Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A POLITICAL agreement has been struck at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers (environment) on reforming the EU packaging and packaging waste directive. Member States provisionally agreed increased minimum targets for the recycling of specific materials: 60 per cent for recycling paper and board, 15 per cent of wood and 22.5 per cent of plastics, recycled back into plastics.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a formal investigation procedure into British government plans to grant aid north Wales newsprint producer Shotton Euro 35 million (Pounds 23 million) to enable it produce newsprint from waste paper rather than virgin pulp.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EMERGENCY response networks that have been built up across the European Union (EU) in the wake of the September 11 disaster are being tested next week in Brussels’ first ever civil protection exercise.

Euratox 2002 will simulate a terror attack involving radiological and chemical fall-out and be staged at a French military camp at Canjuers, Var, Côte-d’Azur.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is preparing to force its Member States to introduce a common system of public compensation for crimes against the person that are often covered by commercial personal accident injury policies and travel insurance packages.

A proposed directive on compensation to crime victims lays down a minimum standard of compensation for intentional violent crimes, including sexual, racist and xenophobic offences committed on a Member State’s territory.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EMPLOYER liability insurance policies will have to take account of changes to national workplace data protection regulations expected across the EU because of a wide-ranging and detailed public consultation launched by the European Commission.

Brussels has already concluded that there is a need to harmonise the widely divergent rules and practices amongst Member States, so legislation will inevitably be tabled.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
A FRENCH company is launching its car repair warranty service in Sri Lanka, claiming that it is the first of its kind in south Asia. SAGE Guarantee Automobile said that it is investing Euro 1 million in the scheme, which it would use as a springboard to attack the Indian market.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
EU environment ministers have broadened the scope of new legislation amending the present Seveso Two directive which imposes duties on industrial plants to protect against and prepare for accidents. Changes made by the EU’s Council of Environment Ministers will highlight the importance of ensuring “appropriate safety distances between industrial establishments and major transport routes,” the European Commission said.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is slowly moving towards the setting up of a compulsory insurance scheme that would support inventors and innovators in pursuing legal claims against patent infringers. At present many patents, especially those taken out by individuals and small companies, are openly violated by companies who gamble that the holder has neither the resources nor expertise to mount the necessary legal challenge.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN remained an averagely taxed economy compared with its competitor rich nations in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to a new report from this international think-tank. It says that the share of Britain’s GDP represented by tax take remained at 37.4 per cent in 2001, the same as in 2000.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A DUTCH company has won a European Business Award for the Environment for developing a green car insurance policy that it claims will help the environment, prolong the life of cars and reduce insurance premiums by five to 10 per cent.…