Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank has announced that it is lending US$80 million to Philips Semiconductors Philippines Inc., (PSPI), a subsidiary of the Dutch electronics giant Philips, which will guarantee the loan. The money will help the Asian operation construct a second integrated circuits assembly and test facility in Calamba, Philippines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SURGE in research and development sparked by the 1995-8 slump in the semi-conductor industry will create an unprecedented boom in sales of chip-based products, the latest World Commodity Survey from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, (UNCTAD, has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is distributing 1.2 million leaflets this summer – many via EU hotel and tourism federations – which aims to educate holiday-makers on how to use the single European currency, the Euro.

With its notes and coins due to be launched in January, “Don’t forget to Pack the Euro” encourages tourists to get used to the concept of the single currency whilst vacationing abroad this summer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BOARD of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has been asked to consider granting a new and larger loan, to invest in a Ukrainian developer, so it can build a 271-room four-star international hotel in central Kiev, to be run by Radisson SAS Hotels.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Union government ministers have agreed that from July 2002 a ban on the feeding of restaurant food waste to pigs will apply throughout the 15 EU countries, as part of a directive on the control of classical swine fever.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH restaurateurs and hoteliers could be forced to pay regular fees to record companies for piping music from radio broadcasts into their premises, if the European Commission wins a legal case against the British government.

It has asked the European Court of Justice to order the UK to scrap the existing system, where no royalty fees are payable for playing this background music free-of-charge to customers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has approved a new EU-wide temporary protection system to cope with an influx of refugees, such as that created by the conflicts in former Yugoslavia.

Ministers can now order that the European Refugee Fund assists Member States prepared to accept displaced persons; they would be granted certain rights to residence and work permits, appropriate information, accommodation, social assistance, health care, and education.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is developing a set of common statistical indicators that will enable the EU and national governments to accurately assess where there are particular problems of poverty and social exclusion within the European Union. A statement from the Commission said that although progress was being made on this work, further development is “urgent” in two key areas: the development of non-monetary indicators and also improved measurement tools in relation to health, housing and education.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has published guidelines that encourage local and national public authorities to use EU legislation on public procurement to promote the purchase of environmentally friendly goods and services. Brussels’ “interpretive communication” on the subject does not advise local and national governments adapt procurement practices so that environmental good practice automatically becomes a sales condition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRAZIL and the USA have struck a deal over the licensing of generic drugs, which should see an end to the looming World Trade Organisation dispute between the two countries, brought by the American government.

The Brazilian government have agreed to consult the US, if in the future it thinks that it might have to use its Article 68 law to a grant compulsory licence on patents held by US companies.…