Archive

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken the first step towards legal action against Spain and Italy over legislation in those countries to control the voting rights of investments by foreign state companies in the energy sector. Brussels says the laws “may unduly restrict free movement of capital as enshrined in European Union (EU) treaty rules.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMENDENTS to the latest proposed guidelines for European Union (EU) trans-European energy network grant applications would force the European Commission to consider the effect of subsidised projects on competition amongst EU utilities.

The European Parliament has amended the criteria governing the award of grants to make sure that public subsidies to one electricity or gas operator do not negatively impact on a rival or lock out potential new competitors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled that it is prepared to raid Brussels’ public purse to create widespread broadband telecommunications networks across Europe, if private financing falls short of the task. Andrew Houghton, broadband project officer for the Commission’s directorate general for the information society, told the recent European Union Eurescom telecoms summit: “Where markets don’t work, subsidies to develop the infrastructure make sense.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BELGIUM has failed to comply with the universal service and interoperability provisions of the 1997 EU directive on telecommunications interconnection directive, the European Court of Justice has ruled. It has found in favour of the European Commission which brought a case against the Belgian government, charging that it had failed to introduce rules to monitor and verify compliance by telecommunication operators with mandatory cost accounting systems, as required by the directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BRITISH government has been given permission by the European Commission to extend its Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme, which supplies GBPounds 17 million a year in grants to encourage the development and take-up of energy efficient and low carbon technologies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE’S Suez and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have launched a joint drinking water improvements programme that will provide around Euro 300,000 in its first three years and will initially concentrate on the Volga-Caspian region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has taken a significant step towards the creation of a European Union (EU) greenhouse gas emissions trading system, as signatory governments of the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Convention gathered to meet in New Delhi this week, (October 23 to November 1).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUNDBREAKING development aid scheme has been launched with the support of the European Commission, which specifically promotes the development of Internet networks and related e-commerce in poorer areas of Europe. The Euro 4.35 million e-MINDER scheme will target Cyprus, Galicia, (Spain), and Pomerania, (Poland), pump-priming small and medium-sized businesses to develop e-commerce projects, boosting regional economies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PLANS have been developed at the European Investment Bank to lend Denmark’s second city Aarhus Euro 100 million to build a combined heat and power municipal incineration plant and also make improvements to its drinking water supply and waste water systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank is lending Euro 100 million to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus to help it improve its electricity transmission and distribution networks. The loan will help finance 19 transmission schemes and a larger number of distribution schemes throughout the Greek part of the island.…