASING use of broadband-connected devices has led to exponential growth in mobile subscriptions and data traffic, and has also challenged operators, especially in providing improved customer experience regarding speed, coverage and availability.

So, with operators now moving beyond 2G and 3G networks, and towards 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems -to keep up with the scale of capacity and coverage – the trend towards implementing self-organising networks (SON) is also growing, with promises to speed up network deployment dramatically, while reducing operational efforts.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Last minute efforts are underway to rescue the European Union’s (EU) Erasmus student exchange programme which has been threatened, among other EU activities, by budget cuts ordered by the EU Council of Ministers. The key date is November 9th when representatives of the Council will conclude 21 days of negotiations

with delegates from the European Parliament in a "Conciliation Council" to see if funding can be restored.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

THE FINNISH government is considering the introduction of a tax on mining activities in 2013 to reduce a growing budget deficit. Finland’s updated Mining Act, which took effect in July 2011, does not cover production or exploration-based royalties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S developed countries are enthusiastically or moderately implementing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) anti-bribery convention, so that 52.3% of world exports are sold by countries opposing graft. So says the latest Transparency International report that says the leading established economic players are now leading by example: with the USA, Germany, Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark all praised for actively implementing the convention.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

"A NEW and superior urban form of living," is how India’s first airport city, Durgapur Aertropolis, in West Bengal, is being defined by its promoter and main contractor, Changi Airports India Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Changi Airport International.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

UNIVERSITY tuition fees cost more in England than anywhere else in Europe, according to a September 10 report from the European Commission, but the headline figures are not the whole story for students sizing up how to survive.…

COGENERATION, or rather trigeneration, units that cooled, heated and powered the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games won plaudits if no gold medals for the manufacturer – America’s GE – but neatly symbolised the spread of CHP into mainstream and niche applications.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

Outside the EU, Finland’s neighbour Russia is also expected to witness a growth in its co-gen market, due to ever growing electricity demand and an increase in state support for CHP projects.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

In eastern Europe, with its Soviet-era reliance on communal heating systems, co-generation continues to have strength.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

Meanwhile, there have been positive developments in Nordic co-gen markets.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; AND MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA

BRITAIN has been facing unusually cold and snowy winters in recent years and should this become a long-term climate trend, UK utilities will have to take note and change their operational practices to suit.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

"We’re likely to see a growing trend towards toward biomass-based CHP over the next 10 years," said Daniella Muallem, senior research analyst at US-based IDC Energy Insights, EMEA division. This is already apparent in large cogen.

Case in point: an innovative 49.9MW biomass cogen plant – the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom – is on course to begin its commissioning phase in late 2012 before production starts in mid-2013.…

BY MARK ROWE

THERE is consumer demand in Europe for making confectionery packaging more sustainable, but in the European Union (EU) manufacturers are motivated more in going green by EU legislation.

They are developing ways of reducing, reusing and recycling packaging, and changing its composition to help.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN BOLIVIA

THE INDUSTRIAL production of lithium carbonate and lithium-ion batteries in Bolivia has moved a step closer following the formation of a joint venture between Bolivia’s state-owned mining corporation Comibol and a South Korea consortium led by the country’s state-run mineral development corporation Korea Resources Corp.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN RIO DE JANEIRO

THE WORLD’S energy ministers are pondering policy responses to ‘The Future We Want’, a document summarising recommendations from the United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) which ended June 22 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.…

BY E BLAKE BERRY, IN POLAND; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; AND MJ DESCHAMPS,

WHILE southern and western Europe’s economies falter, being mired in debt, eastern Europe’s coatings market is now growing solidly amidst economic performances that are recovering from a recession that hit the region hard.…

BY ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW

MAJOR international nuclear-energy technology providers are signing a wave of agreements with Polish energy companies and research institutes to curry political favour as they compete in the race for the tender to supply Poland’s first nuclear power plant, set to come on line in 2023.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN GREECE AND GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

MINERAL experts in Greece and Nordic countries have agreed with the verdict of the European Geosciences Union’s recent annual meeting in Vienna that the European Union (EU) should exploit rare earths reserves in Nordic countries and Greece to improve its supplies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S confectionery industry is fighting rearguard moves at the European Parliament to delay the abolition of European Union (EU) quotas on EU sugar production. A report from French conservative MEP Michel Dantin on the new EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has proposed that the quotas stay until 2020 – they are currently to be phased out by 2015.…

BY KACI RACELMA

WHILE the majority of north African paint and coatings markets have been disrupted by the wave of political and economic unrest brought on by the ongoing Arab Spring revolution, relatively stable Morocco has generated modest growth.

The country’s paint companies predict an increase in domestic paints and coatings production and sales in 2012, following sluggish sales since the international financial crisis hit in 2008.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

THE SECOND deadline for registering substances under the European Union’s (EU) law on the ‘registration, evaluation & authorisation of chemicals’ (REACH) is approaching – on May 31, 2013. It applies to all chemical substances manufactured or imported into the EU at and above 100 tonnes-a-year.…

BY JOHN PAGNI , IN HELSINKI

FINLAND’S trouble-plagued nuclear reactor building site at Olkiluoto has encountered another problem which has caused certain installation work to be halted it was announced yesterday. Plant operator TVO and the Franco-German construction consortium Areva-Siemens said they are "investigating a quality non-conformity detected in their inspections" affecting 10,000 small pipes, staging "comprehensive quality inspections and analysis".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project commanding a budget of Euro EUR1.4 million is to develop a portable device able to detect minute contamination within pharmaceutical manufacturing lines. Of course, keeping these spotless is of critical importance to the pharma sector to prevent the contamination of medicines.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

IN the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, China has opted to lower its nuclear construction targets but also to build 3G reactors in inland regions according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) representative in Beijing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers is seeking an agreement with Russia and Belarus that would better coordinate the operation of their electricity systems with those of the three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The council’s working party on energy is drafting a proposal for EU ministers that – if approved – would "authorise the [European] Commission to negotiate an agreement between the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus and the European Union on electricity system operation of the Baltic States."…

BY JOHN PAGNI, IN HELSINKI, AND KITTY SO

When officially opened on May 8, Finland’s new 90MW Kymijärvi 2 power station will break ground in its novel energy efficiency and environment technology: a waste-to-energy combined heat and power (CHP) production unit using clean bio-gas as its fuel.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONSERVATION group WWF has lauded six major British cosmetics retailers for doing all they can to monitor their palm oil-based product sourcing, reducing its environmental impact. Palm oil has long been a concern of environmentalists worried about clearances of natural habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia to make way for palm oil plantations.…

BY MARK GODFREY

CHINA’S surging auto market, rising mechanisation in rural areas and continuing market growth of major Chinese white goods and PC makers such as Haier and Lenovo are all proving to bode well for coatings makers, who continue to experience the great potential of the country’s burgeoning economy.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

DENMARK’S centre right government has brushed off criticism directed at its public health policies and has sanctioned the roll-out of its most controversial piece of tax-legislation, the imposition of a so-called ‘Saturated Fat Tax’ on food products. The new law is scheduled to take effect on October 1.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of a possible Greek Euro exit and default. GrExit, as it has been termed, could have catastrophic repercussions for European and possibly the global economy or it could provide some kind of solution for the troubled Eurozone and the heavily indebted country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MARK ROWE, GERARD O’DWYER, ALAN OSBORN and MJ DESCHAMPS

COGENERATION has been something of a test-bed for European Union (EU) energy development policy, and like any experiment, some things have worked and others have not. Also, because other energy priorities have become the subject of more effective legislation recently, cogeneration has been left behind to some extent in the EU’s push for a cleaner, greener, sustainable and more liberal energy sector.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, LEE ADENDORFF, MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN, MINDY RAN, GERARD O’DWYER and MARTINA MARECKOVA

FOR an industry that generates energy, heat and maybe cooling, the European cogeneration sector has been operating on a decidedly low output in recent years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Union (EU) robustly protects traditional drink product names, so a Finnish brandy maker took risks when using the name Cognac on its bottles. These were made clear today (July 14), when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) annulled Gust.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

THE HELSINKI-Malmi Action Group’s (HMAG) capital investment proposal to develop Helsinki-Malmi airport as the Finnish capital’s main hub for budget airlines has yet to garner significant support within Finland’s new conservative-socialist rainbow government.

Krista Kiuru, Finland’s communications minister, says the government is interested in considering state-support for developing a budget airline airport near Helsinki, but will await investigative reports before making a decision.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a Euro EUR1.5 million study into concerns that European Union (EU) animal welfare and food safety rules could harm the global competitiveness of EU meat and other livestock sectors.

Brussels has asked research teams to bid for a major study comparing compliance costs for EU and non-EU country meat producers.…

BY MARGUERITE-JEANNE DESCHAMPS, MINI PANT ZACHARIAH and WANG FANGQING

All over the world, when, where and what kind of alcohol consumers can purchase varies between each country’s national – and, occasionally, regional – laws. One would understand if alcoholic beverage manufacturers would prefer operating in markets where retailers are free to sell alcohol, versus those were a limited number of agents can make sales.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORKSHOP staged by the European Union’s (EU) BEMOSA airport security research project has heard calls to improve both training and long-term motivation of passenger screening workers, lest fast staff turnover weakens security. David Trembaczowski-Ryder, senior policy manager for ACI Europe warned job boredom, long hours and poor pay lowered employee skills and standards, forcing airports to reply on temporary staff.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

FINLAND is bucking the post-Fukushima trend of abandoning nuclear power, pushing ahead with its reactor construction programme.

The cost of building Olkiluoto 3, the 1,600MW European pressurised water reactor nuclear power plant is currently Euro EUR3.2 billion. Although four years behind schedule, project supporters remain positive: "Once we were told it would be delayed, the timetable didn’t matter.…

By John Pagni in Helsinki

The Areva/Siemens project to supply Finland’s TVO with the world’s first third generation EPR (European Pressurised water Reactor) at Olkiluoto on the Finnish west coast has suffered a number of problems but these have not shaken the faith of those concerned in the essential viability of the design.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

THE DANISH government has turned its face against a storm of criticism following confirmation by its ministry of taxation yesterday (May 12), that prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s centre-right administration plans to proceed with the implementation of a controversial saturated food fat tax on October 1.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

While the rest of the world has called a halt in nuclear energy development after the Fukushima disaster, Finland’s pace-setting enthusiasm flows serenely on with construction and new plant permits continuing apace. The Finns’ pragmatism was illustrated in April’s general election when the Greens lost five seats after a 1.2% fall in their vote despite what might have been thought a powerful and timely boost for the anti-nuclear lobby.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

AS one of the final stages in the converting process, it is important that the coating and laminating of raw materials goes off without a hitch to produce the best possible end product for paper, plastic and textile packagers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SCIENTISTS from a Euro EUR14.6 million research project are to unveil progress at a June 1-3 nanotechnology conference in Budapest on their goal of using nano-medicine to fight Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers in the NAD Project have tried to make a virtue out of the environmental concern that nano-particles can breach the blood-brain-barrier.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH

HUNGARY, which currently holds the European Union’s (EU’s) rotating presidency, made a little noticed promise in January to put organised crime well and truly on the EU agenda. Commercial Crime International attended a Brussels conference where senior figures admitted the EU’s response has been far too weak.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

Åland islands gird themselves for renewed battle over snus

Autonomous Baltic archipelago wants clarity over snus sales on ferries. It fears existing complications will cause ferries to become Swedish-flagged, losing it revenue and jobs. Åland government wants the issue considered under the EU’s tobacco products directive review.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THERAPY dogs can be a great nursing aid, but new European Union (EU)-funded research has shown how pure bred dogs can be powerful resource for investigating the sources of disease in human patients. The fact is that dogs suffer from many of the same diseases as their two-legged owners, and it is a lot easier to investigate the genetic causes of such illnesses in pure bred dogs.…

BY MINI PANT ZACHARIAH and EMMA JACKSON

WHILE European paint manufacturers are breathing sigh of relief having passed the first major compliance deadline for the European Union’s (EU) chemical control system REACH, the same cannot be said for paint manufacturers in India.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

NORDICS take their global civic responsibilities seriously – paying more than mere lip-service to requests to cut global warming emissions especially. Finland is a case in point, putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to renewable fuels.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE FIRST major compliance deadline for the European Union’s (EU) chemical control system REACH has passed, and paint manufacturers, importers and suppliers are breathing a sigh of relief.

"Overall, I think it has been quite challenging for both industries and ECHA [the European Chemicals Agency based in Helsinki, Finland], but I think we are both relieved to have the first deadline past, and I think it was quite successful on both sides," said Laurence Hoffstadt (NOTE: NAME IS SPELLED CORRECTLY), a scientific officer with ECHA, which governs and administers Europe’s chemical registration programme.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WITH sales of biofuels still very much in their nascent stage and concerns rising about the environmental impact of biofuels growing, research and development into ‘second-generation’ biofuels is going ahead apace. And a key element of this work is lowering CO2 emissions from fuel by using waste alternative sources of material for conversion to biofuel.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WITH sales of biofuels still very much in their nascent stage and concerns rising about the environmental impact of biofuels growing, research and development into ‘second-generation’ biofuels is going ahead apace. And a key element of this work is lowering CO2 emissions from fuel by using waste alternative sources of material for conversion to biofuel.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

Heineken may become a partner in a licence deal based on recreating the receipe from four beer bottles found on a wreck in Finland’s Åland Sea last July – along with the world’s oldest champagne.

"At this point we believe they are the oldest bottled beers in the world that can be drunk," said Rainer Juslin, of the autonomous Åland islands government, which will decide their fate and rights if tests at Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre reveal the yeast is remains alive or dormant.…

BY KEITN NUTHALL

THE UNITED States has been asked to consider extending the statute of limitations for prosecuting foreign bribery offences. The call comes in a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE cuts and bruises from angry patients are nothing new to nurses, there are growing concerns that there is a link between physical assaults and long-term musculoskeletal symptoms.

The mental and emotional consequences of nursing violence have been on the radar of health institutions for a long time, but a recent study published in the UK-based international academic journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine is the first to make the connection between physical violence and chronic health problems.…

BY KEITN NUTHALL

30

THE NORTH Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is taking the threat of cyberattacks on business and government computing networks so seriously, it is staging cyberwarfare trials. The world’s strongest military alliance in November held the Cyber Coalition 2010 exercise near Mons, Belgium, and remote locations to test cyber-attack agencies and NATO strategic decision making.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEDIUM-sized and large paint and coating coatings companies and their suppliers have wrongly claimed low administrative charges for small businesses under the European Union’s (EU) REACH chemical control system, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has warned. After the first November 30 deadline for registering chemicals under REACH has passed, ECHA officials will screen claims for the small business administration rate of Euro EUR8,300 and EUR2,070 for micro businesses, assessing whether these claimants were actually small.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EURO EUR6million research project will see scientists collect, isolate and classify marine organisms, including sea anemones, tunicates and micro and macroalgae, from the world’s seas and oceans, and look for active biochemicals with potential medical uses. The 2010-1014 MAREX project is coordinated by the University of Helsinki, Finland, working with researchers from Belgium, Britain, Chile, Finland, France, India, Italy, Lebanon, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

THE NORD Stream natural gas pipeline, linking Russia with Germany, is not just making political waves, but inspiring technological innovations. Its developers appear to be taking environmental issues seriously. This could appease the project’s doubters.

