International news agency

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.

INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY



BY KEITH NUTHALL
MULTILATERAL sea and river organisations are usually created to deal with existing problems that cross national borders, but a new body has been making progress on a shipping issue that has yet even to happen: the exploitation and transport of subterranean solid mineral deposits.…

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POLLUTION MONITORING



BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPECIALIST monitoring unit in the EU’s Joint Research Centre, has been using the latest satellite radar technology to track deliberate and accidental discharges of oil and other pollutants from shipping, encouraging the European Commission to take a stronger line in its maritime pollution policies.…

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WATER LEVELS



BY MONICA DOBIE
SHIPPING companies working throughout the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River and its navigation seaways are being forced to carry less cargo because of very low water levels, worse than those recorded in 1999 and 2000, when there was also a water shortage.…

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GERMAN PRESSAUG



BY ALAN OSBORN
THE GERMAN travel firm Preussag has been cleared by the European

Commission to take full control of the Belgian subsidiary of the TUI

group which it had had previously shared with the Belgian firm Imobra. TUI Belgium controls the tour operator Jet Air.…

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HGV FEES



KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening six EU Member States with legal action at the European Court of Justice for failing to implement a directive harmonising the imposition of road charges for heavy goods vehicles.

It has ordered Belgium, Germany, Spain, Greece, Ireland and Portugal to explain within two months how they intend to incorporate the European rules in their own legislation, or maybe face a case at the ECJ, which can order compliance and levy huge fines on governments refusing to obey.…

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IRELAND - ECJ



KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government could be ordered to be massive daily recurring fines, because of its failure to implement EU directive 1999/47/EC on transport of dangerous goods by road, which sets safety rules for this kind of haulage work.

Ireland has already been censured by the European Court of Justice for not writing its contents into national Irish legislation and now the European Commission has asked the European Court of Justice to consider using exceptional powers to levy fines.…

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DRIVER TRAINING LATEST



KEITH NUTHALL
HAULIERS from eastern Europe and other regions outside the EU will now almost certainly have to abide by new European rules on driver training, two years before they become compulsory for EU haulage operations. The leeway granted to EU hauliers had been tabled by the European Parliament as changes to the proposed drivers training directive and have now been accepted by the European Commission.…

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ECOPOINTS



KEITH NUTHALL
THREATS of delays to the distribution of ecopoints permits, allowing hauliers to cross ecologically sensitive Austrian Alpine passes, have been lifted, with the European Commission abandoning plans to cut back allocations. The move had been opposed by the EU Council of Ministers, leading to concerns about an political stand-off.…

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ECOPOINTS



BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITISH hauliers could face new obstacles at trans-alpine crossings in Austria, if a decision by the transport committee of the European Parliament to reject proposals for increasing the number of trips across the Alps is backed by the full assembly.…

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HORTIPLANT CASE



BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has dismissed a bid by a Spanish garden trade company to overturn a decision by the European Commission to refuse to pay an agreed grant, because of allegations that the firm had been involved in fraud.…

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