Search Results for: Icelandic

There is broad consensus among energy and environmental experts that carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems built at commercial scale must play a key role if governments are to achieve their 2015 COP21 (Paris Agreement) ambitions for limiting carbon emissions. “All credible scenario modelling shows that CCS will be essential to meeting the targets set by the Paris Agreement”, commented a report co-ordinated by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) for a European Gas Regulatory Forum meeting, staged last June (2019).…

A GERMAN fibre company is seeking to demonstrate how the cleansing and nourishing properties of seaweed can protect the skin of people wearing garments made from fibres embedded with this abundant ocean resource.

Sustainably-produced wellness fibres produced by Rudolstadt, Thuringia-based smartfiber AG have powdered organic seaweed mixed in during the production phase, helping the company create soft fabrics used in the manufacture of underwear and loungewear, baby and children’s clothes, footwear, home textiles, bedding, sport and lifestyle clothing ranges.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) has released an ambitious policy plan designed to steer the industry towards sustainability. Called the Berlin Declaration, having been released at the fourth World Cocoa Conference, of governments, farmers, traders, grinders, processors, manufacturers, researchers, trade unions, civil society organisations, trade unions, consumer organisations, it says higher farm gate prices should be paid.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) food and drink exporters could be major beneficiaries of a revised EU-Mexico trade agreement which will remove almost all bilateral tariffs left by a year 2000 deal. Under a new agreement struck in principle, Mexican import duties on EU exports of cheeses, such as gorgonzola and roquefort, and pasta (of up to 20%), will be removed, along with duties on chocolate and confectionery, (that can exceed 20%).…

ICELAND airport operator Isavia has borrowed Icelandic Krona ISK12.5 billion (EUR100 million) from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help finance renovations and capacity improvements at the country’s Keflavik International Airport. With the country experiencing a tourism boom, the airport processed 8.7 million passengers in 2017, up 28.3% on 2016, and is projected to receive nearly 10.5 million travellers in 2018.…

ICELAND airport operator Isavia has borrowed Icelandic Krona ISK12.5 billion (EUR100 million) from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help finance renovations and capacity improvements at the country’s Keflavik International Airport. With the country experiencing a tourism boom, the airport processed 8.7 million passengers in 2017, up 28.3% on 2016, and is projected to receive nearly 10.5 million travellers in 2018.…

THE FINANCIAL Action Task Force (FATF) has told Iceland it must better coordinate its domestic authorities charged with anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), strengthening its efforts to stem dirty money flows.

In a comprehensive review, the global AML body noted that while Icelandic financial regulators had been effective between 2008 and 2015 in cleaning up complex fraud and accounting cases surrounding its offshore sector’s 2008 banking collapse, this work “did not extend to anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing…”

FATF’s detailed assessment argued that Icelandic authorities “have a fragmented understanding of AML/CFT risks, which is not used for further policy development”. …

ICELAND’S lamb farmers are turning to marketing promoting the unique nature of their meat product to help them cope with falling local meat prices caused by overproduction and declining exports. A spokesman for the Farmers’ Association of Iceland (Bændasamtök Íslands) said a new campaign to promote the unique taste of the country’s “short-tailed special breed of sheep” abroad could make the industry viable.…

THE PARIS conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last December, of COP21, made a commitment to create a carbon-neutral world between 2050 and 2100. This means that governments and international organisations must devise policies to ensure the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity equals the amount that that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally preventing the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere.…

Branded food manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result.…

Chinese travellers are increasingly venturing to Greece, offering great potential for its tourism industry. And while Greece’s exotic landscapes and architecture attract visitors from China, the tourism industry could prosper still further from developing services and infrastructure designed to cater to this growing market.…

Southwark Crown Court, in London, has sentenced a former CEO of a major British sports good  retailer JJB Sports to five years in prison for three fraud offences, totalling around GBP1 million, and for two offences of ‘furnishing false information’.  Christopher Ronnie’s co-defendants, David Ball and David Barrington, owners of Fashion and Sport Ltd, a company that sold clothing brands and supplied stock to now dissolved JJB, were each sentenced to 18 months in prison for attempting to pervert the course of justice.…

Southwark Crown Court, in London, has sentenced a former CEO of a major British sports good retailer JJB Sports to five years in prison for three fraud offences, totalling around GBP1 million, and for two offences of ‘furnishing false information’. Christopher Ronnie’s co-defendants, David Ball and David Barrington, owners of Fashion and Sport Ltd, a company that sold clothing brands and supplied stock to now dissolved JJB, were each sentenced to 18 months in prison for attempting to pervert the course of justice.…

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.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament voted yesterday in a plenary meeting that air passengers facing a flight delay should be compensated if forced to wait for more than three hours, instead of five hours proposed by the European Commission. MEPs voted an exhaustive list of exceptional circumstances in which the airline is not required to pay compensation, such as “bird strikes, political unrest and unforeseen labour disputes”.…

THE WIDESPREAD disruption to European air-travel caused by the dramatic large-scale volcanic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in March 2010 has prompted close assessments of air traffic control procudures in countries with significant seismic activity.