When completed by the end of 2012, two parallel pipelines will stretch 1,224 kilometres from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald on Germany’s Baltic coast, linking with EU networks, notably those run by DONG Energy (Denmark), Germany’s E.ON…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The reform package for the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) released today has been so unpopular, it begs the question – is Europe really the best level of government to control food production subsidies?

The CAP has always been at the heart of the EU – part of the grand bargain that underpinned its launch in the 1950s between Germany and France.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS sector has long been the focus of some the most direct market intervention by the European Union (EU), and it would seem that the EU still has an appetite for such initiatives, consulting on new guidance on third party access to fixed networks.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

ALTHOUGH the regulatory push towards the use of biofuels has largely been inspired by environmental motives – primarily aimed towards delivering carbon savings – many concerns have been raised around the idea that these eco-friendly fuels might be damaging engines and vehicle performance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

9

A UNITED Nations campaign could – if successful – significantly increase worldwide demand for soap. Its Global Handwashing Day has highlighted how diarrhoeal and acute respiratory diseases kill 3.5 million children aged under five annually, and that washing their hands after using toilets and before handling food can reduce such deaths by 40% and 23% respectively.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GERMAN government is giving Euro EUR1.2 million to a UN project expanding and upgrading small and medium-sized generic pharmaceutical manufacturers in Asia and Africa. It is run by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and aims to spread medicine manufacture across a continent where production is mainly concentrated in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has told Italy, Sweden and Finland they must implement revised European Union safety test rules on aerosol dispensers, (directive 75/324/EEC and its amendments). Despite the directive’s vintage, Italy and Sweden have not implemented it at all, while Finland ignores it for the Aland islands in the Baltic.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

MAINLY known as a flagship paper and telecommunications outpost, the Nordic country of Finland is poised for an unprecedented metals mining boom, its government is claiming. Employment and economy ministers Mauri Pekkarinen said on August 8 at Haapranta at the official opening of Tapojärvi Oy’s new plant for handling stainless steel slag: "Finland will become a major European miner within the next 10 years with mine output growing tenfold based on demand for metals and rare earths allied to increasing production technology efficiencies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INVESTMENT and introducing good practice in the Russian steelmaking sector so it matches European Union (EU) standards in natural resources consumption could save the industry up to US dollar USD3.3 billion annually, a World Bank group report has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN chemical industry federation CEFIC has called for a review of administration under European Union (EU) chemical control system REACH to help small-and-medium-sized paint and other chemical companies (SMEs) deal with its burden. As the first key REACH chemical deadline of November 30 approaches, CEFIC director general Hubert Mandery said REACH costs hit smaller firms hard, especially for the oncoming two REACH registrations, involving smaller tonnages of chemicals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THREE of the world’s major public financing institutions have started due diligence on the Nabucco gas pipeline project, work that could release billions of Euros into the troubled project. If they are happy, the European Investment Bank (EIB) could invest Euro EUR2 billion, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) EUR1.2 billion and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, EUR800 million.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE PROCESS of ‘unbundling’ in the European Union (EU) gas industry as called for under the EU’s third energy package, notably the gas directive 2009/73/EC, adopted in 2009, has come to a bit of a standstill. This will not last.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined 12 producers of animal feed phosphates Euro EUR175million for operating a cartel across Europe, inflating feed prices for livestock producers. Phosphates are widely used in feed, including for cattle, pigs and poultry. The Commission said the cartel covered "most of the EU" in sharing markets and fixing prices.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW European Union (EU) body coordinating around Euro EUR1 billion in food-related research from 20 European countries has started work. The ‘scientific advisory board for the EU joint programming initiative (JPI) on agriculture, food security and climate change’ will plan and manage national food industry research securing future supplies and reducing climate emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined 17 producers of prestressing steel Euro 518 million for operating a cartel that lasted 18 years until 2002 and covered all but three of the then 15 European Union (EU) member states – Britain, Ireland and Greece.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) may be legally a single market, food prices range widely across its 27 member states. The most recent survey of 500 comparable products by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, shows last year (2009) the price of a comparable basket of food and non-alcoholic beverages was more than twice as high in the most expensive EU country than the cheapest.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is pumping Euro 11.9 million into a new international effort to create a vaccine that destroys HIV completely in patients. The five year (2010-2015) CUT’HIV project is being coordinated by the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, and also includes Finland’s FIT Biotech Oy Ltd, Germany’s Geneart AG, and other university researchers from Britain, Germany, Spain, Peru and Mozambique.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ROLL-OUT of the European eCall in-car emergency system is approaching critical mass with 20 countries now committed to operating its supporting infrastructure. The European Commission today announced another five countries were implementing eCall services – Belgium, Denmark, Luxemburg, Malta and Romania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH and German customs and police officers have arrested 47 suspects in an alleged carousel fraud network exploiting the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading regime. UK authorities arrested 22; there were 25 arrests in Germany. Police in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Portugal, plus non-EU Norway have assisted inquiries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has launched a Euro 4.2 million research project SAFEPROTEX that will develop highly protective clothing for complex emergency operations. Running until 2013 it will involve companies such as Palmhive Technical Textiles Ltd, of Nottingham, England; France’s TDV Industries and Rescoll; Italy’s Lenzi Egisto; Finland’s TTY-Saatio; Spain’s Suministros Irunako; Slovakia’s Vyskumny Ustav Chemickych Vlakien; and Sweden’s Swerea IVF.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

IF there is one region where high standards in fighting money laundering and terrorist finance are expected, it is surely the five Nordic states: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Notwithstanding the criticism leveled at Iceland’s financial regulators during the credit crunch, all five countries have admirable traditions of public openness, government efficiency and international cooperation, especially amongst themselves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IN a month highlighting that many European Union (EU) countries are living beyond their financial means, it was timely perhaps for the European Commission to note that member states also have unsustainable water policies.

In short, many EU governments are failing to prevent the abstraction of fresh water at rates exceeding nature’s ability to replenish supplies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is official – Britain has the most binge drinkers in Europe. A European Commission survey of drinking habits showed that 6% of Britons who drink usually consume 10 or more units of alcohol in every drinking session.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it is unlikely to intervene to prevent the proposed takeover of Ukraine’s gas pipeline network by Russia’s Gazprom. Displaying his relatively relaxed attitude to closer energy links with Moscow, new German EU energy Commissioner Günter Oettinger told a press conference: "The decision has to come between Kiev and Moscow and not in Brussels."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ON the face of it, the UK, with other leading western European Union (EU) countries, leads the pack in terms of drawing up and submitting its River Basin Management (RBM) plans to the European Commission – the key first stage requirement of the EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD).…

BY ALAN OSBORN

JUST six years ago, in March 2004, Ireland was the first country in the world to impose an outright ban on smoking in workplaces. A lot of European governments have followed its lead though Ireland (plus the UK and, surprisingly, Turkey) remain the only countries in Europe where the ban is total – that is it applies to smoking in all enclosed public and workplaces without exceptions.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, EMMA JACKSON, PAUL COCHRANE and JULIAN RYALL

INTRODUCTION

Professionalisation is a key trend in today’s drinks sector, particularly as export markets are growing fast in emerging markets. With brand loyalty up for grabs, it is critical for alcoholic drinks producers especially to maintain and raise quality.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH a new European Commission in office, major decisions can now be made on pushing ahead with European Union (EU) energy policy priorities: Brussels has released a Euro 4 billion package of 31 gas infrastructure (and 12 electricity) projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ASSESSMENTS are under way by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) of European Union (EU) government plans to allow compassionate use of medicines yet to receive full market authorisation. EMEA has released its first such assessment – of a Finland policy to allow the use of the new Tamiflu IV.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CO2 emissions statistics released by the European Commission show that while British motorists are ignoring government calls to buy smaller cars, their vehicles are at least getting greener. Across the European Union (EU) the CO2 emitted by passenger cars is falling fast: looking at 2008, a report said the average specific CO2 emissions from passenger cars were 153.5g CO2/km.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE TASTE for liquorice is surprisingly well defined in geographical terms in Germany and its neighbouring countries. There seems to be a cut-off point at the Rhine Valley. "They don’t like the taste in the southern part of Germany and if you go south of the Rhine valley you don’t find liquorice products in the shops," said Jens Milt, head of the liquorice division at the leading German liquorice supplier Alfred L Wolff, based in Hamburg.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AFTER the disappointment of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, it is perhaps encouraging to note that the auto industry – so often painted as the bad boy of the climate change issue – really is reducing its vehicles’ carbon dioxide emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA and Ukraine appear to have headed off an oil transit dispute that could have created a repeat of last year’s major disruption of European natural gas supplies. Moscow and Kiev have signed an agreement increasing by 30% the fees Ukraine charges on transporting Russian oil to the European Union (EU) – this alters a 2004 contract and the change had sparked a diplomatic tussle.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE EUROPEAN Commission has committed Euro 17.9 million to market dairy products over three years across the European Union (EU). The money will be spent by dairy industry organisations in 11 member states, who will also contribute funds, along with their national governments.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

HAILING from arguably Europe’s most egalitarian country, Finns take equality seriously. So when it appears that some are being treated differently from others, even the normally phlegmatic, taciturn Finnish trucker may be roused into voicing an opinion.

Being a large country with a small population and a good road network, congestion is rare.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

NORDIC governments are pushing ahead with energy-centered reforms to build a significantly larger regional market for the production and sale of biofuels. All these neighbouring countres are expected to follow Sweden’s lead and implement policies to eliminate fossil fuel dependence by 2030, Sigbjørn Johnsen (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT), Norway’s finance minister, said in an address to the country’s Storting (parliament) on December 14.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR European research project is to spend Euro 44 million on developing tiny components to help electric vehicles improve their performance, so that they can better compete with models powered with liquid fuels. The Fiat and Audi-backed E3CAR (Energy efficient electrical car) project will especially focus on emerging nanotechnologies as its researchers aim to boost electric cars’ often less than stellar driving abilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR European research project will spend Euro 44 million developing tiny components to help electric vehicles improve their performance and compete with liquid fuel models. The Fiat and Audi-backed E3CAR (Energy efficient electrical car) project will especially focus on emerging nanotechnologies to improve "semiconductor technologies, devices, circuits and sub-systems" increasing energy efficiency by 35%, boosting power and battery life.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPOL’s Organised Crime Threat Assessments have not always contained a wealth of detailed useful information – but its 2009 report shows how crime groups are adopting innovative technology and organisational skills: international business should take note. Keith Nuthall reports.…

By Alan Osborn

Technology researchers will benefit from a new research investment of ?18 million from the European Commission, designed to reinforce its support for the LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard for the fourth generation of wireless telecommunications, in preference to the alternative WiMax technology.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

A SHIPMENT of Chinese ‘Global Accessories’ branded scarves have been seized by Finnish border authorities because the garments’ dark blue stripes contained banned azocolourants, reported European Union consumer alert service RAPEX. These azocolourants broke European Union environmental legislation because they leached over 15 times the allowed amount of benzidine and over six times the legal amount of 3.3′-dimethoxybenzidine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ATTACK by France and Germany on the European Commission’s ‘health check’ reforms to phase out European Union (EU) dairy quotas by 2015 is gathering support, with 16 member states backing increased subsidies. Having failed to persuade the Commission to abandon quota liberalisation, a growing Franco-German-led alliance at the EU Council of Ministers is backing increased subsides while restrictive production quotas expand from 2010 and disappear in 2015.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TURKEY – the lynchpin of European Union (EU) efforts to secure energy independence from Russia – has started negotiations to join the EU’s Energy Community. The organisation currently extends EU energy legislation to non-EU Balkans countries, but there are plans to add Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey to its membership.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

FOR those seduced by the idea that Nordic countries are full of healthy statuesque blond super-beings eating perfect diets and exercising regularly, it may come as something of a surprise to learn that obesity is on the rise in the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canada are about to embark on detailed negotiations to upgrade their existing long-standing nuclear cooperation agreement. A key aim of the talks, European Commission and Canadian officials told World Nuclear News, was the authorisation of widespread nuclear technology transfers between the EU and Canada, which are currently tightly restricted.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

Food commodity prices are seldom out of the news nowadays, due to a mushrooming global population, the food-for-fuel controversy, an increasing focus on sustainability and the continued growth of the organic sector. However, beyond the generality of crop prices spiralling to new highs in 2007 and 2008 and then plummeting – in some cases – back to where they were before the boom, the picture is far from uniform.…

By Leah Germain

Telecommunications giant Nokia Siemens Networks has just received a Euro 250 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support the research and development of cutting edge Radio Access Network technology (RAN).

The company is a global joint venture is run by Finland’s Nokia Corp with Germany’s Siemens AG.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend Finland’s Orion Oyj Euro 75 million to help it stage pharmaceutical research and development work from this year to 2012. Part of a Euro 300 million programme, the work would be carried out within Orion’s existing R&D facilities, laboratories, pilot plants and clinical centres.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GLOBAL initiatives designed to promote sustainable practices in the bio-based oils and fats industry are making strong progress. The key Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) has now released "principles and criteria" designed to ensure soy production does not cause long term damage to the environment and society.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOSER trade relations between the European Union (EU) and oil-rich Iraq are being negotiated, with a round of talks being held last month (May) in Baghdad aimed at forging a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). This would involve the creation of a special cooperation council and annual ministerial meetings to erase trade barriers – such deals are usually forged with eastern European neighbours of the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UPDATED detailed guidelines have been issued for Arctic oil and gas exploration and extraction projects taking into account the region’s punishing, yet delicate environment.

They have been released by the Arctic Council, which represents countries with Arctic territory: Canada, Denmark (through its Greenland dependency), Iceland, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Norway and the USA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Switzerland have staged a public row over Swiss bank secrecy.

In a highly undiplomatic letter to Hans-Rudolf Merz, the Swiss president, OECD secretary general Angel Gurría complained that "some Swiss officials have characterised the OECD as not having been fair to the Swiss government on…international cooperation on tax matters", and that he wanted to "prove the inaccuracy of such statements".…

BY MARK ROWE

THE AIRPORTS of Norway and Iceland are well suited to dealing with the impact of border-free travel with each other and many member states of the European Union (EU), having joined the EU’s frontierless Schengen-zone in 1999, abolished all border checks for travel to member countries in December 2001.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A STUDY coordinated by Norway’s National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO) has concluded a common European clothes sizing standard would help consumers, after its research found labelled sizes erratic. Assessing clothes in Norway, Sweden and Finland, the institute especially found "great variation in sizes of women’s clothing."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, LEAH GERMAIN and MONICA DOBIE

MAYBE the best sign that renewable energies have hit the mainstream is that they now have their very own international organisation: the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Launched in Bonn, Germany, this January, with the support of 76 countries, including its host nation, Spain, Italy, France and Sweden, the roster of signatory nations has since been swollen by India and Belarus.…

By Lorraine Mallinder, in Montréal

As the polar ice cap continues to shrink, the five nations surrounding the Arctic Ocean are hurriedly positioning themselves for what is shaping up to be one of the biggest geopolitical brawls of the coming years.

