Search Results for: European Parliament

BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN online book retailers are likely to be upset by the decision of the European Union Council of Ministers (finance) to approve its proposed new VAT requirement for books downloaded from the Internet. The system allows for online EU exporters to sell their goods without charging sales tax, but penalises websites based in the United States, (or other third countries), selling to consumers in the EU.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a one-year extension to the EU’s production aid scheme for certain nuts and locust beans, which is due to be phased out in January. Brussels wants EU ministers to continue funding until June 2002, with up to Euro 241.5 per hectare, 25 per cent co-funded by Member States, being made available to producer organisations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EURELECTRIC, the EU power industry federation, has embarked on a sophisticated political manoeuvre to save public procurement reforms to the EU’s utilities directive from being rejected at the hands of conservative and Christian Democrat MEP’s.

Oddly, the opposition of the parliament’s European Peoples Party bloc to the changes is based on an objection that Eurelectric shares; to amendments from the parliament’s internal market committee that would force utilities to take account of social and environmental concerns when issuing a tender.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency has established a data link between satellites using a laser beam to carry signals, the first time this has been achieved. The SILEX system on ESA’s Artemis satellite was able to receive images in real time from the French space agency CNES’s Earth observation satellite SPOT 4, relaying them to an image processing center in Toulouse.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has launched an aggressive rebuttal of claims by French trade union’s that the European Commission’s single sky initiative is an effective privatisation of air traffic management that will compromise safety standards.

The conservative Spanish commissioner said: “Let there be no misunderstanding: the purpose of the Single Sky is not to boost competition or privatise air traffic control.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INCREASING political pressure is being applied on eastern European governments to undertake root-and-branch reforms to promote energy effieciency and environmental performance within their utilities and industries, including the raising of gas and oil prices.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe recently addressed the issue, with its Committee on Sustainable Energy and the Committee on Environmental Policy agreeing to produce guidelines on price reforms for the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on conditions in the world shipping and shipbuilding industries makes grim reading. Clearly things were bad well before the attack on the World Trade Centre and the fundamentals have worsened since.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EURELECTRIC, the EU power industry federation, has embarked on a sophisticated political manoeuvre to save public procurement reforms to the EU’s utilities directive from being rejected at the hands of conservative and Christian Democrat MEP’s.

Oddly, the opposition of the parliament’s European Peoples Party bloc to the changes is based on an objection that Eurelectric shares; to amendments from the parliament’s internal market committee that would force power corporations to take account of social and environmental concerns when issuing a tender.…

Keith Nuthall
THE US government is likely to be upset by the decision of the European Union Council of Ministers (finance) to approve its proposed new VAT regime for digital products downloaded from the Internet; this system allows EU exporters to sell their goods without charging sales tax, but penalises importers, notably American companies.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve the accession of the EU to the International Jute Study Group, which is to replace the organisation of the 1989 International Jute Agreement, which was wound up in October. The new grouping is due to start work in the New Year, having been formed by a conference staged by UN development agency UNCTAD earlier this year.(2001)…