Archive

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has backed a political case brought by the European Commission against Germany, designed to demonstrate a zero tolerance attitude towards the implementation of European Union (EU) energy liberalisation legislation. Judges censured Germany for being three years late in implementing the natural gas single market liberalisation directive approved in August 1998 with an implementation deadline of August 2000.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPE’S policy makers should refrain from depending too heavily on renewable energy sources when securing future electricity supplies, European Union (EU) producer federation Eurelectric and IFIEC Europe, the federation of European industrial energy consumers have said. In a joint statement, they suggested developing “technically and economically realistic objectives for renewable energy, and on leaving open all available energy options”.…

KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY has moved away from an aggressive approach towards cutting industrial greenhouse gas pollution, watering down planned commitments within a national allocation plan under the European Union’s (EU) emission trading scheme. Brokered by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the new agreement earmarks 503 million tonnes of carbon dioxide credits annually to its industry (including power generators) between 2005 and 2007, a minor reduction (0.4 per cent) to current emissions (505 million tonnes).…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is has given Belgium two months in which to say how it will prevent Flanders’ regional government from imposing distribution charges on imports of electricity from renewable energy resources, while not levying supplies from Flemish ‘green’ producers, that is directly placed on the national grid.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee is seeking to prioritise a new European Union energy efficiency directive, by proposing amendments forcing the European Commission to introduce electricity consumption standards for particular products generating significant global warming problems. These rules would cover heating and water heating equipment, electric motor systems, lightings, domestic appliances, office equipment, consumer electronics plus heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank have teamed up to help fund the construction of a combined cycle power station fuelled by distillate oil in Albania, in a bid to wean the county off overdependence on hydro-electric power.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend the city of Amsterdam up to Euro 170 million to help extend the capacity of an existing waste-to-energy plant by 85 per cent to 500,000 tonnes of household waste per year, much of it water service waste.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SEEN in the context of the past decade, the entry of 10 new member states to the European Union (EU) which took place on May 1 has proved nothing like the disaster for the nuclear industry that was once feared.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A KEY link in the European Union’s (EU) European Research Area (ERA) is being developed this month (April), with the launch of the SARNET network of excellence on nuclear accident research. It is one of the largest ERA initiatives, involving 18 research organisations, 11 private companies, ten universities, four utilities and six safety authorities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action at the European Court of Justice against Austria for failing to abide by Euratom health and safety directives. Brussels claims Vienna has failed to properly implement the basic safety standards directive, protecting workers and the public against ionising radiation, setting dose limits and requirements for practices involving ionising radiation; and the directive on medical exposures.…