Beneath the thinning ice lies the tantalising prospect of up to a quarter of the world’s untapped oil and gas reserves and the promise of new shipping routes between East and West. It’s enough to turn the heads of even the most placid nations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

DESPITE widespread initial scepticism about its viability, the ITER project to build the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion reactor is now under way. It is employing specialists (nearly 300 staff and rising at the end of 2008); releasing Euro millions in research and procurement funding; and in November of last year moved into its headquarters, in Cadarache, southern France, which is where the first nuclear fusion reactor will be built on a 180 hectare site.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to swiftly write into EU law a multi-year stock protection plan for eastern bluefin tuna. It is based on an agreement forged last November at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at its annual meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

IN the early 1990s the nuclear power industry faced a bleak outlook. High profile accidents such as in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in, Pennsylvania, the USA, had raised public concern about the safety of the industry to all time high.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY recession has a silver lining: inefficient competitors are unmasked and forced out of business; and governments usually spend freely to pump prime an ailing economy. And for major essential industries such as the power sector, economic slumps can be good times.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BIOTECHNOLOGY companies will look carefully at the possible impact of a European Union (EU) Council of Ministers decision today to allow member states to block production f genetically modified (GM) foods previously approved by the EU. Ministers overwhelmingly threw out the latest bid by the European Commission to force Hungary to lift its national ban on the cultivation of Monsanto’s GM maize MON810 and Austria’s ban on MON810 and Bayer’s T25 maize.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PRESIDENT of the Brewers of Europe organisation Alberto da Ponte has warned of a "sharp decline in the beer market" across Europe. He told a Brussels symposium: "The recession…taken with other events, such as widespread and recently-introduced smoking bans in pubs and restaurants, is having a very negative impact."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have approved Euro 3.9 billion in EU spending on energy investment projects, after they finally finished wrangling over the detail of this keystone of their economic stimulus package.

As expected, the final programme has more projects in southern and eastern Europe than in previous drafts.…

BY MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN, CRISTINA MUNTEAN and KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN has long been something of a laggard when it comes to district heating. The only significant growth was mainly oil-fired network in local authority housing during the 1960s and 70s.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project called SonoDrugs has united universities and high-tech businesses in developing tiny, image-guided medicine capsules which could target medicines to where they are needed in a patient’s body. The aim of the innovation is conveying doses through blood vessels to the centre of an infection or disease, after which the drugs are activated by ultrasound pulses.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE COSMETICS markets in Scandinavia, as elsewhere in the developed world, face an uncertain 2009. Iceland’s economic crisis is well documented but the few surviving local producers are presenting a determined face to the challenges they face. On the other hand, the markets of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark look likely to slow after healthy growth in 2008 (this growth almost universally excluded sunscreens, on account of the wet summer of 2008), but also to escape the worst of the problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FINLAND’S VTT Technical Research Centre is coordinating a project involving the production of biofuels from rotting fish waste. The Euro 2.5 million European Union-funded ENERFISH project is using waste form a Vietnam catfish-processing plant as feedstock. A biodiesel production plant will be built next door to quickly commercialise technology developed during the three-year project.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has issued a European Union (EU)-wide alert about the discovery of melamine contamination in lemon puff biscuits from Sri Lanka. The warning was made via the EU’s RASFF food safety alert system. This network also recently warned about the discovery in Finland of aflatoxins in groundnut kernels imported from Germany, originally grown in India.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is spending Euro 6 million on studying ways of synthesising medicines from plant cell extracts rather than live plants. Scientists in the SmartCell project are developing tools to manufacture cell collections able to produce pharmaceutically active substances on a large scale.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MAXIMUM amount of duty-free or duty-paid tobacco that can be brought into the European Union (EU) from a non-EU country without paying EU excise duty can now be reduced to just 40 cigarettes. That is an option now offered to member states, which can maintain the previous 200 cigarette limit if they choose.…

By Alan Osborn

The failure of business to invest significantly in innovation projects remains the major weakness in the European Union’s (EU) research picture, says the European Commission. While there is "substantial progress" in some aspects of the EU’s innovation performance, investments by business in R&D and IT projects "are still relatively weak, especially if compared to the US and Japan," claims Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EXTRAORDINARY European Union (EU) Council of Ministers energy meeting has agreed medium and long-term measures to prevent a recurrence of a future gas supply crisis resembling this month’s row between Russia and the Ukraine. Ministers said the EU would fund improved metering, promote administrative transparency in gas supply systems feeding into member states’ networks, improved gas interconnection infrastructure and creating a better early warning system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS 2009 dawns, the European Union’s (EU) renewable energy sector knows that it has truly entered the mainstream of EU utility markets, its growth being sanctioned by ambitious legislation approved before Christmas.

After more than a year of debates, the European Parliament and EU ministers have approved a new EU directive imposing mandatory national targets for the 27 member states regarding the portion of their gross final consumption of energy in 2020 coming from renewable sources.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE CREDIT crunch may be about to apply the handbrake to the Russian economy, but its paint industry continued to flourish in 2008, mirroring the expansion of wealth in the country, and suggesting the sector may buck the expected downturn in the coming 12 months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EURO 8.5 million research project has been launched that will develop plants able to be sources of complex pharmaceutical compounds especially useful for fighting malaria and cancer. The European Union (EU)-funded SmartCell project will focus on controlling the metabolism of plant cells to create a "green factory" for pharmaceuticals, claimed coordinator the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE OLD 15 member European Union (EU) will hit its Kyoto Protocol collective target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 8% for the period 2008-2012 from 1990 levels, but only by financing pollution cuts in poor countries abroad.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

INTRODUCTION

About 10 years ago the American distiller JB Wagoner decided to market a fiery liquor made from the cactus-like agave plants growing in the hills on his estate at Temecula in California. He called it "temequila." It soon became known as "the American tequila," proving indistinguishable in taste, texture and effect from the well-known Mexican drink.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DESPITE widespread scepticism about its viability, the ITER project to build the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion reactor is now under way. It is employing specialists (nearly 300 staff and rising at the end of 2008); releasing Euro millions in research and procurement funding; and in November moved into its headquarters, in Cadarache, southern France, which is where the first nuclear fusion reactor will be built on a 180 hectare site.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTERNATIONAL standards ensuring cigarettes are designed with a reduced risk of causing fires have been requested by the European Commission. The European Committee for Standardisation is now considering approving standards by 2010 to ensure a "reduced ignition propensity of cigarettes."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PLANNED acquisition of the release liner business of Loparex Holding, of the Netherlands, by stationary company Mondi plc of South Africa, has been approved by the European Commission. Loparex’s siliconised release liners – coated paper or film strips protecting the adhesive surface of envelopes, stickers or plasters before use – are seen by Mondi as a good match for its business.…

BY PATRICIA KELLY

A LENGTHY investigation over several years into the impact of indoor air quality on public health will result in a series of policy recommendations, pushing the European Commission into proposing formal regulations fixing the problem across the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEMBER governments of the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have adopted international guidelines designed to limit the impact of deep-sea fishing on species at risk of being over-fished. The rules would apply for fishing vessels working in international waters and they call on international fishery organisations to ensure deep sea fisheries are "rigorously managed".…

BY PATRICIA KELLY

INDOOR air pollution is a major source of allergies and respiratory diseases, according to scientists and researchers investigating the impact of indoor air quality on public health. While some progress has been made in limiting tobacco smoke, toxic chemicals – from consumer goods to construction products – remain a problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTERNATIONAL standards ensuring cigarettes are designed with a reduced risk of them causing fires are being taken forward in Europe, with the European Commission requesting a technical guideline by 2010. This would be approved by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) whose European standard would try to ensure a "reduced ignition propensity of cigarettes."…

By Alan Osborn

The 27 EU member states will have to speed up their educational progress if they are to meet a range of self-imposed targets deemed necessary if the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs is to be successful by 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to spend Euro 3.5 million on setting up secure truck stops for hauliers having to wait at the frontier between the European Union (EU) and Russia. Length delays in processing cargoes mean "truck drivers are compelled to spend several days in a queue of many kilometres on the border", said a Brussels announcement: "This situation threatens not only road safety and drivers’ security but also creates a damaging environmental and social situation."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TEMPORARY right of European Union (EU) member states to levy reduced rates of VAT on clothing and footwear repair services could become permanent. The European Commission has proposed governments henceforth always can reduce VAT on such services by up to 5% from their standard rate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS that antibacterial cleaning products are weakening the natural immunity of children against diseases will be assessed by Euro 6 million research project involving 7,000 children in Finland, Estonia and north-western Russia’s Karelia. All three test areas have similar ethnic backgrounds, but widely differing standards of living and domestic cleanliness.…

By Keith Nuthall

It is almost a truism that women have a tougher time in most professions than men, and academia is no different. But it is worth considering the absurdity of this statement: that in the 21st century, it is still quite normal to assume that the success of an academic or student is likely to be affected by their gender.…

By Keith Nuthall

The launch of a new Euro-Mediterranean University in Slovenia dedicated to higher education courses focused on issues of importance to European, African and Levantine countries bordering the sea has been given a formal seal of approval. The creation of the institution was welcomed within a joint declaration issued by heads of state and government from 43 countries at a Paris summit launching a Mediterranean Union organisation.…

By Keith Nuthall

Research funding for a global project that seeks to harness the thermodynamics of the stars to create a sustainable and safe nuclear fusion reactor is starting to be released. A consortium of 14 research teams from across Europe has been formed to create a computer simulation of the international ITER fusion reactor, to model the technology required to operate it safely.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A SIGNIFICANT new phase in the application of the European Union’s (EU) crucial REACH regulation for controlling the use of chemicals throughout the 27 EU countries came into effect at the beginning of June. This involved the invoking of a deadline essentially giving the cosmetics and other chemical-based industries six months to lodge registration, pre-registration and other notifications before risking their products being banned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN has one of the European Union’s (EU) worst rates of salmonella contamination of slaughtered pigs, a new study from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found. Analysing data collected from 2006 to 2007, the EU agency has concluded that 21.2% of slaughtered pigs within the UK had contracted the disease, compared to an EU-wide average of 10.3%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ENVIRONMENTAL health officers think they are helping keep people fit and well by reducing pollution and food disease. But maybe the best move the cold, rheumatism and asthma sufferers of Britain can make to be healthy is emigrate to a Greek island, sunbathe (moderately) and eat fish, vegetables and olive oil.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RICH European countries spend more on transport than poor countries, the latest comparative figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat show. The average proportion of all household spending devoted to transport in 2005 was 13.5% in Britain and 15.7% in Finland, but just 5% in Bulgaria and 8.1% in Poland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONSORTIUM of 14 research teams from across Europe has been formed to create a computer simulation of the international ITER fusion reactor, to model the technology required to operate it safely. The European Union (EU)-funded Euro 3.65 million EUFORIA project will forge a network of high-powered computers with sufficient capacity to undertake this modelling, which will involve massive amounts of data.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London; LUCY JONES, in Dallas; JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo; and KEITH NUTHALL

GIVEN the spate of oil tanker accidents in recent years involving substantial pollution of seas and coastlines around the world, it is no surprise that international organisations have weighed in with regulatory controls and guidelines on shipping standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS that antibacterial cleaning products are weakening the natural immunity of children against diseases will be assessed by Euro 6 million research project involving 7,000 children in Finland, Estonia and north-western Russia’s Karelia. All three test areas have similar ethnic backgrounds, but widely differing standards of living and domestic cleanliness.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW pilot initiative is aiming to make European Union (EU) national electronic public procurement systems compatible, to ease cross-border online tendering. Although EU law insists that public procurement contracts are made available to suppliers from foreign member states, making such bids can involve difficult and unfamiliar paperwork.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ALMOST one third of British turkey flocks being fattened for the food industry are contaminated with salmonella, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has warned. In a comprehensive study of the problem across the European Union (EU), EFSA concluded that Britain has one of the poorer records within Europe, having a contamination rate above the EU average of 30.7%.…

BY MARK ROWE

NUCLEAR energy production costs a lot of money and so it makes some economic sense for smaller countries interested in this climate-change friendly power supply to combine forces on major projects. So it is in eastern Europe, where in February 2007, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland provisionally agreed to build a new nuclear plant at Lithuania’s existing Ignalina site, initially with 3,200 MWe.…

By Keith Nuthall

A UNITED Nations-sponsored global initiative to encourage business schools to teach and promote social and environmentally responsible commercial practices has gathered a critical mass of support. More than 100 business schools worldwide have now signed up to the Principles for Responsible Management Initiative.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

THE FÉDÉRATION Internationale de l’Automobile has warned road accident fatalities in 2007 rose in some European countries compared with 2006. These included the Czech Republic (up 17 %), Denmark (+33 %), Finland (+13 %), Slovenia (+12 %) and Sweden (+6%).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken another step to prevent the levying of VAT on car registration taxes charged within a package price by automobile dealers, telling Austria, Finland and Malta to stop this double taxation. It has threatened legal action if it is not obeyed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s economics committee has called for the European Union’s (EU) minimum rate of excise duty on diesel to be raised to that for unleaded petrol: from the current Euro 302/1,000 litres to Euro 359/1,000 litres by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the UK government that it intends to build a new generation of nuclear power plants stands out, not just because of the scale of the proposals, but because it is the first such comprehensive initiative in Europe for some years.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

SOMETHING must be in the water these days in Brussels. The European Commission seems determined to press ahead with its plans to reshape the European Union’s (EU) energy market, no matter how vociferous or powerful the opposition. In December, the Commission was bullish about unbundling, now it is being equally aggressive over renewable energy.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

FOLLOWING the introduction on July 1 of public place smoking bans in England 240 million people worldwide were covered by public smoking restrictions, according to the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). (NOTE – THIS IS A FRENCH ACRONYM)

The movement towards such restrictions is becoming ubiquitous in the European Union (EU), with Estonia, Finland, Scotland and Ireland already have full public-place bans, while Italy, Sweden and Malta have partial bans, allowing smoking only in closed-off, separately-ventilated areas.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

PUBLIC place smoking bans are spreading like wildlife these days, with one country after another drawing up rules preventing tobacco use where it could expose non-smokers to second-hand smoke.

