Archive

KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBERS of European national parliaments and the European Parliament itself have called on the EU and its Member States to subsidise renewable energy producers, so that they can become competitive in the EU energy market.

Meeting at an inter-parliamentary meeting in Gotland, Sweden, organised by the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources, (EUFORES), and the Swedish Bioenergy Association, (SVEBIO), the parliamentarians agreed that renewable energies “can and should provide a significant share of the total energy supply in Europe, but their potential is far from being realised.”…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided to come out fighting in its row with Member States over the liberalisation of energy markets. Calling on EU Ministers and the European Parliament to “rapidly adopt” its March 2001 proposals to completely liberalise gas and electricity markets by 2005, the Commission threatened to use exceptional powers granted to it under EU treaties to pass directives and decisions on market fairness, bypassing opposition from national governments and MEPs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been formally asked to approve writing the new Protocol on Water and Heath to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes into EU law. The treaty commits signatories to ensuring adequate drinking water and sanitation, while preventing waterborne pollution and disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RESEARCHERS have been asked to bid for a contract to write the European Commission a ground-breaking report on environmental crime in the EU, that would try and establish firm statistics on its extent and seriousness. Its conclusions could be used by Brussels to draw up new EU action programmes and laws on eco-crime.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN EU satellite monitoring project, that will probably be funded under the oncoming European Sixth Framework Programme for research, is to play a key role in ensuring future forest conservation. It will check estimates of tree cover and other environmental data, the European Commission has said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRACTICAL advice on how local authorities can cope with the growing threats posed by floods and droughts have been included in a new report from the European Environment Agency, which claims that flooding is “the most common and most costly type of natural disaster in Europe.”…

Keith Nuthall
A NEW European Union-wide electromagnetic safety standard for the testing of mobile telephones has been released by the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation, (CENELEC), which is supposed to guarantee that users will not be exposed to excessive radiation exposure.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A LEGALLY binding international convention against corruption is to be forged by the United Nations, following agreement by representatives of 95 states on the terms of reference of such an agreement. This deal is expected to be rubber stamped by the UN General Assembly later this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has re-launched its civil case against Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, teaming up from the start with Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg, to scupper any further defence that the EU had no substantive complaint against the tobacco firms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has taken clear steps towards the adoption of a law, which would compel the freezing of assets in any of its member countries because of a court order issued in any other EU state. This regulation covers “the transfer of property to be used as evidence, for the purpose of confiscation or for restitution to the victim of an offence.”…