Archive

Keith Nuthall
AEROPORTOS de Portugal and Nazegacao Aeria de Portugal have taken over the management of East Timor’s new international airport, in the capital Dili, from the Royal Australian Air Force, the country’s United Nations transitional administration (UNTAET) has announced.

The Australian military has been responsible for Comoro Airport, since the arrival of INTERFET peacekeepers in September 1999 led to the evacuation of Indonesian authorities, which had been running island territory.…

BY MIKE FOX, in Montreal
WINNEPEG, in the Canadian prairie province of Manitoba, may sound like the sort of city which would only merit a small regional airport, but the Winnipeg Airports Authority (WAA) has big plans to exploit its unique position.…

Keith Nuthall
A COMPROMISE deal has been struck between the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers over a new tyre noise directive, which will lead to reduction by one decibel of the maximum noise that can be created by tyres on road vehicles and their trailers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Commission president Romano Prodi has identified Britain and Spain as the governments holding up progress towards the creation of the so-called single European sky and the resulting accession of the EU to Eurocontrol. In a speech to the European Parliament on the outcome of the recent EU Stockholm summit, Mr Prodi said: “As we all know, a whole series of landmark proposals is now blocked, awaiting a bilateral agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GLOBAL trade in industrial goods could receive the same boost as is planned by the ongoing World Trade Organisation rounds in services and agriculture, if developed countries succeed in launching a new general round at the planned WTO ministerial conference, in Qatar, in November 9-13.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU Council of Ministers has approved a deal with Bulgaria and Hungary, which will grant EU drivers additional permits, to carry goods into these former communist countries. Regarding UK hauliers, an extra 103 permits have been allocated. Across the EU, 13,000 have been granted by Bulgaria and 12,500 by Hungary, with the lion’s share being earmarked for Greece-based hauliers.…

KEITH NUTHALL
Transport ministers of the 15 EU countries have agreed a regulation

that would require road transport companies to pay the same wages and

benefits to drivers from third countries as they do to EU nationals.

The EU Council said the regulation would put an end to “social

dumping” under which EU road companies have taken on drivers from east

European countries, for instance, at significantly lower wages than those

paid to nationals.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EXEMPTION from European working time regulations for self-employed drivers, could last a lot longer than the three years that was agreed in the informal deal struck in the EU Council of Ministers last year.

Looking at the detail of the amended directive that has now been accepted formally by the Council, the three-year deadline only gives the European Commission the right to propose an end to the exemption.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN manufacturing industries will be able to apply for grants from budgets of Euro 1.7 billion, which has been earmarked for energy, transport, sustainable development and global change and of Euro 1 billion for aeronautics and space – if proposals from the European Commission for a new framework research programme, are agreed.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union has lifted all quotas on imports of textile and clothing products from Ukraine, in line with the agreement struck between Brussels and Kiev last December. The move follows confirmation that Ukraine has lowered its tariff levels for EU textile exports.…