In the European Union (EU), this year, public place smoking bans have been introduced in England, Estonia and Finland, for instance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PORTUGUESE presidency of the European Union (EU) has called for compromise proposals on the European Commission’s energy unbundling plans, under discussion at a Council of Ministers meeting on Monday (Dec 3). A paper released by Lisbon clarified the split between member states: supporting the proposal are Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Romania and Sweden; opposing are France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovakia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

GEOGRAPHICALLY Russia is part of Europe. Moscow is 1,557 miles from London, but 3,456 miles from New York. The Russian capital is also just 760 miles from Stockholm, as the crow flies. These figures are worth considering when trying understanding the often fraught energy diplomacy between Russia and the European Union (EU).…

BY CHRIS JONES, in Paris

AUTO manufacturers in Europe are calling for greater support from national governments and European Union (EU) institutions in promoting eco-driving – where good motoring styles are adopted which reduce the greenhouse gas and other polluting emissions from vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED liberalisation of European Union (EU) design rights legislation, allowing lorry parts makers to copy and sell spares already made by vehicle manufacturers across the EU has been accepted by the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee. A committee communiqué said: "The directive will allow suppliers to produce motor vehicle components which are identical to the original parts without infringing design protection."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LEVEL of incineration and recycling of municipal waste within Britain is as low as former communist countries in eastern Europe, a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report has concluded. In an assessment the 27 European Union (EU) member states, the EEA bracketed Britain with Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED liberalisation of European Union (EU) design rights legislation, allowing car parts makers to copy and sell spares already made by vehicle manufacturers across the EU has been accepted by the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee. It said: "The directive will allow suppliers to produce motor vehicle components which are identical to the original parts without infringing design protection."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee wants European Union (EU) rules to insist that biofuel production is environmentally sustainable, even an increase in this growing fuel sector reduces CO2 emissions. The call was made in amendments tabled to European Commission proposed reforms to the EU fuel quality directive to reduce CO2 production.…

BY MARK ROWE

SWITZERLAND’S competition and monopolies agency Comco has explained its concerns to just-food.com behind its launch of a four-month investigation into Swiss-based Coop’s planned acquisition of Carrefour’s stake in retailer Distributis AG amid concerns that the move may breach competition laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LEVEL of incineration and recycling of municipal waste within Britain is as low as former communist countries in eastern Europe, a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report has concluded. In an assessment of the contrasting waste management practices in the 27 European Union (EU) member states, the EEA bracketed Britain with Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TACOGRAPH spotchecks by British highways officials and police have revealed continental van and lorry drivers are far more likely to break European Union (EU) working time rules on UK roads than Britons. Looking at newest available EU-wide comparative data 27,418 of offenders detected in 2004-4 on British highways were UK citizens, while 11,565 were from the much smaller pool of drivers from other EU member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH road transport sector has to play catch up with many of its European Union (EU) competitors regarding the introduction of sulphur-free fuels, a report from the European Commission has shown. It shows that as long ago as 2005, member states such as Germany, Italy and Ireland were already selling this environmentally-friendly petrol and diesel, while Britain was still selling low sulphur fuel, of between 10 and 50 parts per million sulphur content.…

BY LUCY JONES, in Dallas, Texas, ALAN OSBORN, in London, and PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut.

AS American gas prices once again edge closer to the US$3 a gallon mark – the point at which an all-pervading quiet panic besets the US retail market – staff at the country’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s hotline know busy times are ahead.…

BY ANDREW SALMON, in Seoul

THE WORDS ‘nuclear’ and ‘Korea’ automatically conjure up images of Kim Jong-il’s underground atomic weapons programs, but south of the heavily militarised border, it is South Korea that has quietly built up one of the world’s most competitive nuclear industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is pushing for Britain and Ireland to adopt the same rabies protection measures in place for other European Union (EU) member states – other than Finland and Sweden, which also have tougher controls. In a review of the EU’s current pet movement health checks mandated by EU regulation EC/998/2003, Brussels has concluded that "provided that protective immunity has been established and maintained by administration of an authorised vaccine…a valid vaccination should be the sole requirement for pets to travel to all member states".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is pushing for Britain and Ireland to adopt the same rabies protection measures in place for other European Union (EU) member states – other than Finland and Sweden, which also have tougher controls. In a review of the EU’s current pet movement health checks mandated by EU regulation EC/998/2003, Brussels has concluded that "provided that protective immunity has been established and maintained by administration of an authorised vaccine…a valid vaccination should be the sole requirement for pets to travel to all member states".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TACOGRAPH spotchecks by British highways officials and police have revealed that continental lorry drivers are far more likely to break European Union (EU) working time rules on UK roads than Britons. Looking at newest available EU-wide comparative data 27,418 of offenders detected in 2003-4 on British highways were UK citizens, while 11,565 were from the much smaller pool of drivers from other EU member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH road transport sector has to play catch up with many of its European Union (EU) competitors regarding the introduction of sulphur-free fuels, a report from the European Commission has shown. Although the UK Petroleum Industry Association has indicated it expects Britain to switch to sulphur-free fuels by a 2009 deadline imposed by the European Union (EU), in June the government admitted the issue was complicated because "the UK fuel distribution network can only accommodate a single grade of diesel", preventing small introductory sales of sulphur-free diesel.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Brussels

A TEAM of European and Asian researchers has linked more than 40,000 computers across 45 countries to speed studies into developing an anti-viral drug that can defeat bird flu. Funded by the European Union’s (EU) Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) project, the computing grid is analysing the potential of more than 500,000 drug-like molecules.…

BY MARK ROWE

WEATHER-resistant and anti-corrosion coatings and sealants are being developed with the aid of nanotechnology that will significantly enhance the lifetime operation of buildings and property across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Most of the developments are expected to be particularly welcome in the Asia-Pacific region, where the hot and humid climate imposes a more onerous regime on paints and coatings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has sent final legal warnings to 10 European Union (EU) member governments, telling them to abide by minimum standards for the training of professional drivers working in their countries. EU directive 2003/59 imposes requirements for initial qualification and continuing training: compulsory basic training of 280 hours, and periodic training of 35 hours every five years to update knowledge and skills.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and CHRISTOPHER JONES

WHEN the idea of creating a European Institute of Technology (EIT) was tabled by the European Commission last year, it provoked intense criticism amongst the European academic community. But now, 18 months after the first formal proposals were released, the EIT looks likely to be established anyway.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CONCERNS that non-British bus and coach drivers from 10 European Union (EU) member states could have weak professional driving training and be a public transport safety risk are being addressed by the European Commission. It is threatening action at the European Court of Justice against these countries for not complying with an EU directive on professional drivers training that insists upon 280 hours compulsory basic training and 35 hours further training every five years.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

FOOD prices in the UK and Ireland have reached Scandinavian levels according to the European Union’s (EU) statistics agency, Eurostat.
In 2006, Ireland-sold milk, cheese and eggs, for instance, cost 126% of the EU average, and they were 115% in the UK, compared with 104% in Sweden and 110% in Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FINLAND’S alleged failure to crack-down sufficiently hard on the sale of oral tobacco in its autonomous Åland Islands region has prompted the formal warning of potential further legal action by the European Commission. It is threatening a request that Helsinki receive daily recurring fines of Euro 1,000s until the islands comply with European Union (EU) directive 2001/37/EC, which bans oral tobacco from the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission will plead at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a ruling telling Finland to guarantee that temporary visitors to the country are exempt from paying its car registration tax. Brussels claims the Finnish system breaks European Union (EU) taxation rights enshrined in EU directive 83/182/EEC.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DIFFERENTIALS in car prices between the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) persist, the latest showroom survey by the European Commission reveals. While prices in the UK fell by 0.3% from January to July this year, fleet managers looking for bargains would still do well to look abroad, as British prices are often well above the EU average.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LARGE drinks companies such as Diageo will be able to continue making vodka from non-traditional ingredients such as grapes, without having to label their products vodka-style drinks, following a European Parliament vote today (Tuesday 19/6). Furthermore, proposals from the parliament’s environment committee that ingredients other than grain, potatoes or sugar beet molasses be listed on large labels, with lettering two-thirds as large as the word ‘Vodka’, were voted down.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LARGE drinks companies such as Diageo will be able to continue making vodka from non-traditional ingredients such as grapes, without having to label their products vodka-style drinks, following a European Parliament vote today (Tuesday 19/6). Furthermore, proposals from the parliament’s environment committee that ingredients other than grain, potatoes or sugar beet molasses be listed on large labels, with lettering two-thirds as large as the word ‘Vodka’, were voted down.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS concerns increase about the security of the European Union’s (EU) supplies of oil and gas, the European Commission has put in place a network of security experts charged with monitoring threats to the EU’s energy flows and raising alarms if necessary.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FREIGHT Transport Association (FTA) has called for British hauliers to adopt the same road worthiness standards abroad than at home, after a European Commission statistical report indicated a flawed safety record driving in other European Union (EU) countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EURO 18 million European Union (EU) research project into organic foods is now developing practical processing methods helping this sub-sector become more profitable. The QualityLowInputFood project is for instance developing an ecological alternative to washing fresh vegetables in chlorinated water, using ozonised water to clean lettuce, and possibly courgettes and tomatoes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency (ESA) is offering detailed snow melt data to countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, information that can aid hydrological modelling, flood forecasting and water resources management. ESA satellites are already providing snow melt data from Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, parts of western Russia and Belarus from the beginning of March until the end of May, and next year will also cover parts of Poland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MAJOR fight against salmonella contamination of food production has been launched by the European Commission, which has secured approval for a regulation forcing member states to reduce the prevalence of the disease amongst their broiler (poultry meat) flocks to 1% or less by 2011.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London
YOU think the European Union (EU) is like the US – one big uniform market where prices are roughly the same wherever you buy? It is after all, legally and officially named the ‘Single European Market’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN and 10 other European Union (EU) member states have been attacked by an unusual alliance of electrical goods manufacturers and environmentalists who allege they have failed to properly implement the EU WEEE directive on waste from electrical and electronic equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN and 10 other European Union (EU) member states have been attacked by an unusual alliance of electrical goods manufacturers and environmentalists for failing to properly implement the EU WEEE directive on waste from electrical and electronic equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) summit has agreed a 10% binding minimum target for all 27 member states regarding the share of biofuels in overall EU transport petrol and diesel consumption by 2020. The agreement, which followed weeks of political manoeuvreing, has however been qualified in that biofuels must be “introduced in a cost-efficient way”.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London
YOU think the European Union (EU) is like the US – one big uniform market where prices are roughly the same wherever you buy? It is after all, legally and officially named the ‘Single European Market’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has unveiled further data underlining the risk to human health posed by widespread contamination of broiler chicken flocks across Europe with the pathogen salmonella. In its latest figures, which back earlier alarming data about salmonella contamination within egg production systems, EFSA said that in 2005-6, almost a quarter – 23.7% – of EU broiler (meat) flocks were contaminated with salmonella.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured Finland for requiring drivers of vehicles who motor in Finland for more than a week to secure Finnish registration, at the full fee rate, even if their car is legally registered elsewhere in the European Union (EU).…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s proposal to simplify the organisation for milk and dairy products, announced last month, is already having profound effects on the industry says Dr Joop Kleibeuker, Secretary General of the Brussels-based European Dairy Association in an exclusive interview with just-food.com.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DRIVE into eastern Europe and your chance of being killed in a road accident rise steeply say the latest European Union (EU)-wide comparative accident figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat. The EU’s worst blackspots are Latvia at 752 road accident deaths per million car registrations; Romania 749; Lithuania 571; Slovakia 507 and Poland 476.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EVER wonder how Steve Austin aka the Six Million Dollar Man was able to run at lightning speeds, jump at abnormal heights, see incredible distances and hear whispers from miles away without recharging his bionic batteries?

Personally, I do not recall Steve plugging himself in anywhere and while – as a TV goggling youngster in the 70s – I was too distracted by Mr Austin’s heroic feats to care where he got his electricity from, a new EU funded project prompted me to consider this mystery.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is catching up with the United States in innovation, a European Commission-financed statistical report has claimed, although the US still has many significant advantages. This year’s European Innovation Scoreboard (2006) concludes: “The innovation gap between the EU [minus new members Bulgaria and Romania] and Japan, and in particular with the US is decreasing.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is pushing signatories to its new Protocol on Water and Health to its Convention on Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes to agree detailed targets on improving European water quality.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is pumping Euro 11 million into a war-damaged paper factory in in Maglaj, Bosnia & Herzegovina, to modernise its plant and increase production, notably of cardboard and paper for making large sacks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is targeting a receptor molecule protein called CD40 commonly found on cancerous cells, in developing a drug stimulating immune systems into attacking tumours. The Apotherapy project includes German pharmaceutical company Novosom, the University of Crete Medical School, in Greece, and scientists from universities in Helsinki and Uppsala, Finland.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FOLLOWING a year or more of advance razzmatazz, the European Union’s multi-pronged energy strategy was unveiled on January 10 and while history may not see it as the “new industrial revolution” that Brussels proclaimed, there’s enough in it to engage the minds of everybody in the energy industry for perhaps years to come.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general has suggested in a clothing case, that an established trademark holder’s right to prevent other companies using their protected brand name is limited. Eleanor Sharpston said consumers and clients must confuse a French clothing company Céline SA with another French clothing company Céline Sàrl to prevent the latter using the name.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has visited Algeria to discuss closer energy ties with this major gas producer, the latest initiative to boost gas supplies from north Africa. A meeting last week (Nov 30) of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference, in Tampere, Finland, uniting EU, north African and Levantine states, agreed to further integrate Euro-Mediterranean energy markets, developing common energy projects, priorities being set in 2007.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is casting around for allies in central Asia and north Africa in its diplomatic tussle with Russia to secure cheap and reliable energy supplies. EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has flown to Algeria to discuss closer energy ties with this major gas and oil producer.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) network of research teams called ‘Eureka’ has developed a new universal child car seat called the Klippan Isofix Safety System (KISS), which saves motoring parents from having to buy two child seats as their baby grows into a toddler.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEGAL experts are undermining the provisional compromise agreement over the European Union (EU) definition of vodka stitched together by the current EU Finnish presidency. The Finns have claimed "a broad majority" for a deal where vodkas made from non-traditional products, such as grapes, are sold as ‘vodka made/distilled from (add ingredient used)’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved in principle a proposed European Union (EU) regulation which would allow police and other law enforcement officials within the EU’s Schengen open border area to inspect registration documentation held in all countries of this zone.…

BY ANDREW CAVE, in Bologna

THE INTENSE concerns felt by the European food industry over the incoming European Union (EU) regulation on nutritional and health claims on labelling have been aired at a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conference. The opening day of a three-day meeting in Bologna, Italy, allowed delegates from major food companies and key regulators to debate the regulation, that businesses still want reformed before it comes into force.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is casting around for a coherent policy on securing its external energy supplies, and while it is unsure of securing a solid deal with Russia, it is making ever more strident overtures to north Africa, the Caucasus and central Asia.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels, and KEITH NUTHALL

1. The Commission is a keen supporter of creating increased gas storage capacities. But who should pay for developing these facilities?

