Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) body that represents local and regional authorities has called on the European Commission to review its state aid guidelines to allow its members to help low cost airlines work from regional airports, because of the economic development they promote.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CREATION of a European Union (EU) ‘Community licence’ for air traffic controllers, awarded according to uniform rules and recognised across Europe, has been proposed. The European Commission wants to replace what it calls the “current patchwork of national licensing schemes”, with a system guaranteeing high quality training across the EU.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it is prepared to allow governments across the European Union (EU) to subsidise pollution reductions in older lorries that are not covered by new EU emission rules. Brussels has authorised the Danish government to meet up to 30% of the cost of retrofitting Denmark registered lorries weighing more than 3.5 tonnes with particulate filters, using its power to regulate national state aid.…

KEITH NUTHALL
AN EXPLOSION in the financial resources commanded by the European Union’s (EU) rail-and-boat freight programme Marco Polo has been proposed by the European Commission. It wants EU ministers to extend its formal expiry from the current 2010 to 2013 and moreover – inflate its budget for 2007-13 to Euro 750 million; Marco Polo only commands Euro 75 million for 2003-6 (for the old 15 member EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GROUND-LEVEL checks on the thickness of polar ice caps are being staged by the European Space Agency (ESA) to assess environmental monitoring data which will culled its oncoming Cryosat satellite mission. ESA has sent scientists to ice sheets in the north of Canada, Greenland and Norway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A STRATEGIC research programme promoting nano-electronics, funded from public and private sources, is to be established by the European Commission and specialist European Union (EU) companies. A European Nano-electronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC) will be formed to draw up the plan, being chaired by STMicroelectronics CEO Pasquale Pistorio.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) has called for technological advances in road transport systems to better manage a growth in traffic that will be sustained until and beyond 2020. In a detailed paper, it cites forecasts predicting an increase by 2010 from 1998 of 26% in vehicle kilometres for the old 15-member European Union (EU) and 24% for passenger kilometres.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
NORTH Americans are abandoning the traditional enclosed malls and are instead flocking to open-air ‘lifestyle centres’ or main street shopping, according to a retail expert.

At a recent conference for the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC), in Calgary, Canada, Ian Thomas chairperson of Vancouver-based Thomas Consultants Inc said: “Consumers are no longer infatuated with the mall.…

BY KEITN NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has released two standards helping clothing manufacturers check the effectiveness of protective garments and the materials used to make them. They lay down laboratory tests measuring the penetration resistance of clothing materials to blood, body fluids and other potentially infectious materials.…

BY KEITN NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition by USA takeover, investment and strategic management company Platinum Equity LLC of German textile dye manufacturer and international distributor Dystar Textilfarben GmBH & Co. The deal was approved under the Commission’s simplified competition procedure and Brussels imposed no conditions on allowing the takeover.…