Archive

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN consumers still lack the confidence to buy in countries other than their own, in spite of all the efforts made to open up the internal market, the European Commission reports. A special survey by the Commission shows that only 31 per cent of consumers think their rights are well protected when they shop cross-border in the EU, against 56 per cent who feel well protected in their own country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FRENCH government will have to defend itself at the European Court of Justice against claims by the European Commission that it has broken European Union law over tough personnel regulations, restricting the employment of special needs teachers from other EU Member States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank is to extend for another five years a stipend scheme that has successfully encouraged poor and rural families in Bangladesh to send their girls to secondary schools that were until recently predominantly male.

Working with the country’s directorate of secondary and higher education, which operates the programme, the bank is to loan Dhaka US$120.9 million interest free.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FRENCH government will have to defend itself at the European Court of Justice against claims by the European Commission that it has broken European Union law over tough personnel regulations, restricting the employment of qualified social care workers from other EU Member States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW fast-track system for updating guidelines on the training that must be undertaken by foreign nurses from other European Union Member States, if they want their qualifications recognised in Britain, has been proposed by the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have approved a new ‘solvency margin’ directive that boosts by 50 per cent the minimum financial reserves that must be retained by EU-registered insurance companies writing aviation industry policies, which Brussels deems “a particularly volatile risk.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE USA’S new Transportation Security Administration has taken over responsibility for aviation industry security in the country’s airports, from private companies and the Federal Aviation Administration. The aim is to boost the quality of security staff, by ensuring they are better trained and paid as public employees than their independent security company predecessors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has developed plans to lend Euro 25 million to Croatian air navigation services provider Croatia Control Ltd. The money would pay for the renewal of Zagreb Area Control Centre, replacing old equipment and allowing the country to cope with an expected future increase in air traffic.…

BY MARK ROWE
TOYOTA Motors is considering buying up Inchcape Motors, a Singapore subsidiary of the world’s largest motor agency, Inchcape plc. The deal is dependent on a proposed delisting of Inchcape Motors, which distributes Toyota and Suzuki in the Asian island state.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has endorsed a mandatory global air industry security audit, checking standards in all its 187 member states. The initial cost of the ICAO Aviation Security Plan of Action is US$ 17 million, agreed a High-Level Ministerial Conference held in the organisation’s Montreal headquarters.…