The Commission believes that investment in storage should be left to the market, and the costs allocated through market forces.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA’S President Vladimir Putin has signalled a tough fight with the European Union (EU) over oncoming talks about a future energy deal, as the European Commission has mapped out the key elements it would like to see in place.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE COST to Britain’s exchequer of refusing to participate in the European Union’s legal agreement with Philip Morris over illicit cigarette trades has become clearer with the European Commission dividing up the spoils. PMI has promised to pay US$1 billion over 12 years to the European Commission and 10 European Union (EU) member states who have participated in the deal, with the cigarette giant already handing over US$325 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is moving towards supporting environment-friendly road transport, rather than dedicating resources to promoting public transport, a European Parliament debate organised by the Automobile and Society Forum, has heard. The European Commission is currently reviewing its 2001 transport white paper and its working papers have noted "disappointment" over the results of the EU’s pro-public transport policies.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ONE of the biggest problems faced by anti-money laundering forces in the European Union (EU) is that there are 25 (soon to be 27) different national law enforcement agencies and jurisdictions and most member states are reluctant to cede authority on law and order issues to central EU institutions.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it came to accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004, the Baltic States were something of a special case. Though unable to compete on the same scale as their neighbours in Poland, or further south, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the economies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia quickly gained a reputation for being micro economic powerhouses – and the same has applied to their paint industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed as a success two pilot projects involving large European Union (EU) companies making detailed commitments to reduce the environmental impact of their products. Finland mobile phone giant Nokia and French retailer Carrefour have led consortia of like-minded companies to reduce resources consumed and waste generated by mobiles and wooden garden furniture they make and sell.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FINNISH government has helped secure the withdrawal from sale of 14 lines of tops because of concerns that their drawstrings could strangle children wearing them. The offending products were from Denmark, China, India, Hong Kong and Estonia, and included the BOYSTAR fleece-jacket; the BOGI Aaron-jacket; JONATHAN ECO CLIMATE baby overalls; and other lines, reported the European Commission’s RAPEX consumer alert service.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEMBER states of the European Union (EU) have been encouraged at a European Federation of Accountants (FEE) sponsored-conference in Brussels to follow in the European Commission’s footsteps and adopt accrual accounting practices. EU budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite told the ‘Modernising accounting in the Public Sector – Exchange of Experience’ conference that the system, now largely installed at the Commission, offered national governments major benefits.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

CURRENT European Union (EU) president Finland will this year urge fellow member states to raise the political profile of alcohol across Europe as a threat to public health, bringing in specific measures to curb abuses. Its views are particularly important this year, because the European Commission is buffing up just such a plan for release in September or October, and the Finns will be pushing or agreement at the EU Council of Ministers in December.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LIVESTOCK and Meat Commission for Northern Ireland is to benefit from the latest batch of European Commission grants for promoting meat and other foodstuff sales within the European Union (EU). Brussels will subsidise a Northern Irish meat marketing and information campaign with Euro 207,365 over one year, with matching money being demanded from the UK government and local meat producers, the usual condition of such grants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FINLAND has been told by the European Commission to scrap a law telling drivers of vehicles who motor in Finland for more than a week to secure Finnish registration, at the full fee rate, even if a car is legally registered elsewhere in the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEW Finnish presidency of the European Union (EU) has given reforming alcohol taxation a fourth priority regarding financial and economic affairs for the next six months. In a report to the first EU finance council, which it chairs, Finland said alcohol tax reform, levelling up minimum rates, should be considered ahead of VAT reform, expanding the Euro currency, and finalising the EU budget.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A projected fall in population for a number of EU countries by 2050 has given rise to widespread concern in the EU institutions about the consequences for higher education. According to the EU statistical agency Eurostat, Germany’s population of 82.6 million will fall to 74.6 million in 2050 and Italy’s from 58.2 to 52.7 million with smaller falls for other countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

YOUNG adults in Germany – long seen as Europe’s technological powerhouse – are turning away from science and engineering, with just 16% of tertiary educated professionals in these fields being aged 25-34. The figures are the worst in the European Economic Area (EEA), and show that without change, Germany could face a shortage of engineers and scientists in the medium term.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

WHEN asked about corruption in Belgium by Commercial Crime International, a government official held his nose in the time-honoured gesture. But was he being fair? Some recent high profile cases have brought the nation some lurid publicity.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN ALARMING 20.3% of European Union (EU) laying hen poultry flocks are infected with salmonella, a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report has warned. The Czech Republic (62.5%), Poland (55.9%), Spain (51.6%), Lithuania (50%) and Portugal (47.7%) have the most serious problems.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE FINNISH government is to challenge the European Commission’s proposals for a broad definition of vodka under the proposed new European Union (EU) spirit labelling regulations, exploiting its oncoming strong position as EU president. Finland will use its control over EU Council of Ministers business to try and secure agreement that only drinks made from cereals or potatoes can be labelled ‘vodka’.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN ALARMING 20.3% of European Union (EU) laying hen poultry flocks are infected with salmonella, a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report has warned. Britain cannot be complacent under the report, based on 2004-5 data, with 8% of flocks stricken with salmonella.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH

THE PAINT and coatings industry is a small but brightly shining star in the Finnish economy’s firmament, and one, which, as might be expected, has all the virtues of specialised Nordic industrial sectors.

These include a mature market, a great familiarity between manufacturers and customers in a society of little more than five million and harsh winter conditions, which dictate the high consumption of paints.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission-funded report has recommended that alcoholic drinks carry health warnings on bottles and cans, a proposal that could find favour with the oncoming Finnish presidency of the European Union (EU). Finland has already stated that reducing health problems caused by alcohol would be a priority of its July-December presidency, and could be a willing ally if the Commission follows up the recommendation.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN the Soviet Union disintegrated, its vast military complex left stocks of toxic waste behind as it split or retreated to Russia. Now an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) project is trying to turn part of this refuse of war into something useful: rocket fuel into fertliser.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

WIND power is Europe’s big growth area for electricity generation, according to the latest comparative figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat, with capacity growing by 154% between 2000 and 2004. Its report noted wind power "is responsible for more than half of the new generating capacity" in these years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN is one of only seven European countries that are fully complying with key guidelines on institutional oversight of financial information issued by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR). Its standard No.1 advises on how the harmonisation of institutional oversight systems in Europe maybe achieved, especially regarding enforcement of good practice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN is more enlightened over flexi-time compared with the European Union’s (EU) other large economies, say new figures released by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The EU agency says only Sweden, Finland and Latvia practice more flexi-time, although Britain does not always perform well regarding the degree of flexibility allowed by employers.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

ATTEMPTS to duck increased pollution clean-up costs imposed by the revised European Union (EU) bathing water directive have sparked 11 separate legal actions by the European Commission. It has reacted promptly to a massive delisting of 7,000 official bathing water sites by 11 EU governments, to avoid having to comply with new cleanliness standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SPECIAL European Parliament hearing on European Union (EU) energy liberalisation has heard concerns that cross-border supplies could actually raise prices in European countries currently enjoying cheap bills. The parliament’s industry, research and energy committee was told by Finnish green-left MEP Esco Seppänen that consumers in countries where energy prices have been low because of cheap nuclear and hydro power could rise: "We don’t want to have German or Dutch prices in Finland and our consumers don’t want to suffer because of the liberalisation of energy markets," he said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-research project aimed at coating plastics and other materials with metallic or ceramic films has proved a big success, with a consortium coating plastic mobile phones to block electromagnetic waves. These have long been a health concern for phone users, but prior to the REOXCOAT project, the use of the required so-called ‘sputtering’ technique to create such coatings was limited to small component areas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) political leaders have agreed medium-term (2007-13) budgets for crucial spending projects for the energy sector: Trans European Networks (TENs) and the EU seventh framework programme (FP7) for research. On TENs, the European Parliament, Commission, and EU Council of Ministers have agreed a Euro 7.2 billion budget, Euro 500 million above previous drafts, although this will have to be split with TENs transport projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has underlined its determination to forge a European Union (EU) energy policy with substance by a slew of legal actions against member states over renewables, liberalisation and biofuels. Brussels has started proceedings against Britain, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic for failing to report progress under the 2001 directive promoting renewable energy sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZEN political manoeuvres to duck increased pollution clean-up costs imposed by the revised European Union (EU) bathing water directive have sparked 11 separate legal actions by the European Commission. It has reacted promptly to a massive delisting of 7,000 official bathing water sites by 11 EU governments, to avoid having to comply with new cleanliness standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission conference designed to ease the damage caused by bankruptcy has heard how most European Union (EU) countries are already reforming their insolvency laws. Speaking at a Commission conference on ‘Insolvency and Fresh Start’ in Brussels, 120 legal experts from 24 countries were told last year 140,000 corporate insolvencies in the old 15-member EU, risked 1.5 million jobs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce survey has concluded that most developed countries are responding to high oil process by improving energy efficiency. Especially good performers included Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium. The US had also made progress "to a lesser degree".…

BY ALAN OSBORN

There were about 41,600 road deaths in the 25 EU countries in 2005, down from around 50,000 in 2001 reports the European Commission. This is progress "but not enough" says Brussels which wants member states to halve the rate to 25,000 by 2010 under the EU’s Road Safety Action Programme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured Finland’s road tax laws for preventing Finnish resident frontier workers, with a job in another European Union (EU) member state, from bringing their car home from their workplace. The ECJ has declared Finland "in breach of its EU treaty obligations on the freedom of movement of workers" by insisting Finland residents obtain Finnish car tax for their vehicles, even those generally used for work abroad.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has ordered its committees of national officials to stage a "thorough examination" of the official EU definition of vodka, because of a row between member states over its terms. Poland, supported by Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, is resisting a European Commission proposal to allow vodka to continue being sold in the EU using non-traditional ingredients.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

POLAND, supported by Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden are resisting a European Commission proposal to allow vodka to be sold in the European Union (EU) using non-traditional ingredients. Poland and its allies want vodka-labelled drinks to be based only on cereals and potatoes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project has developed a number of novel enzymes that can boost food texture and quality, with its participants claiming they can even make low-fat yoghurts seem rich and creamy. CROSSENZ project members are now investigating bringing these biotechnological developments to market.…

BY DAVID EIMER, in Beijing

"Build nuclear power, enrich the people", proclaim the billboards at China’s Qinshan nuclear facility in the south-eastern province of Zhejiang. Qinshan, a 120 kilometres south of Shanghai, is the centre of China’s nuclear sector and home to five of the country’s nine operational reactors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

POLAND, supported by Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden are resisting a European Commission proposal to allow vodka drinks to be sold in the European Union, even if some ingredients are non-traditional. Poland and its allies want vodka-labelled drinks to be based only on cereals and potatoes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW EFSA BOSS BUDGET ROW – LATEST ADVICE

THE FRENCHWOMAN appointed to take the vacant top executive director job at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will need all her political skills to solve a potential budget crisis facing the agency.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Helsinki

BY its own lights Finland is a model of Nordic virtue and is snooty about crime in neighbouring countries round the Baltic. But Interpol begs to differ, ranking Finnish criminality as high for an industrialised economy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission official has warned the Drinks Bulletin that there could be a tough fight ahead over agreeing proposals made before Christmas on reforming European Union (EU) rules on selling spirits. The senior official, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that although a political deal within the Commission had been struck to overcome concerns in Estonia, Finland, Poland and Sweden about allowing vodka to be made with ingredients other than the traditional grain, potato, sugar beat and molasses, this was far from the final result.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission official has warned the Drinks Bulletin that there could be a tough fight ahead over agreeing proposals made before Christmas on reforming European Union (EU) rules on selling spirits. The senior official, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that although a political deal within the Commission had been struck to overcome concerns in Estonia, Finland, Poland and Sweden about allowing vodka to be made with ingredients other than the traditional grain, potato, sugar beat and molasses, this was far from the final result.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW tough fuel and road transport pollution standards have been proposed for the European Union (EU) by the European Commission, removing a loophole enabling sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to be covered by looser emission limits currently allowed for commercial vans.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has supported proposals to allow Finland re-impose restrictions beer its citizens can import from Russia, because of fears about booming cross-border sales. Under European law, private travellers can normally import 200 litres of beer from third countries into Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EUROPEAN Commission official has told just-drinks.com that Brussels needed to overcome a political battle with vodka producing countries over ingredients, before it was able to formally table reforms to European Union (EU) spirit labelling rules yesterday (WED 21/12).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FIRST certified emission reductions generating credits under the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism have been issued. These allow developed countries to meet some domestic emissions reduction targets by investing in developing country anti-pollution projects, here Italy and Finland financing two Honduras hydroelectric plants.…

BY MARK ROWE
IN times of conflict, cultural property, such as archaeological sites, works of art, museums and monuments, can also suffer grievously at the hands of opposing military and guerrilla forces. In recognition of this, such objects are accorded protection by the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFTER years of doing nothing, and then years of erecting complex bureaucratic controls, the European Union (EU) is at last starting to get its act together on controlling fraud. Keith Nuthall reports.

IN a filthy flat, not properly cleaned for years, moving the odd cupboard and shining a torch on the floor is sure to highlight a few cockroaches, scuttling for safety towards some Godforsaken corner.…

Keith Nuthall
POLITICAL pressure is being piled onto European Union (EU) member states to release more information about the way they spend EU-funded grants and subsidies from the Euro 110 billion EU budget. In a long-awaited ‘European Transparency Initiative’, EU anti-fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas has proposed discussions with national governments about “the introduction of a legal obligation to publish information about projects and end beneficiaries of funds under shared management”, between member states and Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GREEN Paper on improving services promoting mental health across the European Union (EU) has been published by the European Commission, which claims 27% of all EU adults suffer from such problems, annually. It says Brussels will consult with EU national governments on creating an action plan boosting mental health services and also collect more data at a European level, monitoring trends and identifying best practice.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ON July 31 this year the European Union’s (EU) Tobacco Advertising Directive came into effect, making it illegal to advertise tobacco products in the print media, radio and over the Internet within the EU. Also banned was tobacco sponsorship of cross-border cultural and sporting events.…

Keith Nuthall
A HEALTHY-DOSE of Nordic culture has been prescribed by the world’ premier anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, which has again hailed northern Europe as the region most free of graft, bribes and kickbacks. Such financial crime is rarest in Iceland, says the 2005 corruption rankings from the German group, with Finland and New Zealand tying at second place, Denmark, fourth, Sweden sixth, and Norway eighth.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL pressure is being piled onto European Union (EU) member states to release more information about how they spend EU-funded grants and subsidies from the Euro 110 billion EU budget. In a long-awaited ‘European Transparency Initiative’, EU anti-fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas has proposed discussions with national governments about ” a legal obligation to publish information about projects and end beneficiaries of funds under shared management”, between member states and Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S premier anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, has again hailed northern Europe as the region most free of graft, bribes and kickbacks. Such financial crime is rarest in Iceland, says the 2005 corruption rankings from the German group, with Finland and New Zealand tying at second place, Denmark, fourth, Sweden sixth, and Norway eighth.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to exclude natural sunlight from a new European Union (EU) optical radiation health and safety directive issue to be regulated by national governments. In a plenary session, the parliament supported centre-right amendments restricting the legislation to artificial sources of radiation by 397 votes for, 269 against.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve Finland’s re-imposing restrictions on cheap personal beer imports from Russia, preventing a cross-border sales boom. EU law says private travellers can import up to 200 litres from non-EU states, but Finland has restricted imports to six litres/traveller since 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to allow Finland to re-impose restrictions on the beer that its citizens can import from Russia, because of fears of runaway cross-border sales. Under EU directive 69/169/EEC, private travellers would normally be entitled to import 200 litres of beer from third countries into Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SECOND attempt is being made by the European Commission to criminalise counterfeiting and piracy across the European Union (EU), following the rejection of similar plans by the European Parliament last year. The Commission has re-tabled legislation insisting EU member states impose jail terms or significant fines on offenders, whilst ensuring their police and customs officers can confiscate fake goods and close businesses involved in their manufacture.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PROACTIVE competition inquiry has been launched into the European Union’s (EU) natural gas sector, with the aim of rooting out anti-competitive practices. If the European Commission discovers instances of gas companies breaking existing EU competition law, legal action could follow.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the abolition of registration taxes that it says impede the transfer of vehicles to the 16 European Union (EU) member states that impose them. Britain is not among the countries concerned, but they include Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Austria and Poland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THAT criminals abuse the insurance industry is nothing new for a sector routinely screening claims for hints of fraud. However, its managers have proved far less alert to the risk of it being exploited by money launderers and terrorist financers, a new detailed report has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend Euro 26.1 million on 26 programmes promoting the sale within the EU of organic food products, olive oil, milk and cheese, ham, fruit and vegetables, plus some drinks products. There will be matching funding from participating countries Britain, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Cyprus.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HEAVYWEIGHT European international consortium will spend Euro 20 million on trying to develop commercially-viable flat plastic light sources, that could be moulded to fit spaces in homes and offices. The OLLA project (‘high brightness Organic Light-emitting diodes for information technology and Lighting Applications’) aims to build on basic research into these materials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition of paper merchants Scaldia, of the Netherlands, and Papeteries de France, by Finland pulp and paper group Stora Enso. The Finns had bought Scaldia from US-based International Paper (IP) in 2004, and the Commission launched a partly retrospective inquiry after Enso also decided to buy the French group from IP.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance has rejected a bid by Spain’s Duarte y Beltrán SA to secure European Union (EU)-wide trademark rights to sell cosmetics, soaps and perfumes under the brand ‘INTEA’. Judges backed the EU’s Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs) -OHIM – in supporting the complaint of Italian rival Mirato SpA.…

