Search Results for: London

BY ALAN OSBORN
FOLLOWING the terror attacks in Madrid the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has urged member countries to speed up implementation of agreed new measures for promoting safety at sea. The new maritime security regime is due to enter into force on July 1, but a number of members, mostly developing countries, have admitted they cannot meet the deadline because of lack of resources and training.…

BY MARK WILSON
AWASH with recently-passed legislation and newly-established Financial Investigation Units, the small nations of the Caribbean have transformed their money laundering controls since the mid-1990s. In 2000, five Caribbean island jurisdictions made up one-third of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of fifteen non-cooperative countries and territories, each of them with ‘serious systemic problems,’ in the words of a FATF review published on June 22 of that year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL conference on the faltering World Trade Organisation (WTO) agricultural liberalisation negotiations has been told that full agreement is now unlikely to be achieved until 2007. If this comes to pass, it would drive a coach and horses through the existing January 2005 deadline for concluding the Doha Development Round, of which the agricultural talks form a key part.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered a study of the merits of inter-specific vines, or hybrids, signalling the possible future acceptance of such vines in the European Union wine industry. Until now EU regulations have banned their use for

appellation wines, largely because of pressure from France and other countries anxious to preserve the “pure” traditional varieties grown in natural habitats.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON
expressions” to sell their products in the EU provided they meet a number

of conditions including a requirement that the traditional expression is

“distinctive”, is recognised and governed in the third country and has been

used for at least ten years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FIFTY years after the turn of the tide in the Second World War, the European Parliament is calling for the creation of a comprehensive international legal system to identify the whereabouts of artworks looted by the Nazis, fairly settling ownership and compensation claims.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
THE IMMEDIATE challenge posed by global warming to the petroleum industry – reducing carbon dioxide while maintaining low-regulated emissions – has to be combined with care that consumers can afford resulting new technologies and fuels, a Royal Institute for International Affairs’ climate technology conference in London heard.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S legitimate tobacco trade may face a renewed increase in black-market supplies, if renewed pressure from the European Commission on the British government to reduce customs seizures of EU-duty-paid tobacco is successful.

The Commission has started formal European law infringement proceedings against the UK, seemingly unimpressed by concessions from its government over the amounts of tobacco and alcohol that can be imported from other member countries for personal use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PLAN to improve the flow of natural gas into London through a new LNG import terminal at Kent’s Isle of Grain port is being supported by a European Investment Bank (EIB) loan of up to Euro 30 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL conference is being staged in Brussels this week, which will examine how to create realistic risk perceptions about controversial subjects, where public concern can significantly influence democratic government policies. The European Commission organised event will especially focus on food safety, where fears about biotechnology – especially on genetically modified foodstuffs – have forced European Union (EU) institutions and governments to take a very cautious stance.…