Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ENVIRONMENTAL mainstreaming was the Brussels buzzword of the year 2000, it entailed the routine integration of green concerns into other EU policy areas. European ministers backed the concept and also accepted detailed papers explaining how this was to be brought about.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HIGH-LEVEL meeting of the Montreal Protocol controlling ozone-depleting chemicals has reviewed data on the use of CFC’s by developing countries, concluding that while most are in compliance, 25 of 136 had increased their consumption in 1999.

Participants from more than 100 countries took part in the meeting, in Sri Lanka, the latest in a regular schedule which makes THE protocol a dynamic and constantly-changing system of global regulation, rather than a static treaty that could become outdated.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A LONG-TERM strategy to reduce the amount of PCB’s and dioxins in food and animal feed has been published by the European Commission. Alongside the already announced proposed maximum limits for the chemicals, which EU health ministers are expected to agree on November 15, Brussels has now also suggested actions to take over the next five years regarding hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management, research, public information and international cooperation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS the world’s environment ministers meet in Marrakesh, Morocco, to agree detailed rules on the operation of the Kyoto Protocol, the European Commission has formally proposed that the EU should ratify the convention and has also tabled legislation that will bring it to life in Europe.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN is being threatened with fresh legal action over its failure to comply with a European Court of Justice ruling concerning ground waters and surface freshwaters affected by nitrate pollution. These proceedings could result in London being given massive recurring fines of up to Euro 100,000 a day, until it obeys the ECJ.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCENTRATIONS of potentially harmful ground-level ozone pollution exceeded a critical threshold somewhere in the European Union on two out of every three days this spring and summer, according to the European Environment Agency.

In a report to EU environment ministers, the EEA said that from April to August, ozone pollution exceeded levels requiring public alerts in 11 of 15 EU Member States and in five out of 10 other (mostly eastern) European countries that supplied data.…

Keith Nuthall
A SET of comprehensive guidelines on the recovery of debts owed to European Union institutions has been adopted by the European Commission, which wants to avoid the unnecessary and expensive writing off of money owed. Debts to Brussels can amount to millions of Euro, and the in-house rules have especially been designed to prevent the recurrence of a case such as the Flechard Russian butter aid scandal, where a tender security of Euro 17.6 million was claimed, but only Euro 3 million was actually paid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALBANIA has ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention on Money Laundering, imposing a duty on this poverty-stricken Balkan country to establish laws allowing the seizure of the proceeds of crime, even if these offences were committed abroad. The convention commits the Albanian authorities to cooperating with other signatory states on tracking down laundered money and freezing bank accounts where it is held.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ENVIRONMENTAL crimes are in many ways the most damaging of offences, given that they can harm millions of people, whether through damaging the ozone layer, increasing pollution levels or damaging biodiversity. The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, (UNICRI), has published a study on this modern scourge.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT was telling that the first step taken by President Bush against Islamic terror groups following the World Trade Centre disaster was to freeze bank accounts. The international community has now responded by agreeing common controls to stop terror groups laundering funds.…