BY MARK ROWE
IN the days of the Soviet Union, Russians would make jokes about the shades of “concrete” grey available for any internal redecorating you planned to do. No longer. Disposable incomes are higher, so Russians are discovering DIY, while a vast face-lift has been given to many of the country’s cities and towns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIVISIONS over the EU sugar regime reforms have been clarified at a European Union (EU) Council of Ministers (agriculture) meeting. British, Danish, German, Swedish, Latvian and Maltese delegations wanted “rapid reform, to make the sector more competitive”, though concerns of ex-European colonies in the African Pacific Caribbean (ACP) bloc “should be taken into account”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ITALIAN and Luxembourg governments will face legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) aimed at forcing them to authorised royalties to authors when their books are borrowed from libraries. The European Commission alleges by not doing so, such payments break the 1992 European Union (EU) directive on rental rights and copyright.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused nine European Union (EU) governments of dragging their feet over promoting biofuels in their countries. It has sent critical formal notices to Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovenia accusing them of failing to submit national reports framing 2005 targets for biofuel consumption, as required under the Biofuels Directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a report detailing sales trends and environment improvements in European Union-consumed motor fuels. It shows, for instance, that the average sulphur content in petrol and diesel roughly halved between 2001 and 2003. In that year, 30.3% of diesel sold had less than 50 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur, with 24.9% less than 10ppm, (Germany and Sweden dominated consumption of this cleanest diesel, while regular diesel was most common in Austria, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE VISION of a Europe where police and prosecutors can effectively pursue cross-border investigations was framed at a special European Union (EU) summit in Finland in late 1999. Five years on, institutions are giving this idea substance. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition of Finnish snacks company Chips group by Norway consumer good producer Orkla. This follows the Norwegians’ offer to scrap Chips’ distribution of frozen pizzas within Finland via Sweden’s Gunnar Dafgard, to prevent the merged group dominating the Finnish frozen pizza market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) courts can excuse insurers from having to pay compensation payments owed by motor policyholders when their victims are partly to blame for a road accident, a European Court of Justice (ECJ) official has concluded. Advocate general Leendert Geelhoed said national court judges should decide such cases, unfettered by EU directives on insurance and civil liability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) courts can excuse insurers from having to pay compensation payments owed by motor policyholders when their victims are partly to blame for a road accident, a European Court of Justice (ECJ) official has concluded. Advocate general Leendert Geelhoed said national court judges should decide such cases, unfettered by EU directives on insurance and civil liability.…

KEITH NUTHALL
ITALY, Finland, Belgium and Greece are being taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by the European Commission, which says these governments have failed to properly establish the European Union (EU) emissions trading regime in their countries. This came into force on January 1, but has to be written into national statute books in a uniform way.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drawn up plans to lend Finland pharmaceutical company the Orion Corporation up to Euro 150 million for its research into medicines for central nervous system problems, cardiovascular diseases and hormonal therapies. The bank is supporting the Espoo-based company’s work, under its Innovation 2010 Initiative fostering innovation and research.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
THE WORLD is waking up to biofuels, increasingly produced from food crops and their waste by-products, and now one of the growing energy alternatives to conventional fossil fuels. As prices for traditional energy rise year on year, and energy watchers warn of oil production peaking around 2010, governments are looking towards food producers to grow the raw feedstock for the fuel of the twenty-first century.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHILE discussions continue over how to ensure the security of energy supplies to the European Union (EU), Brussels institutions are sinking money into one sure bet, eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), for instance, is lending US$170 million to SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, to fund two Caspian gas projects.…

KEITH NUTHALL
On the basis of existing policies and measures alone, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Sweden and the United Kingdom should reach their individual targets. The Netherlands and Luxembourg will achieve their targets with the help of credits from the project-based mechanisms.…

KEITH NUTHALL
AS the European Union (EU)’s greenhouse gas trading scheme beds in this year, its environment ministers can push ahead with fighting pollution, in the knowledge that the EU should hit its Kyoto Protocol emissions targets. According to the European Commission, current and planned policies should enable the expanded EU to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8% from their 1990 levels during 2008-2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EUROPEAN Commission official has told just-drinks.com that Brussels needed to overcome a political battle with vodka producing countries over ingredients, before it was able to formally table reforms to European Union (EU) spirit labelling rules yesterday (WED 21/12).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FORMAL complaint has been lodged with the European Commission by the Finnish Food Marketing Association about Finland’s alcohol sales monopoly system, which the group claims breaks European Union (EU) competition law. The association claims Finland’s Alko has moved away from its original role of limiting the sale of alcohol, instead becoming an effective marketing machine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has supported proposals to allow Finland re-impose restrictions beer its citizens can import from Russia, because of fears about booming cross-border sales. Under European law, private travellers can normally import 200 litres of beer from third countries into Finland.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission will take Austria, Finland, Italy, Germany and Luxembourg to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to implement a 2002 directive on aircraft noise. It mandates specific procedures regarding the introduction of noise restrictions at EU airports near urban areas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATIONAL governments are often jealous of attempts by the European Union (EU) to increase its power into policy areas that they consider none of its business. Defence and foreign affairs are obvious examples, but health is another. EU member states have long resisted Brussels’ calls for influence over their health policies, but their resolve has weakened of late.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INCREASED compensation of up to US$1.152 billion for damage caused by serious oil spills will be made available from March 3 next year, when an International Oil Pollution Compensation Supplementary Fund comes into being. This follows the ratification of its founding protocol by Spain, fulfilling the minimum number of major oil importing states required for the formal creation of this International Maritime Organisation (IMO)-coordinated fund.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ARCTIC is experiencing “the most rapid and severe climate change on earth”, twice the rate of other regions, says an Arctic Climate Impact Assessment by the Arctic Council, representing Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the US.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is largely on track for a timely start to its emissions trading system on January 1, with the unconditional approval in late October of six more CO2 emission allocation plans, from Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Portugal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has lent Euro 85 million to Finland’s Outokumpu, to co-finance a Euro 1 billion expansion of its stainless steel mill at Tornio, to the north of the Gulf of Bothnia. This project should by next summer more than double its annual capacity to 1.65 million tonnes in melting and hot rolling and 1.2 million tonnes in cold rolling.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN the latest development of the Anheuser-Busch versus Budejovický Budvar battle, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled the Czech brewer has some protection where it had previously secured rights to the name Budweiser, and they subsequently lapsed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has confirmed that countries in its eastern Europe and central Asia area of focus are booming because of high oil prices. Its annual 2004 Transition Report says Russia and the Ukraine are experiencing “skyrocketing annual growth”, making the former Warsaw Pact the world’s second-fastest-growing region (up 6.1%), next to China and its southern neighbours.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the creation of a retail joint venture in the Baltic States, run by Scandinavian food retailers Kesko Oy, of Finland, and ICA AB, of Sweden and Norway. This new business will buy and sell daily consumer goods in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, combining the two Scandinavian company’s existing outlets in the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ARCTIC Climate Impact Assessment by scientists from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russian, Sweden, and the USA has warned global warming-generated melts of ice and permafrost could damage oil and gas pipelines. Their stability would be threatened by thaws turning tundra into plains of mud.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) pesticide residue laws are designed to prevent food consumers poisoning themselves with insect killer, but that important fact has not stopped European law being as much of an ass as its British cousin. For the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is expected to rule that vine leaves are not covered by European Union (EU) pesticide residue legislation.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPE’S Nordic countries have agreed to forge a common front against alcohol liberalisation policies in the European Union (EU) and push anti-drinking campaigns worldwide. Meeting in Copenhagen, the health ministers of Finland, Sweden and Denmark agreed to act en bloc during discussions on alcohol at the EU Council of Ministers, being joined by Norway, Iceland at European Economic Area (EEA) meetings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OPPORTINITY for companies to buy efficient robots to tackle unpopular or dangerous jobs is increasing fast, with orders for industrial robots rising by 18% worldwide January-June this year, a United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) report has said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFTER 30 years of discussions, a European Union (EU) Company Statute is now in place, allowing the creation of European holding companies, joint subsidiaries or merged operations, theoretically able to work seamlessly in at least two member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PUBLIC procurement procedures are illegal if they insist cost should be local authorities’ sole consideration in selecting a contractor for certain jobs, according to a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling. It concluded that an Italian law (109 of 1994) broke EU directive 93/37/EEC by insisting that except for certain construction and management jobs “contracting authorities use only the criterion of the lowest price”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S largest think tank has advised developed country governments to adopt programmes helping families achieve an acceptable work-life balance, boosting child development and general well being amongst adult workers. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has abandoned its usual laissez faire approach to economics and society by encouraging its rich country members to promote part-time work.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPE’S Nordic countries have agreed to forge a common front against alcohol liberalisation policies in the European Union (EU) and push anti-drinking campaigns worldwide. Meeting in Copenhagen, the health ministers of Finland, Sweden and Denmark agreed to act en bloc during discussions on alcohol at the EU Council of Ministers, being joined by Norway, Iceland at European Economic Area (EEA) meetings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Finland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) claiming that the country’s vehicle transfer permit system breaks European Union (EU) freedom of movement of goods rules. Residents of Finland wanting to bring into the country a vehicle previously registered and used in another EU member state must apply at the Finnish border for a temporary transfer permit, including temporary licence stickers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GLOBAL corruption watchdog Transparency International has confirmed Britain’s place as one of the world’s cleaner countries, ranking it 11th in its annual league table of government probity. In a report containing few surprises, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Iceland and Singapore were lauded has having the most honest governments, while the graft-ridden administrations of Nigeria, Bangladesh and Haiti were bottom of the table.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ESTONIA’S prime minister Juhan Parts has refused to increase his government’s planned 20% hike in strong alcohol duty rates, despite pressure from neighbouring Finland for a steeper rise. Visiting Helsinki, Mr Parts heard arguments that next year’s planned tax change would add only a few cents to a bottle of strong grain liquor which retails for about Euro 3 in Estonia, while selling for Euro 9 a bottle in Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPANISH and Finnish governments have failed in a legal attempt to scrap the European Union’s (EU) working time directive regarding professional road transport drivers. Both countries claimed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that the legislation should not have applied to self-employed drivers, but this was rejected by the ECJ, along with other complaints.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ESTONIA’S prime minister Juhan Parts said his government would not boost a planned 20% hike in strong alcohol duty rates, despite pressure from neighbouring Finland. Visiting Helsinki, Mr Parts heard arguments that next year’s planned tax change would do little to halt the boom in personal alcohol imports to Finland since Estonia joined the EU in May.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S performance in reducing heart disease deaths could be much improved compared with many of its European Union (EU) partners, a new World Health Organisation heart disease atlas, has shown.

Dividing a country’s annual deaths from heart disease with its population, saturated fats and beer loving Britain had a comparative factor of 2, based on 120,530 deaths in 2002 amongst a population of 59 million.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening to ask the European Court of Justice to levy daily recurring fines of Euro 1,000’s against eight European Union (EU) member countries failing to scrap bilateral ‘open skies’; deals with the USA. Despite being so ordered 18 months ago, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden have maintained their agreements while the Commission negotiates an EU-wide replacement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALCOPOPS have had a bad rap. They are viewed, whether correctly or accurately, as the drink that weans young people from Coca-Cola and 7-Up into the world of alcohol, without them learning how to drink sensibly. They are also the drinks industry’s key innovation of the last decade, creating a new sector that – before a recent decline in popularity – seemed on course to eclipse some established products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINLAND banned the sale of imported Pakistan-made working Soft Granberg brand gloves (sizes 7, 9, 10 and 11) because it discovered banned carcinogenic azo colorants in green textiles used as materials (along with untainted leather), reported the European Commission rapid alert service Rapex.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is Europe’s laggard for implementing European Union (EU) environmental law, the European Commission has concluded. It its latest assessment of compliance with EU green regulations and directives, it notes 11 instances of France being recently censured by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) or threatened with legal action by the Commission over non-compliance with environmental legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is Europe’s laggard for implementing European Union (EU) environmental law, the European Commission has concluded. Its latest assessment of compliance with EU green regulations and directives notes 38 cases of France being censured by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) or threatened with legal action by the Commission over non-compliance with environmental legislation in 2003.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALCOPOPS have had a bad rap. They are viewed, whether correctly or accurately, as the drink that weans young people from Coca-Cola and 7-Up into the world of alcohol, without them learning how to drink sensibly. They are also the drinks industry’s key innovation of the last decade, creating a new sector that – before a recent decline in popularity – seemed on course to eclipse some established products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening seven European Union (EU) countries with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to apply EU law and give local companies the option of applying International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 on financial instruments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
STAND-IN European Union (EU) information society Commissioner Olli Rehn will review EU telecom policies in the dying months of the current Commission. Speaking to the European Parliament industry, research and energy committee, the Finn said he would “soon submit some reflections on the future policies for the information society to (appointed Commission) president Barroso”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINNISH courts should examine their country’s ‘autovero’ car tax system to see whether it is unfair to drivers importing cars from other European Union (EU) member countries, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. If national judges say it is unfair to charge the full tax on drivers who have already paid car tax in another EU country, then they should demand the system be reformed, said the ECJ.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITHIN the newly expanded European Union (EU), Poland is the cheapest country in which to buy a car, although under current trends that honour may not last long. According to the latest European Commission figures, Polish car prices are on average 9% cheaper than those in Finland, the cheapest country using the single European currency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ACCORDING to popular prejudice, Britons are work obsessed and driven, spending too many evenings in the office, while the French are lazy clock watchers, with an eye on that two hour lunch break – but this could be pure myth according to a European Union (EU) study.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ACCORDING to popular prejudice, Britons are work obsessed and driven, spending too many evenings in the office, while the French are lazy clock watchers, with an eye on that two hour lunch break – but this could be pure myth according to a European Union (EU) study.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATIONAL work accident statistics are keenly examined by occupational health practitioners, but they do not enable the safety of British workplaces to be compared against other European countries; that is where Eurostat, the European Union’s (EU) statistical agency comes in.…

