Search Results for: Norwegian

BY MARK ROWE

THE RUSSIAN fishing fleet is to undergo the greatest restructuring of the industry since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Under the plans, which were approved by the Russian parliament – or Duma – this summer, a new, unifying state fishery corporation will have centralised control for all activities related to the industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A FUND managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) has agreed to grant aid Euro 70 million four projects cleaning up nuclear contamination in north-west Russia.

As manager of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) Support Fund, the EBRD signed the funding agreements with Rosatom, the Russian State Corporation for Atomic Energy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NORWAY is being threatened with legal action at the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court over alleged discriminatory taxation of imported non-refillable beverage packaging. Under Norway’s membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), it cannot tax products made in other EEA states [the European Union and EFTA, minus Switzerland] differently from Norwegian products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has sought to head off possible fuel price rises across Scandinavia by opening a detailed inquiry into a planned takeover in the region’s petrol station sector. Brussels fears the planned takeover of the Jet chain from America’s ConocoPhillips by Norwegian oil giant StatoilHydro, could limit petrol and diesel retail competition in Norway and Sweden.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH hauliers are still at risk when driving though long road tunnels on the continent, with European governments failing to introduce officially recommended safety designs and equipment.

So concludes the latest European Union (EU)-supported European Tunnel Assessment Programme (EuroTAP) safety probe.…

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA’S new-found belligerence and confidence is not confined to the political and military sphere: in recent years Russia has adopted an aggressive, take-it-or-leave it stance when it comes to fish, seafood and other food products.

The country has imposed a number of bans on fish products from its European neighbours, including salmon and other fresh fish from Norway, fishmeal, frozen fish and canned smoked sprats from Poland and a range of fish products from Latvia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NORWEGIAN authorities are seeking to contain two outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus that has been reported amongst farmed rainbow trout in western coastal Fjordland by the Aquatic Animals Commission – (of the Office International des Épizooties – OIE).…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A FREEZING cave in the Arctic town of Longyearbyen on the Norwegian island of Svalbard has been converted into a high-tech bunker containing millions of seed samples, collected and stored to preserve biodiversity.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will house 4.5 million samples of the 7,000 plant species used in human diets throughout history, including important crops such as wheat, barley and beans.…

BY LARS RUGAARD, in Copenhagen

REPUTEDLY immense riches looming below the glaciated surface of the Arctic Ocean have come within human reach because climate change is gradually thawing the world’s previously frozen-stiff polar regions. But this consequence of a milder physical climate has provoked tension between the countries with an Arctic Ocean, creating echoes of the long defunct cold war, and indicating a long and tough legal and political fight for what could be an important addition to the Earth’s undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UNANIMOUS agreement has been secured at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over a recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Amidst widespread concern about overfishing and low stock levels, ministers have written into EU law, stock management policies for eastern bluefin tuna recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in 2006.…