Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Free Trade Area has told the European Union that it is “deeply disturbed” by not being “exempted from the European Commission’s measures to restrict steel imports.” The Chairman of EFTA’s Standing Committee, Ambassador Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson (CORRECT NAME) claimed at an EU-EFTA meeting that the EU had erred by failing to exempt EFTA states, (Iceland, Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein), from its safeguard regime, designed to stop EU markets from being flooded with steel normally sold in the US.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RUSSIA-European Union summit has agreed that a timetable needs to be established to improve standards in the Russian nuclear industry. The two sides also agreed to frame a future agreement on regulating the import of nuclear materials into the European Union.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has approved in principle changes to the EU’s seatbelt laws, that will insist every Member State passes laws obliging motorists and passengers to wear belts and children aged under 12 to wear special seat restraints.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
The European Parliament has accepted last year’s voluntary agreement between the European Commission and the European Automobile Manufacturers Association on pedestrian safety, so long as Brussels proposes a Framework Directive underpinning the deal with legal commitments.

The move is seen as a compromise between MEP’s opposing a detailed Directive laying down specific rules on car design and those in the European Parliament that do not trust carmakers to introduce measures to protecting pedestrians.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ENERGY consumption is still rising in the European Union, says a new European Environment Agency report, which blames transport growth for the problem; it says energy efficiency is improving only slowly and renewable energies need to expand by at least double the current rate if targets for boosting their market shares by 2010 are to be reached.…

KEITH NUTHALL
WATER companies may be able to help the European Union and its Member States improve standards in the sector within developing countries, as part of an initiative to be launched by Brussels at the oncoming World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, this August and September.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
SOME 12 million tonnes of scrap metal – mainly steel – are expected to enter global markets this decade as redundant nuclear power stations are closed down worldwide; in Europe, there is likely to be a surge from 2003 onwards, via a closure programme for obsolete plants in the eastern European countries applying to join the EU.…

BY MARK ROWE
THERE is clearly something wrong with a law that allows a rare snake from Costa Rica to be sold in a church hall or for a reptile to be kept in a garage on a housing estate. But Britain’s animal welfare laws are, by the common agreement of just about every interested party, out-dated, confusing and, crucially, can actually cause more harm than good to animals.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
A CARMAKERS’ voluntary agreement on introducing technical changes in designs boosting cyclist and pedestrian safety has been approved by the European Parliament and will now be legally underpinned by a so-called Framework Directive enforcing a range of legal commitments.…

Keith Nuthall
THE FINDINGS of an EU funded research project for tanneries could help EU textile manufacturers dramatically reduce their water usage. The TANNET programme should enable Europe’s tanneries conserve 90 per cent of their current water use, especially through internal recycling, said the European Commission.…