Keith Nuthall
THE GREEKS may be champions in European football, but they are bottom of the league for tax honesty, a European Commission report has concluded, with more than 20% of work by value being undeclared. The paper ‘Undeclared work in an enlarged Union’ shows that Britain is much more honest, with only 2% of its GDP being concealed from the tax authorities, second only to Austria (1.5%).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOVERNMENTS should avoid forcing national telecommunications utilities to make broadband services available to rural and remote areas, but rather rely on boosting competition in the sector, an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report has claimed. Indeed, making such demands “would reduce competition and innovation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has used its Euratom powers to give Finland the go-ahead to build a new fifth nuclear power plant, citing the need to replace old fossil fuel plants. The first ordered in the European Union for more than a decade, the plant should command an electrical capacity of 1600 MWe from 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEKS may be European football champions, but they are bottom of the league for tax honesty, said a European Commission report, with more than 20% of work by value being undeclared. ‘Undeclared work in an enlarged Union’ shows Britain is much more honest, with only 2% of its GDP concealed from the tax authorities, second only to Austria (1.5%).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWEDEN and Finland are being threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over their alleged failures to properly clean their wastewater discharges, a problem causing the shallow Baltic Sea to become rich with nutrients, sometimes causing dangerous algal blooms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW electronic European Union (EU) livestock tracing system is being introduced, holding data on the movement of animals across the EU. The TRACES system will cost Euro 2.2 million to rollout, being installed in Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland this month and in other member states by December 31.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RELIABLE statistics are of course vital to any insurance company’s assessment of risk, and nationally produced figures in countries such as Britain and the USA can usually be counted upon in actuarial calculations. But what about comparing countries when managing international policy portfolios?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ONLINE tool has been released by a European Commission-funded research project allowing local authorities to assess their sustainable development, measured across a wide range of activities. The Local Evaluation 21 system will allow councils for the first time – claim its developers – to compare their record with all other local authorities in Britain and those of a similar size from other European Union (EU) countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN, France, Finland, Spain and Germany are joining 15 countries in supplying experts to a new International Nuclear Safety Group, run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The group will provide authoritative advice and guidance on safety approaches, policies and principles at nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S increasing reliance on cars is threatening efforts to combat climate change, according to a report published by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). Although its report ‘Oil Crises and Climate Challenges’ found that oil consumption has been declining since 1973 in every other industrial and service sector, soaring transport demands meant overall levels have not declined.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MARK ROWE
THE LIBERALISATION of electricity and gas supplies in the European Union (EU) was finally agreed in 2003 and will come into full effect this year for business customers and in 2007 for households and all others.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMONGST all European Union (EU) countries, Finland has the highest number of nurses and midwives per head of population, – 2,181 per 100,000 inhabitants – according to the recently released and latest available comparative figures. EU statistical agency Eurostat said that these 1998-2000 figures showed Portugal as having the least nurses and midwives (379 per 100,000) and Greece the second worst performer (391).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN has been given a relatively clean bill of health in the latest Transparency International corruption rankings, being viewed as joint-11th least-corrupt country in the world, sharing its billing with Canada and Luxembourg. Finland was the most honest place in which to do business said the pressure group’s survey, followed by Iceland and the Denmark plus New Zealand at joint third.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BELGIUM is the European Union’s (EU) salmonellosis hotspot according the latest comparative figures collated by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency. In 2001, 104 cases were recorded in Belgium per 100,000 people, with other high figures being recorded in Germany (94 cases), Luxembourg (83) and Austria (81).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH government has cut its high spirits taxes by one-third on average and its levies on wine and beer by around five and 10 percent respectively, to stop massive cross-border shopping when neighbouring low-tax Estonia joins the European Union (EU) in May.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REVISIONS to a European nuclear energy liability convention will increase the total accident compensation available from operators in 15 countries to Euro 1.5 billion, up from Euro 350 million. Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey have now signed the Protocols to amend the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and the Brussels Convention Supplementary to the Paris Convention.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REVISIONS to a European nuclear energy liability convention will increase the total accident compensation available from operators in 15 countries to Euro 1.5 billion, up from Euro 350 million. Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey have now signed the Protocols to amend the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and the Brussels Convention Supplementary to the Paris Convention.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ABUSE of drugs and alcohol in the workplace may be a growing concern in European Union (EU) countries but there seems little evidence that the relevant authorities are unduly alarmed by it. An informal survey by Occupational Health of organisations and government departments suggests that little attempt has been made so far to assess the scale of the problem, still less to devise legislation aimed at workers, as distinct from society in general.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to redraft its controversial proposals on nuclear safety, radioactive waste and Euratom spending, after accepting that a blocking minority opposed to the plans exists at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers. The move will – claim opponents – buy the Commission time, allowing it to release fresh proposals in April, one month before 10 new member countries join the EU, many from nuclear power states from eastern Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVELY gloomy forecast for the future of the European Union (EU) coal industry has been issued by the European Commission, underlining its determination to press for closures of most unprofitable mines to trim Brussels’ and Member States’ state aid budgets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to redraft its controversial proposals on nuclear safety, radioactive waste and Euratom spending, after accepting that a blocking minority opposed to the plans exists at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers. The move will – claim opponents – buy the Commission time, allowing it to release fresh proposals as the incoming 10 new member countries join the EU in May, many from eastern Europe, with nuclear power plants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has said it will move to its new permanent home in Parma, Italy, by 2005 at the latest, following the long-awaited decision on its headquarters’ location being made by European Union (EU) heads of government in December.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
1. THE stage has been set for one of the fiercest internal EU legal battles in recent years following a decision by the European Commission to take the Union’s member states to court over their refusal to punish France and Germany for breaching the euro zone rules last November.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to spend Euro 29.25 million on schemes promoting the consumption of fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NETHERLANDS has restricted to 22,000 the number of working migrants it will accept from the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) this May. The announcement is the latest in a string of such caps imposed by existing EU Member States, (made by Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain), ahead of the expansion of the union.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
PEOPLE who drink hard water have a decreased risk of having a heart attack according to researchers led by the Geological Survey of Finland. They studied hospital records by geographical location and found that for every unit increase in the hardness of local water in Finland, the risk of having a heart attack fell by 1 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INERT mining residues should be regarded as waste under European Union (EU) and national laws controlling their disposal, unless they are immediately reused, for instance by filling disused mine shafts, the European Court of Justice has ruled. It was making an advisory judgement in a Finnish case involving mining company AvestaPolarit Chrome Oy, which wants to dispose of underground waste from a chromium mine by crushing, dressing and fine-dressing.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SEIZURES of counterfeit pharmaceuticals by customs officers of the 15 EU countries rose “significantly” in 2002 and the trend has continued so far this year, the European Commission has reported. Pharmaceuticals are not identified separately in statistics on pirated goods, but form the largest part of the “other goods” category where seizures have risen from 42 million in 2001 to 59 million in 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat has released comparative figures showing that Britain may have a significant problem regarding the number of workers reporting a long-standing health problem or disability. Indeed proportionally more Britons of working age told researchers they suffered such difficulties than in any other EU country barring Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is trying to clear legal logjams preventing companies with share capital from different European Union (EU) Member States from merging, transactions that are illegal in the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Greece, Germany, Finland, Denmark and Austria.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IMPROVEMENTS to water supply systems of the south-western Finland region of Turku are expected to attract European Investment Bank (EIB) funding, with plans being developed to lend the Turku Region Water Ltd (TRW) Euro 50 million. The money would fund improved river water intake, pre-treatment and build a transmission pipeline of 100 kilometres, plus boosting groundwater recharge and secondary treatment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the acquisition of Swedish electricity company Graninge by its rival Sydkraft, both of whom supply power in Sweden and Finland. Brussels’ competition approval follows an inquiry into the deal’s possible effect in Sweden, where the three largest players, including Sydkraft, account for about 80 per cent of the electricity markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IMPROVEMENTS to water supply systems of the south-western Finland region of Turku are expected to attract European Investment Bank (EIB) funding, with plans being developed to lend the Turku Region Water Ltd (TRW) Euro 50 million. The money would fund improved river water intake, pre-treatment and build a transmission pipeline of 100 kilometres, plus boosting groundwater recharge and secondary treatment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCANDINAVIA dominates the top rankings of a new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) global index on information and communication technology (ICT) access, with Sweden, Denmark and Iceland scoring the highest marks. The ITU says that the league table distinguishes itself from other indices by including new variables, such as education and affordability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL pressure applied by the European Union (EU) on its Member States to improve the environmental performance of their water sectors is failing to achieve the desired results, according to a report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCANDINAVIA dominates the top rankings of a new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) global index on information and communication technology (ICT) access, with Sweden, Denmark and Iceland scoring the highest marks. The ITU says that the league table distinguishes itself from other indices by including new variables, such as education and affordability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Commission proposals to boost nuclear energy safety in Europe have come under fire from the British and German governments as well as the European Parliament, making it highly unlikely that they will be approved unscathed. In an unusual joint letter to the Commission, UK prime minister Tony Blair and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder criticised Brussels’ proposed directive, claiming that it would not deal tangible benefits in nuclear security.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Italy, Portugal, Austria, Luxembourg, Greece and Finland with legal action at the European Court of Justice for failing to implement European Union (EU) legislation on marine equipment. The 2002 directive ‘laying down quality requirements and testing standards for equipment to be placed on board an EU ship’ aims to enhance sea safety and prevent marine pollution through a harmonised enforcement of international rules regarding onboard equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW European Union action plan fighting illegal logging is flaws because it ignores the Baltic States, claims the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It says extensive illegal logging is taking place in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, 15-25 percent of all logging in Latvia and 40-50 per cent in Estonia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
Utilities may not like this legislation, but EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein is not keen either. Every Member State has secured a number of detailed exemptions from the minimum rates, prompting the Dutchman to call it a piece of legal (Swiss) Gruyere cheese.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition of full control of the Finnish pharmaceutical distributor Tamro Oyj by German pharmacist Phoenix International Beteiligungs GmbH. The decision followed a cursory examination of the potential competition problems. The Commission swiftly decided there were none and fast tracked the decision, after being notified about the deal on August 29.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report says that the Netherlands, out of all EU countries, has received the largest economic boost from investment in communications and information technology. Much of the resulting labour productivity growth has been concentrated in knowledge intensive activities, notably high technology and medium high technology manufacturing, said the developed world think tank.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Italy, Portugal, Austria, Luxembourg, Greece and Finland with legal action at the European Court of Justice for failing to implement European Union (EU) legislation on marine equipment. The 2002 directive ‘laying down quality requirements and testing standards for equipment to be placed on board an EU ship’ aims to enhance sea safety and prevent marine pollution through a harmonised enforcement of international rules regarding onboard equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LEGAL final warning letters have been sent by the European Commission to Britain, Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain and Sweden, calling on them to swiftly implement a directive guaranteeing consumer protection when insurance companies are wound up.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A THREAT is emerging of European legal action against countries that allow public procurement tenders to stipulate that Intel processors must be used in computers bought by public sector purchasers. The European Commission has warned France, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden of possible action, saying such conditions could break European free trade laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched infringement proceedings against Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal for failing to implement the package of measures approved last year to liberalise the European Union (EU) telecommunications sector.

Brussels noted that only Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Finland, and Sweden had implemented the EU’s framework, authorisations, access and universal service directives into their national legislation by this month (NOTE: OCTOBER).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ACTION plan designed to further spur growth in the key broadband and third-generation (3G) mobile sectors has been unveiled by the European Commission and will be presented to the European Union’s (EU) spring summit in Brussels next month.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CANCER Research UK survey, conducted for the European Commission in seven European countries, has concluded that simple health warnings on cigarette packets are no longer effective, with many smokers ignoring government messages that have been on cigarette packages for many years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is formally threatening the British government with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over its alleged failure to properly implement the European Union (EU) directive on the incineration of waste. Brussels says that Britain has only “partially” implemented the legislation, which imposes operational and technical requirements for waste incinerators and co-incineration plants, setting specific emission limits regarding their pollution.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Austria and Finland to the European Court of Justice for failing to adopt an older (and looser) directive on GM food. This includes rules on post-marketing monitoring, public information, plus labelling and traceability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation’s new director general Lee Jong-wook has taken office, issuing a set of immediate priorities, that did NOT include work against tobacco consumption. Instead he announced that he would be focusing on creating a global plan to fight AIDS, driving more of the WHO’s resources into field units (and away from its headquarters), plus developing his staffs’ skills generally.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INNOVATION from European Union-funded research has continued to offer improvements to the way that EU water utilities work. For instance, the European Commission-funded MicroChem initiative has developed miniaturised laboratory-on-a-chip systems suitable for rapid field testing of water streams. They examine water in tiny pictolitre quantities, flowing through microbore channels produced by photolithographic etching.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Austria and Finland to the European Court of Justice for failing to adopt an older (and looser) directive on GM food. This includes rules on post-marketing monitoring, public information, plus labelling and traceability.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
NOBODY likes nuclear waste but nobody has yet thought up a universally-acceptable way of disposing of it. This is as true in Europe as anywhere else. It may be fair to say, however, that some European countries have gone further than the rest of the world in drawing conclusions about the future of nuclear energy as a result of the problems caused by radioactive waste.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SIGNIFICANT problems have been detected by a European Commission study into the implementation of the European Union’s integrated pollution prevention and control directive in seven EU Member States, with Britain being the only country so far found complying.…

KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH travel agencies are amongst the most productive in the European Union (EU), according to a report on labour productivity written by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency. Its study assessed the added value created by each worker in a given year for a range of industries, Britain’s travel agencies were the second most productive in the holiday industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) may like to pose as the globe’s environmental crusader, setting a good example to the bad old dirty United States, but the latest figures from the European Environment Agency (EEA) – for 2001 – have shown that for a second year running, EU greenhouse gas emissions have risen.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AGREEMENT in principle over the proposed reforms to the European Union’s gas liberalisation directives has been secured at the European Parliament’s key industry committee, although it is proposing important changes. MEP’s called for amendments insisting upon close cooperation between the European Commission and national regulators regarding security of supply.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SURVEY has been released by the European Commission which shows how a decline in confidence regarding genetically modified food could be deterring investment in medical biotechnology, potentially leaving the European Union at a competitive disadvantage. This Eurobarometer poll says that overall support for GM food is only found in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Finland; with most Europeans considering them “of little value and dangerous for society.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) may pose as the globe’s environmental crusader, but the latest figures from the European Environment Agency (EEA) – for 2001 – have shown that for a second year running, EU greenhouse gas emissions have risen.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH accountants are the second most lightly regulated in the European Union (EU), with their Danish colleagues having the most freedom according to a European Commission-funded survey, promoting liberalisation in Europe’s professions. Belgium, Austria and Germany – where heavy regulation is often favoured – have the union’s most tightly restricted accountancy professions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has made its formal offer at the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round to boost access to the European Union insurance market to non-EU players. However, following pressure from national European capitals, its services talks liberalisation package is hedged with a large number of exceptions protecting local interests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has offered to open up the European Union’s market in environmental services to suppliers based outside the EU, as part of the ongoing Doha Development Round at the World Trade Organisation.

