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.
EU DUTY SUSPENSION
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked by the European Commission to shelve import tariffs on a range of leather products, because of concern that demand is outstripping supply in the EU. The suspension of duties would be indefinite, although the European Commission will inevitably review these tariff breaks within a year; assuming they are approved, they come into force on New Year’s Day.…
GAS ELECTRICITY
BY ALAN OSBORN
NEW rules changing the place of taxation for VAT purposes of natural gas and electricity have been proposed by the European Commission “so as to facilitate the functioning of the single market for energy.” Brussels said the proposal would eliminate the current problems of double taxation and non-taxation and distortions of competition between traders by changing the place of taxation of natural gas in pipelines and of electricity from the place of supply to the place of consumption.…
ENERGY DEBATE SITE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A DYNAMIC online forum on European energy policy has been launched by an international consortium; the European Union-funded INTUSER website contains information about current energy issues and questionnaires allowing specialists and the public to contribute to policy debates.…
RENEWABLE AWARDS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUND-BREAKING scheme to promote renewable energy in rural Wales has received a European award, in a competition designed to promote good practice and push the European Union towards meeting its target of generating 12 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010.…
TRAFFIC DATA LIMITS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has called on the European Union and its Member States to scale down and harmonise requirements that they are making on businesses to store Internet and e-mail traffic data to help police and intelligence services fight organised crime and terrorists.…
SOUTH WEST WATER
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has developed plans to lend South West Water (SWW) owner the Pennon Group plc up to Euro 60 million to help finance the utility’s 2000-2005 capital expenditure programme for non-environmental schemes. The money would be injected into a string of improvement projects for both water supply and disposal, which are designed to re-balance “supply and demand” and boost “enhanced customer service standards.”…
CAR CO2 EMISSIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
CARBON dioxide emissions from new cars sold in the European Union have declined by 10 per cent since 1995, according to a new Brussels survey. It added that last year members of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association reduced emissions by 2.5 per cent, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association 2.2 per cent and the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association 2.6 per cent.…
EU EMISSIONS TRADING GREENWATCH
BY ALAN OSBORN
IT’S now official. Following agreement this week by its environment ministers, the European Union (EU) is to set up a market to trade pollution permits for carbon dioxide (CO2), the main so-called greenhouse gas, starting in 2005.
The European Commission is delighted, business is pleased, and while not all environmentalists are overjoyed, the balance of opinion among them is clearly favourable.…
NUCLEAR PROBE
BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane, Australia
A NUCLEAR probe developed in Australia for minerals exploration and mining has the potential to reduce rates of acid rain and other environmental pollution, its developers claim.
The device, designed by Australia’s chief science authority CSIRO, can detect the concentrations of sulphur in coal seams and mine waste rock underground, allowing miners to choose those with lower levels and leave the higher sulphur coals embedded.…
SLAUGHTERHOUSE AID
BY ALAN OSBORN
PROPOSALS by the European Commission to ban state aid for the disposal of slaughterhouse waste and fallen stock could put many British slaughterhouses out of business, said Robert Kennard, a spokesman for small abattoir operators.
Under the Brussels plan, state aid for the disposal of slaughterhouse waste of any kind would be made illegal from the start of 2003, though European Union (EU) Member States would be given leeway in exceptional circumstances to grant 50 per cent aid for the disposal of specified risk material and meat and bone meal with no further commercial use.…