Archive

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled that it is prepared to accept the creation of joint venture companies involving auto-makers and computer suppliers as way of handling IT within the automobile sector, by approving a deal between IBM Italia and Fiat.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SWEEPING changes to EU motor insurance laws have been proposed by a committee of the European Parliament, with the aim of improving the legal protection of accident victims. A report drawn up by the EP’s legal affairs committee has called on the EU national governments to compel insurers to provide either an offer or a refusal of compensation within three months of receiving a claim and sets an EU-wide minimum of Euro 2 million, (about Pounds 1.2 million), as the sum insured.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that EU legislation be amended to make the installation of speed limiters compulsory for all large vans, vehicles that have so far been exempt from such regulations. Thus far, only lorries registered since 1988 of more than 12 tonnes in weight have had to be fitted with this technology, but the Commission has now concluded that this rule should be extended to all commercial vehicles of 3.5 tonnes or more.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has announced that it is lending US$40 million to Volkswagen Argentina S.A., a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, to support investment for the production of gearboxes for passenger cars in its plant located in Cordoba, Argentina.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SHIPPING industry is looking forward to the anticipated accession of China to the World Trade Organisation, which after 15 years of often tortuous negotiations, is likely to be rubber stamped this autumn and become reality next Spring.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
INDIA has launched a study to mark and expand its sea boundary by an additional one million square kilometres, (400,000 square miles), beyond its existing exclusive economic zone, the country’s Daily News has reported. A seismic survey is being carried out by the National Institute of Oceanography, with a view to staking a claim by 2005 for extended maritime borders on the east and west coast of India.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A DUTCH government aid scheme to help reduce CO2 emissions in inland waterway, road and rail transport in the Netherlands has been approved by the European Commission.

The budget for the scheme, which is part of the Dutch effort to meet its EU objectives under the Kyoto protocol, is put at Euro 36 million and will run until the end of 2007.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MARITIME workers are to be covered by EU health and safety legislation on noise, after the Council of Ministers (employment and social policy) struck a compromise deal on a new ‘health and safety: physical agents (noise)’ directive. They had been excluded from an earlier 1986 directive, which the EU is currently updating.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce has called for increased port controls by Gulf states in a bid to stop unseaworthy vessels smuggling oil out of Iraq and leading to collisions and oil spills.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed tougher control of EU airline slots to reduce airport congestion, including sanctions against abusive practices and incentives for airlines to use slot portfolios efficiently through slot exchanges and re-timing. At the same time it announced a fundamental review of the slot allocation system comprising an in-depth study in the coming months, followed by a broad consultation with the 15 EU Member States and the aviation industry.…