If its trading partners offer adequate concessions in return, Brussels is offering to remove regulatory restrictions to foreign providers of waste water, sanitation, solid and hazardous waste management, soil clean-ups, air pollution reduction and similar services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is formally threatening France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria and Finland with legal action at the European Court of Justice over claims that they have failed to implement new EU regulations on the release of genetically modified organisms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH government is being threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice for allegedly failing to protect the vulnerable Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans). Finland is the only European Union home of this species, which lives in old forests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH architects are among the most lightly regulated in the European Union (EU), with their Danish, Irish, Dutch and Swedish colleagues enjoying a similarly light regulatory burden, according to a European Commission-funded survey, promoting liberalisation in Europe’s professions.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INNOVATION from European Union-funded research has continued to offer improvements to the way that EU water utilities work. For instance, the European Commission-funded MicroChem initiative has developed miniaturised laboratory-on-a-chip systems suitable for rapid field testing of water streams. They examine water in tiny pictolitre quantities, flowing through microbore channels produced by photolithographic etching.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GLITZY mobile anti-smoking campaign has been launched by the European Commission, using a campaign truck to stage events such as karaoke, quizzes, competitions and even auditions for appearances on MTV as a backdrop to anti-cigarette propaganda. The EU-roadshow will rumble into a series of youth events this summer, such as the Edinburgh Funfest in August and the FIFA under-17’s world cup in Finland, also in August, having graced April’s Paganello Frisbee Party/World Beach Ultimate Cup in Rimini, Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A LARGE step has been made by the European Commission towards guaranteeing non-European Union lawyers and law firms the right to establish themselves in any EU Member State, with this principle, (hedged by some exemptions), being offered at the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN
THE FREIGHT Transport Association has called on continental European Union Member States to make use of new powers to screen the qualifications and experience non-EU lorry drivers, weeding out competing companies who may employ cheap unskilled labour from eastern Europe and Turkey.…

Keith Nuthall
BRITONS work the longest hours in the European Union (EU), even though working time agreed in collectively agreements is below the EU average, according to a survey by the European Union’s European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Parliament’s environment committee has voted to recommend the continued withholding of some 2.18 million euros (about pounds 1.4 million) from the budget of the new European Food Safety Agency in spite of a complaint by the EFSA executive director that the agency’s work is being severely restricted by lack of funds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN EU-FUNDED research project has discovered a gene that regulates the yield, protein and fat content of milk in cows. MTT Agrifood Research, Finland, and the University of Liège, Belgium, say isolating the gene will help Ayrshire, Holstein and Jersey breeders.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL financing consortium is to fund a previously abandoned Euro 166 million project to build a waste water treatment plant in St Petersburg, Russia. Its aim is to prevent pollution in the Gulf of Finland, which causes environmental health problems in neighbouring Finland and Estonia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of Norwegian oil and gas company Fortum Petroleum by Italy’s energy company ENI, saying it would not damage the current competitive situation in the gas markets in Italy or in southern Germany, where ENI is present through GVS.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending US$5.4 million to the Maritime Port Authority of St Petersburg to fund the construction of a maritime navigation safety system in the main Russian sector of the Baltic Sea, where a future surge in tanker traffic is anticipated.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending US$5.4 million to the Maritime Port Authority of St Petersburg to fund the construction of a maritime navigation safety system in the main Russian sector of the Baltic Sea, where a future surge in tanker traffic is anticipated.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending US$5.4 million to the Maritime Port Authority of St Petersburg to fund the construction of a maritime navigation safety system in the main Russian sector of the Baltic Sea, where a future surge in tanker traffic is anticipated.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FISH Diseases Commission of the Office International des Epizooties has confirmed an outbreak of Epizootic Haematopoietic Necrosis on a Finland fish farm. The international organisation has warned of 2,600 possible cases of European Sheatfish Virus on the farm, in south-eastern Finland, near the Russian border, on the River Vuoksi.…

BY MARK ROWE
SENIOR Gazprom executives will meet EU officials next month (Feb) to discuss the Russian company’s US$5.7 billion project to build a pipeline to Britain under the Baltic Sea. The North European Gas Pipeline, due to open in 2007, should carry 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Britain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has called on the European Union and its Member States to scale down and harmonise requirements that they are making on businesses to store Internet and e-mail traffic data to help police and intelligence services fight organised crime and terrorists.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has called on the European Union and its Member States to scale down and harmonise requirements that they are making on businesses to store Internet and e-mail traffic data to help police and intelligence services fight organised crime and terrorists.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is considering a range of requests from foreign governments to liberalise the access to its legal professions under commitments it will make in a future World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal, following the ongoing so-called Doha Development Round.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is considering a range of requests to liberalise its insurance sector under commitments it will make in a future World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal, following the ongoing so-called Doha Development Round.

These include calls for it to eliminate existing restrictions in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal on the cross-border supply of maritime and air transport insurance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has sued RJ Reynolds in New York, seeking damages against allegations that it illegally laundered the proceeds of cigarette smuggling. The case – which also involves Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg – also seeks an injunction stopping future alleged laundering.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
SIMPLIFIED rules for ensuring that clean bathing water set out in the final proposal for a revised European Union (EU) bathing water directive will need to stand up to cost benefit analysis, water utility representatives have stressed.

The European Commission has now tabled proposed revision for agreement by EU ministers and MEPs, after years of argument that stalled previous attempts to update the 1976 directive.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
TEN of the 15 European Union (EU) Member States have so far failed to bring in national legislation putting into effect the end-of-life vehicles directive agreed in 2000 and could face legal action in the European Court of Justice, the Europe Commission announced today (Monday).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A BID has been launched by the European Commission to create a network of major radioactive waste management organisations across Europe, to boost co-operation on research into the disposal of radioactive waste. Brussels wants groups from seven European Union (EU) Member States – Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden – as well as Switzerland, to join the Net.Excel…

BY MARK ROWE
MANY air traffic control (ATC) organisations experience difficulties in attracting sufficient qualified staff. Indeed, the air transport industry does not seem to be as attractive an employer as it used to be. As a result, CANSO is examining selection and scaling methods, benchmarking qualification requirements, and evaluating common programmes for attracting new applicants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH Energy Industries Federation has published guidelines on how to improve corporate social responsibility in its sector. The European Commission said that the paper was of particular relevance to the nuclear industry, as four reactors supply 30 per cent of the country’s electricity, a figure set to grow because of the approval of a new reactor by Finland’s parliament this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPETITION clearance has been granted by the European Commission to the planned deal involving Finnish paper manufacturer UPM-Kymmene Corporation acquiring Morgan Adhesives, a United States-based company making adhesive labels for manufacturers. Brussels concluded after an inquiry that the takeover would not damage competition in the European Union (EU) as US-based Avery Dennison would remain the market leader in Europe.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to reimpose anti-dumping duties – albeit at a lower rate – against imports into the EU from Belarus of synthetic staple fibres of polyesters, not combed, carded or otherwise processed for spinning.

The move follows a review of the duties on polyester fibre from Belarus that were imposed in 1996 and 1997 at a rate of 43.5 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is storming ahead of the European Union’s league table for the export of electricity, supplying other EU Member States with 69,479 GWh in the latest year for which comparable figures are available (2000); Austria was the only other significant EU exporter, supplying 1,296 GWh, although outside the union, Norway recouped significant earnings from exporting 19,055 GWh.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MANY European Union Member States fail to give writers and publishers the royalty rights that they are due under EU law through their national public lending rights rules, the European Commission is claiming. In a report that could lead it to take legal action at the European Court of Justice, Brussels says that France, Greece and Luxembourg fail to give right-holders any remuneration for books lent from public libraries; in Sweden royalties are only paid to national or resident authors; and in Denmark and Finland, payments are only made for books in the local national language.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union’s drinks industry is one of the continent’s key earners according to a report from EU statistical agency Eurostat, which says its productivity is much higher than that of the food processing sector.

The top performing country in the latest pan-EU figures available (1999) in the drinks industry was France, at Euro 103,700 generated in terms of value added by the sector per person in employment.…

Keith Nuthall
FINLAND’S tough levy on non-reusable beverage packaging is under attack from the European Commission, which is claiming that the charge could be a disguised and illegal trade restriction. Brussels is threatening to take the Finnish government to the European Court of Justice over the matter, which could order it to reform the system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOVERNMENTS and international organisations have highlighted tobacco smuggling as one of the largest illegal drains on their tax revenues. An international conference has brought law enforcement professionals together with health officials to fight this problem. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL initiative to cleanse the polluted Barents Sea of nuclear waste has been launched, with Euro 110 million being pledged by Russia, the European Commission, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The Barents clean-up will be the first priority project of this Support Fund of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership; the sea, to the north of Russia and Norway, is commonly known as the largest repository of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste in the world.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
NOT many items of legislation from Brussels have provoked quite such anger among farmers over the years as the nitrates directive, which seeks to protect water from nitrate pollution caused by the application of organic and inorganic fertilisers to agricultural land.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has filed an appeal against the dismissal of its cigarette smuggling action in the US against three tobacco companies: Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds and Japan Tobacco. Notably, it has received formal support in the proceedings from the US Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association for its action, along with the World Health Organisation, the US Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN INTERNATIONAL team of scientists based at Galway, in Ireland, has made a surprising discovery that could have significant consequences for future climate change.

The EU-sponsored Parforce research project, led by the National University of Ireland, has found that iodine vapours released by marine algae can help thicken haze and cloud layers, blocking sunlight and thereby partially offsetting global warming from greenhouse gases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ICELANDIC drinks importer could win compensation from the Iceland government, after the European Free Trade Area Court found that Reykjavik had broken the rules of the European Economic Area, (of which Iceland is a part), by maintaining its alcohol importation monopoly until December 1995.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EMEA’s Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products has given a positive opinion on a range of insulin medicines, namely Actrapid, Actraphane, Insulatard, Mixtard, Monotard, Protophane, Ultratard and Velosulin. The committee also began risk-benefit reviews of gatifloxacin, (containing Bonoq, Crispin, Urobonoq, Urocrispin and associated product names) and nimesulide containing medicinal products (Aulin, Mesulide, Nimed and associated product names).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
STONE discards stored by a quarry for future sales, should be classified as waste under European Union regulations, even if they do not “pose any real risk to human health or the environment” the European Court of Justice has ruled.…

Keith Nuthall
NOONE should ever accuse the European Commission of fighting shy of regulation, and given that proposals on promoting shipping safety are generally framed with good intentions, it would be fair to say that Brussels at least tries to improve standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S health authorities provide fewer drug addicts with substitution treatment than do a majority of other European Union Member States, a statistical review by an EU drug-use agency has claimed.

The proportion of “problem drug users” given alternative medicines to wean them off their addiction ranges between six and 22 per cent in the UK, taking into account available data, estimates the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SLOWLY but surely, the world is becoming a little more open and honest in its business transactions. Bribery and corruption have existed as long as people have traded with each other and in some parts of the world remain as matter-of-fact as ever.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
*Finland is the world’s most “honest” country according to Transparency International;

*New British laws will ban payments made to people just for performing their official duties;

*In countries where bribery of foreign officials is a crime, penalties range from a one-year jail sentence (Norway) to life imprisonment (South Africa);

*Half the countries replying to the UN said their legal systems did not make it impossible to obtain tax benefits for foreign payments that would constitute bribery;

*Under American law companies can make payments for “routine government action” such as obtaining licences and permits abroad.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is expected this month (May) to announce a proposed directive boosting the use of co-generation, although EU electricity association Eurelectric thinks it may at the same time moderate earlier targets for doubling the share of energy represented by the sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FINANCED global action plan to improve safety in the nuclear energy sector has been approved in principle by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. A number of countries have pledged around US$4.6 million to fund its programmes, although this falls far short of the US$12 million price tag claimed by the IAEA, which also wants a fund of US$20 million established to handle security emergencies.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN consumers still lack the confidence to buy in countries other than their own, in spite of all the efforts made to open up the internal market, the European Commission reports. A special survey by the Commission shows that only 31 per cent of consumers think their rights are well protected when they shop cross-border in the EU, against 56 per cent who feel well protected in their own country.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SCIENTISTS from the Queensland Centre for Schizophrenia Research in Australia claim to have made a crucial step forward in the study of schizophrenia, which could help the pharmaceutical industry develop new vitamin D enriched drugs to treat the condition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH government has been ordered by the European Commission to change legislation that disqualifies car passengers from insurance cover when the driver is drunk and involved in an accident. Brussels says this exclusion of passengers’ injuries contravenes the EU’s second motor insurance directive, which seeks to harmonise national regulations for the sector and to safeguard the interests of persons who may be injured in a motor vehicle accident.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FOOD safety and quality need to be improved in all European countries because of the increase in food-borne diseases in the past decade, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have said.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A BID by a group of district heating companies to overturn massive fines levied by the European Commission, which found they had been participating in an illegal cartel, has been thrown out by the European Court of Justice’ Court of First Instance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RADIO navigation is to be improved in the Gulf of Finland, notably in Russian waters, because of a planned European Bank for Reconstruction and Development-funded project. The Maritime Port Authority of St Petersburg has formally applied for a loan from the bank for a US$5.4 million project to set up three radio towers on the islands of Gogland, Sommers and Skar, part of a regional navigational safety project.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission is take legal action against France and Luxembourg in a final bid to remove the compulsory no-claims bonus system for third party motor insurance in the European Union. The two countries are now alone in the EU in sticking to a system which the Commission claims is in breach of the third non-life insurance directive (92/49/EEC) and constitutes a barrier to free competition.…

Keith Nuthall
FINLAND has been ordered by the European Commission to change legislation that disqualifies car passengers from insurance cover when the driver is drunk and involved in an accident. Brussels says this exclusion of passengers’ injuries contravenes the EU’s second motor insurance directive which seeks to facilitate free movement within the EU and to safeguard the interests of persons who may be injured in a motor vehicle accident.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE INTRODUCTION of the Euro as a retail currency in 12 EU countries at the beginning of the year has done virtually nothing to level out the wide variations in new car prices between them, the European Commission said today (Monday).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MARITIME Museum of Finland and Britain’s Mary Rose Trust have teamed up with four other archeological groups to explore four important European shipwrecks, creating what will be a virtual exhibition of their findings.

Internet sites will publish pictures and information about the sites, which include:

*A late 13th Century cog, (small, trade vessel), off Mecklenburg, Germany;

*The Vrouw Maria, a Dutch sailing ship that sank off Finland in 1771, carrying artworks and treasures from Amsterdam to St Petersburg for Catherine the Great.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND MARK ROWE
ALTHOUGH the future of the controversial bilateral open skies agreements, struck between the United States and a string of European Union Member States, has been thrown into doubt by an advocate general of the European Court of Justice, this is by no means regarded as a disaster by Europe’s airport industry.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW report from the European Environment Agency has tried to explain why there is indeed a wide gulf between Member States’ performance on renewables; for instance, Britain has more wind than Germany, but significantly less wind power electricity generation and Greece has failed to develop solar panels as quickly as fellow southern Mediterranean EU Member State Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission may threaten legal action against national governments in the European Union, after 12 out of 16 Member States failed to meet the January 16 deadline for implementing the EU e-commerce directive. A statement from Brussels has revealed that only Luxembourg, Austria and Germany approved laws based on the directive by that date.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a report on “Investment in the Community (EU) coal and steel industries” that tracks the sector’s performance in the European Union during 1999. The report predicts that “all the coal-consuming sectors except the steel industry see their requirements declining over the coming years,” faced with the competition of natural gas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has voted to impose definitive 22.5 per cent anti-dumping duties on imports of ferro molybdenum from China. Sweden opposed the move, with Germany, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Britain abstaining. The European Commission investigation leading to the decision was sparked by a complaint by EU producers association Ferro-alliages.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched legal action against Austria, Greece, Finland, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Sweden for failing to comply with a commitment under EU law to monitor average emissions of CO2 from new passenger cars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is a curious fact that whilst Britain has a lot more wind than Germany, it has significantly less wind power electricity generation. Also, why has a country blessed with as much sun as Greece, failed to develop solar panels as quickly as its fellow southern Mediterranean EU Member State Spain?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Parliament this week (on December 11th) cleared the way for a European Food Safety Authority early next year with powers to set and monitor safety standards for the entire food chain “from farm to fork.”…