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.
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is being threatened with massive fines because of its alleged failure to abide by an European Court of Justice ruling that it should set up redress procedures provided for in European Union public procurement legislation. This allows suppliers, who feel they have been unfairly excluded from a public procurement tender in the water, energy and telecommunications sectors, to make formal complaints and launch appeals.…
ELECTROMAGNETIC SAFETY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW European Union-wide electromagnetic safety standard for the testing of mobile telephones has been released by the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation, (CENELEC), which is supposed to guarantee that users will not be exposed to excessive radiation exposure.…
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A ROLLING programme of technical reforms to automobile manufacturing standards have been agreed by the European Commission with EU and Japanese carmakers, to design-out features that can harm pedestrians and cyclists and design-in elements that promote their safety.…
AIR SAFETY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL agreement on the creation of a new European Aviation Safety Agency has been forged in Brussels, with the approval by both the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers that such a body should be set up.…
PENTA BDE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has tightened proposed restrictions on the use of pentaBDE, (pentabromodiphenyl ether), because of concerns that the flame retardant used to make fire-proof furniture and upholstery harms human health and the environment and has been found in increasing quantities in breast milk.…
SIGNATURES DIRECTIVE
Alan Osborne
THE INTRODUCTION of e-commerce into the European Union, already disappointingly slow, is further threatened by the failure so far of the 15 member countries to adopt the European Electronic Signature Directive, delegates to the Information Security Solutions Europe 2001 conference at the QE2 centre in London have been told.…
IMF
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund has released the first of a series of studies of offshore finance centres, which will especially examine the operational and legislative precautions taken to fight money laundering. A report on Cyprus has just been published.…
TERRORISM UPDATE ETC
BY KEITH NUTHALL
HEADS of government of the European Union taken unprecedented steps to crackdown on the financing of terrorist groups, following the attacks in the United States that have sparked the worldwide ongoing emergency military and financial response.
Notably, the public pressure resulting from the disasters have helped to break the political logjam stalling the agreement of long-debated reforms to the European money laundering directive.…
CHINA WTO
BY ALAN OSBORN
SIGNIFICANT opportunities for British and other law firms to practise in China have been opened up following agreement by the Chinese government on the terms of its accession to the World Trade Organisation. The European Commission said there was “great demand” for legal services from western firms as China enters international markets on an unrestricted basis for the first time.…
TERRORISM UPDATE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
LONG-TERM European Union proposals for streamlined cross-border arrest warrants and taking the first steps towards harmonisation of national criminal laws, are to be fast-tracked as a result of the terrorist disasters in the USA.
Heads of government have met in an emergency session of the European Council, telling the EU Council of Ministers for justice and home affairs to agree these reforms “as a matter of urgency,” imposing a December 7 deadline for action.…