Archive

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler has resisted an attempt by the Greek government to bypass the European Commission in its bid to pay state aid to cotton producers. Greece asked a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers for agriculture to consider the matter as it has the power to authorise the payments.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has given the European Commission a mandate to open negotiations on the renewal of two Agreements on Trade in Textile Products, between the EU and the Cambodian and Nepali governments.…

BY MARK ROWE
EUROPEAN scientists have been granted pioneering access to Tibet in the hope of discovering industrial catalysts that could lead to a new generation of chemicals for textile production.

The research team from Britain’s Leicester and Seville universities will next year visit pristine soda lakes, salt lakes and hot springs rich in microbial biodiversity.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
TEXTILE experts at Cornell University in New York have listed the best ways to remove 250 varieties of stains. According to the website, of use to textile producers and consumers, (www.human.cornell.edu/units/txa/extension/removingstains.pdf), there are some stains like stomach acid, acne medications and old urine stains “that cannot be removed, in spite of all the time and effort you spend treating them.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
MOROCCO has been granted a loan of Euro 120 million, (about GBPounds 73 million), by the European Investment Bank, to help extend its electricity connections with Spain and Algeria. The project is part of an ambitious exchange of electrical power between Europe and north Africa, designed to help boost the liberalisation of the electrical energy markets in the EU’s African neighbours.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH Energy Industries Federation has published guidelines on how to improve corporate social responsibility in its sector. The European Commission said that the paper was of particular relevance to the nuclear industry, as four reactors supply 30 per cent of the country’s electricity, a figure set to grow because of the approval of a new reactor by Finland’s parliament this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening Sweden with legal action at the European Court of Justice over its failure to pass national rules insisting upon environmental impact assessments (EIA) for the decommissioning of nuclear power stations. Brussels claims that the EU’s EIA directive requires that the dismantling of plants and reactors should be subject to planning consent, following an environmental impact assessment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A BID has been launched by the European Commission to create a network of major radioactive waste management organisations across Europe, to boost co-operation on research into the disposal of radioactive waste. Brussels wants groups from seven European Union (EU) Member States – Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden – as well as Switzerland, to join the Net.Excel…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ADDITIONAL European Union (EU) funding towards the decommissioning of Lithuania’s Ignalina nuclear power plant and Slovakia’s Bohunice plant has been pledged by an EU heads of government meeting in Brussels. This European Council promised that between 2004 and 2006, the EU would give the Lithuanian government Euro 70 million annually for the job.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
GERMANY is being threatened with legal action by the European Commission over the award of sewage water treatment and gas and electricity supply contracts by the city of Jever, Friesland, north Germany. Brussels says that the contracts were agreed without open tendering procedures legally required to ensure competition in public procurement.…