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 - SOCIAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EURELECTRIC has welcomed the latest European Commission guidelines that encourage public utilities, as well as local and national public authorities, to use EU public procurement procedures to promote worthy – in this case social – policy goals.
The publication of advice follows a similar move by Brussels in the summer regarding the purchase by so-called public entities of environmentally friendly goods and services.…
WATER PRICING
BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
WATER pricing reform is on its way in the European Union. The water framework directive passed last year imposes a commitment on Member States by the year 2010 to ensure that their pricing policies “provide adequate incentives for users to use water resources efficiently.”…
DUAL USE GOODS
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed an up-dating of the EU’s “dual-use” regulation which controls the export by Member States of certain products and technologies sold to legitimate customers but which could be used for unlawful purposes. The list, which runs to more than 200 pages, covers a range of nuclear materials, facilities and equipment ranging from reactors to computer software and including natural or depleted uranium, plants designed for the fabrication of nuclear reactor fuel elements and test, inspection and production equipment.…
EURATOM RESEARCH
BY KEITH NUTHALL
BROAD agreement has been reached in the EU Council of Ministers on the shape of the next Euratom research programme, (2002-6) although Member States have yet to reach a consensus regarding its budget or the future direction of studies into fission production.…
CRIME REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE THREAT of thefts of nuclear material in eastern Europe is declining, despite the recent upsurge in Islamic terrorism, the Milan-based United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, (UNICRI), has claimed, in a study on environmental crime.…
PARALLEL TRADING CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RIGHTS of cosmetic and perfume retailers to sell re-exported products cheaply on the grey parallel market – against the wish of a manufacturer – have been weakened by a surprise European Court of Justice ruling.
It has acted unusually by ignoring a preliminary legal opinion by an ECJ Advocate General, who said that the right of a trademark holder to “control the initial distribution of goods within the European Economic Area,” (the EU, plus Norway and Iceland), was limited when they had been released to a third country.…
CARTEL FINES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined eight companies a total of Euro 855.22 million for participating in secret market-sharing and price-fixing cartels affecting the production of vitamins including those sold to the cosmetics industry. There were eight cartels, said the Commission, operating between 1989 and 1999.…
MARY KAY
BY MONICA DOBIE
COSMETICS group founder, Mary Kay Ash has died in Dallas, aged 83. Famous for her company’s recognisable pink Cadillacs, her products were sold by 400,000 women, making the company America’s second largest direct mail cosmetics business.…
RULES OF ORIGIN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHEN scent companies mix essential oils and other ingredients to produce perfumes and toilet waters, they have legally created a new locally manufactured medicine, the rules of origin committee of the World Trade Organisation has decided.
The decision means that worldwide, such scents would in future be affected by duties, quotas and other import and export regulations relating to the country where they were mixed, rather than where the ingredients were produced.…
MERCURY REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOOD practice regarding the prevention of mercury pollution, during the production of the metal, and its emission as an unwanted by-product, has been collected in a Position Paper on Mercury, released by the European Commission.
It tries to measure the effect of the metal on the EU environment and human health and makes recommendations on how to limit its impact.…