The 2010 disruption was a costly experience for airlines and air-passenger traffic.…

MAJOR companies within the European Union (EU) suffering from major cybercrime attacks will have to inform regulators under a proposed EU directive on network and information security. If the legislation is approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers, it would assign that duty to operators of critical infrastructure in the financial, transport, energy and health sectors; IT services, such as app stores, e-commerce platforms, internet payment systems, cloud computing companies, search engines and social network; plus public administrations.…

ALMOST three years after the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull which closed the European air space and left millions of passengers stranded in airports across the continent, a network of  European institutions charged with handling such and other similar crises is still finding its feet.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE DISRUPTION to the European airport sector caused by the continent’s heavy snowfall this winter – the heaviest in 20 years – looks set to prompt a radical shake-up of contingency plans to deal with bad weather.

Many European airports are now conducting reviews of how they source, commission and stockpile equipment for such eventualities.…

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

THE ICELANDIC government is facing potential legal action at the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court for failing to implement European Union (EU) directive 2008/121/EC on textile names. This insists EU member states and associated countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes Iceland, use uniform rules on textile product names, composition and labelling, easing European sales.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN and Iceland farm organisations have warned Icelandic meat and dairy production could be seriously hit by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Europe’s Copa-Cogeca and the Farmers Association of Iceland have both warned ash is falling on an important agricultural area – home to 15% of the country’s cattle and 6% of sheep.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, KARRYN MILLER and ALAN OSBORN

WITH the ongoing eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano has grounded airlines and stranded passengers across the world for nearly a week, airports have been scrambling to accommodate the millions of people blocked by an enormous plume of ash filling prime airspace.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

THE EXODUS of the McDonald’s restaurant franchise from Iceland may have captured the international headlines. But the rest of the island nation’s food sector and 300 production companies face a great deal of change, uncertainty, debt financing challenges and initiatives driven by cost-reduction imperatives, particularly small to medium-sized enterprises.…

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 ALAN OSBORN

THE COLLAPSE of the over-extended Icelandic banking system last October – the first and so far the most calamitous outcome of the global credit crunch – led to rowdy street protests in Reykjavik, the resignation of the prime minister Geir Haarde and his cabinet in January (26-1) and a pledge of new elections in May.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have formally approved reductions to total allowable catches (TACs) in the Baltic Sea, with the aim of conserving stocks. That said, ministers did not reduce catches to the levels preferred by the European Commission: western Baltic herring catches have been cut by 39%, while Brussels wanted a 63% reduction: the Commission was mollified by a commitment from ministers to establish a long-term management plan for this stock.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH fishing fleets may finally obtain easier access to Icelandic fishing grounds, with Reykjavik saying that applying for European Union (EU) membership is now a possibility. That this idea has been floated by Iceland’s fisheries minister Einar Gudfinnsson is seen as particularly significant, given that control of its fishing grounds is the main reason why Iceland has remained outside the EU thus far.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has now formally opened its agency coordinating the policing of fishing rules in its member states’ fishing fleets, amidst a call for it to receive more powers. At a formal launch ceremony for the Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) it its base in Vigo, Spain, a senior Spanish socialist MEP Rosa Miguélez Ramos said she hoped that "unlike previous [EU] agencies, it will extend its remit and its tasks".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve an increase in the exploitation by EU ships of the rich tuna stocks surrounding Indian Ocean island archipelago the Seychelles. EU fishing businesses will have to pay for the privilege however: whilst the general limit on EU tonnage accessing Seychelles waters should rise from 55,000 to 63,000 tonnes, the money paid by vessel operators will rise from Euro 25 to 35 per tonne per annum, which would – said a note from the European Commission – bring fees in line with other EU tuna access agreements.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has tabled a string of revised quotas impacting on British fisherman, to bring European Union (EU) catch limits in line with political deals agreed earlier this year. These include agreements with Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands and a deal struck at the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have ordered a freeze on catches of round-nose grenadier in the North Sea, including in Norwegian waters, saying catches in 2005-6 should match average annual catches in 1996-2003. It is one of a number of conservation-minded measures recently ordered by the EU Council of Ministers, one being a ban on catching and landing white sharks and basking sharks in any EU waters, the ban applying to non-EU and EU-flagged fleets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve a trade deal between the EU and Iceland, which will see wine, fortified wines, and unsweetened mineral waters (carbonated or still) being imported and exported across the north-east Atlantic duty free.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ICELAND government is facing a legal challenge to its restrictive student loans regulations, which the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority considers breaks European Union (EU) freedom of movement rules. These have to be applied in Iceland for EU and EFTA members, because Iceland is in the European Economic Area (EEA), where many EU laws apply.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FACT BOX

