Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
SEDIMENT CHECKS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
FOLLOWING the success in collecting data about prehistoric climate changes from polar ice cores, the European Union (EU)-funded PROMESS1 project has collected 500,000-year-old sediment samples from the Mediterranean floor. These, said a European Commission note, “will allow researchers to reconstruct climate variations since pre-historic times, thus providing keys for understanding what is happening to Earth’s climate now…holding (geological) archives of past developments”.…
DENMARK LORRIES
BY 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.…
INSPIRE DATABASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a database that will contain environmental data from across the European Union (EU), as it proposed a directive harmonising the way that national governments record such information. The idea of the INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in the European Union) initiative is to enable environmental policy makers to draw on data culled from across the EU, rather than being limited to national information.…
LA PORT POLLUTION
BY MONICA DOBIE
A RECENT survey released from the Port of Los Angeles showed that ships account for the overwhelming proportion of emissions in the city’s harbour zone, except carbon monoxide, where road vehicles were the worst culprits.
Ships were responsible for 86% of sulphur dioxide and 55% of diesel particulate matter, compared to 1% and 9% for heavy goods vehicles.…
REHN INITIATIVE
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”.…
CHILD BIKE SAFETY
BY MONICA DOBIE
CHILDREN as old as 12 lack the cognitive ability to safely cross streets on their bicycles, according to a University of Iowa study published in the American journal Child Development. Researchers used virtual reality technology to allow participants to ride stationery bicycles through a residential neighbourhood, where cars were travelling between 50 and 70 kilometres per hour.…
SPAIN OWNERSHIP TRANSFER
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided to launch legal action against Spain over the transfer of insurance portfolios in that country, which Brussels says are in violation of European Union’s (EU) insurance directives and the principle of free movement of services.…
NORWAY & LIECHTENSTEIN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORWAY is being taken to the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court over consumer legislation that bans the sale of life assurance contracts within Norway, unless policyholders are charged an upfront fee covering all completion costs. The EFTA Surveillance Authority claims that this is illegal under European law, notably the third life assurance directive (92/96/EEC), which applies in Norway because it is a member of the European Union (EU)-linked European Economic Area (EEA).…
LUXEMBOURG - ECJ CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Luxemburg with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), over its compulsory system setting maximum excesses in third party motor insurance. Brussels wants this liberalised, claiming the Grand Duchy’s law breaks freedoms to market insurance products guaranteed by the European Union’s (EU) third non-life insurance directive.…
GREECE - ECJ
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Greece with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), over its alleged failure to implement European Union (EU) legislation on solvency margins for non-life and life insurance companies. These rules had been written into EU insurance ‘winding-up’ directives and were supposed to have been transposed into Greek law by last September 2003.…