Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given Greece a ‘reasoned opinion’ final warning threatening legal action at the European Court of Justice, telling it to cease the state-owned Public Power Corporation’s (PCC) practice of rolling the cost of extracting lignite – its key source – into its accounted generation costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has visited Syria, pressing its government to reform its gas infrastructure and regulation so it can play a key role in creating a Middle East-to-Europe network. The European Commission sees Syria as a key link, notably in the so-called Arab pipeline, linking Egypt to Syria and the Lebanon through Jordan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LOCATIONAL SIGNALS

EUROPEAN Union (EU) electricity federation Eurelectric has called for greater harmonisation of EU power tariff and network access charges, should governments wish to introduce ‘locational signals’, varying such fees to encourage power operators to build capacity in areas close to consumers and avoid potential transmission bottlenecks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein has welcomed the final approval of a counterfeiting and piracy directive, which will help established cosmetics producers suppress fakes. The legislation widens powers available to EU customs and trading officials to seize fake goods and also for rights holders to secure financial compensation, injunctions, damages and the destruction and recall of illegal goods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has approved four new cosmetic test methods avoiding the use of animals for use in its 30 developed world members. Validated by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), three of the tests examine the potential of chemicals to corrode the skin and other checks whether chemicals can induce photo-toxicity.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EXPOSURE to air pollution may harm un-conceived children according to a study performed by Canadian researchers published in the journal Science. The study from McMaster University, Hamilton, revealed that the offspring of mice exposed to high levels of air pollution had significantly greater rates of genetic mutations than mice housed in a non-polluted environment.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE GLOBAL food standards body Codex Alimentarius has asked its member countries for their comments on a number of proposed food risk assessment, dairy and additive standards which could become the basis for international food safety legislation. Since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round in 1994 the Codex has become the reference point for international food law, laying down precise regulations for the composition of more than 200 specific food products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has finally approved the controversial EU hygiene package, scotching concerns that European Parliament amendments passed last month would delay approval into the autumn. Instead, ministers shirked a fight with MEPs, agreeing changes that will allow public officials to inspect the slaughter of pigs and veal calves, and ignoring European Commission calls for that job to be carried out by abattoirs.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
ONLY half of tainted meat subject to formal recalls in the United States from 1998 to 2002 was actually returned, according to a recent study at Ohio State University, published in the Food Control journal, which has questioned the safety of the current system.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A COMBINATION of global warming increasing pollen production and chronic pollution from industry and traffic of is raising levels of asthma in children according to a report from the American Public Health Association. The impact of increased on the under-fives was particularly damaging; their asthma rates rose 160 per cent from 1980 to 1994.…