Population of Iceland: 300,000

Number of students enrolled at university: 9,526

Percentage of university students who are Icelanders: 93%

Percentage of Icelandic population attending university: 5.8%

INTERVIEW

A LOT of people are fascinated by Iceland and it’s helped make the country’s university something of a lure for students across Europe and even America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Free Trade Area (EFTA) has set ceilings on the amount of money that Iceland aluminium smelter Norðurál hf (NOTE TO SUBS – NAME INCLUDES BIZARRE ICELANDIC LETTER – THIS IS NOT A CORRUPTION) can save from 10 tax and fee concessions offered by the Icelandic government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released details of a fishing agreement that will give 40 European Union (EU) tuna seiners and 17 surface longliners access to the Indian Ocean waters off the Comoros archipelago. Asking EU ministers to approve the deal, Brussels said it would cover an annual catch of 6,000 tonnes of tuna in Comoros waters until December 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on the European Commission to frame an action plan on simplifying red tape for the fishing industry, “reducing their bureaucratic workload and the restrictions that bear down on fishermen”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will fund with Euro 8.1 million a research project to identify the genes making people more prone to addictions of any kind. The GENADDICT Integrated Project links eight leading public and private research organisations and is coordinated by Professor Ian Kitchen, of the University of Surrey.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GURANTEE issued to American drug company deCODE Genetics Inc by the Icelandic government regarding a US$200 million bond is being investigated by the European Free Trade Area Surveillance Authority because of concerns that the move may break European state aid rules.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A TECHNOLOGICALLY innovative development of geothermal energy in Iceland is expected to go ahead with the support of a planned loan of Euro 23.5 million from the European Investment Bank. The money would help extend the generating power of the City of Reykjavik’s existing Nesjavellir geothermal cogeneration plant by 30 MWe and 150 MWth.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A TECHNOLOGICALLY innovative development of geothermal energy in Iceland is expected to go ahead with the support of a planned loan of Euro 23.5 million from the European Investment Bank. The money would help extend the generating power of the City of Reykjavik’s existing Nesjavellir geothermal cogeneration plant by 30 MWe and 150 MWth.…

BY SIGRÚN DAVÍDSDOTTIR
THE FOUR Scandinavian language-speaking countries, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, all pass with flying colours on Transparency International’s Corruption Index when considering their exposure to money laundering. Though the use criminal proceeds is not a serious issue in this friendly part of the world, their vicinity to countries in the former communist eastern bloc and the increasingly pervasive nature of international terrorism means that no one can afford to be caught sleeping on the post, especially not after 9/11.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority is threatening Iceland with legal action over its alleged failure to implement European Economic Area rules on the sale and production of farmed fish. It has given Reykjavik two months in which to explain how it will write directive 91/67/EEC, as amended in 1993, 1995 and 1998, into its national statutes.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MARK ROWE, in London, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane, and RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg

Introduction

Europe

Cuts to EU catch quotas

New sources of fish

Affect on fish producers

Wild alternatives to cod

Farmed cod

North America

USA – Healthier local stocks

USA – Demand up

USA – Fish imports

Canada – Farmed fish exports

Canada – GM issues

Australasia

Australia – New wild sources

Australia – Aquaculture

Australia – Wild fish innovation

Australia and New Zealand – sustainability

South Africa – Export increase and conservation

Japan – Local and regional supply

Japan – Maintaining quality

Japan – Non-Asian sources

Introduction

ONCE it was said, cod was so abundant that fishermen in some parts of the world boasted they could walk on the backs of the fish to find their catch.…

BY SIGRÚN DAVÍDSDOTTIR
THE ICELAND parliament, the Althing, is struggling to pass a bill based on the EU electricity liberalisation directive, which tries to boost competition the sector. The government is set on passing it, but the bill is meeting a strong opposition in wide circles, claiming it is inappropriate for Iceland.…

BY SIGRÚN DAVÍDSDOTTIR
AN HEP plant designed to power a new aluminium smelter, the first constructed by Alcoa Inc. in twenty years, is under preparation in eastern Iceland. The plant would produce 285,000 tonnes of aluminium a year. At the same time Alcoa is closing down two plants in the US and reducing production in a third.…

BY SIGRÚN DAVÍDSDOTTIR
THE ICELAND parliament, the Althing, is struggling to pass a bill based on the EU electricity liberalisation directive, which tries to boost competition the sector. The government is set on passing it, but the bill is meeting a strong opposition in wide circles, claiming it is inappropriate for Iceland.…

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.…

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
THE UNITED Nations has highlighted how some member countries have been using their money laundering laws to criminalise corruption, while employing bribery or corruption laws to outlaw money laundering. A report by the UN Secretary General’s department on how the organisation’s 1996 declaration against Corruption and Bribery in International Commercial Transactions has lead to national laws being tightened regarding these crimes lists a number of case studies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER States of the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA), (Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein), should not charge higher VAT on foreign language books than they do on books in native tongues, the court of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) has ruled.…

BY SIGRUN DAVIDSDOTTIR
WHAT unlikely sort of new skin are the ‘hot’ designers/fashion houses such as Prada, John Galliano, Christian Dior, Stephane Kélian and Christian Louboutin using now?

Well, it is Icelandic fish skin – and it appears to be taking the world of high fashion by storm!…