Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has stepped up a quarrel with France over bananas, where Brussels says French importers are entitled to only 4,000 tonnes of reduced-duty imports a year; France is insisting on 50,000 tonnes. Paris has now been given a month to respond or face action in the European Court of Justice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PROPOSED priorities of the oncoming Euratom framework programme for research may be re-examined, following a vote by the European Parliament for the 2002-2006 grants scheme to given an extra Euro 100 million. This, said MEP’s, would ensure that funding for studies into thermonuclear fusion remains as with the previous programme, at Euro 800 million.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined eight companies a total of Euro 855.22 million for participating in secret market-sharing and price-fixing cartels affecting the production of vitamins including those sold to the confectionary industry to make nutrient enriched products.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE FUTURE of the European Union’s ambitious Galileo project remains in the balance after heads of government, in their summit meeting in Belgium at the weekend, re-affirmed the “strategic importance” they attach to it. The summit called on ministers “to continue work with a view to taking a decision on the funding of the development phase by March 2002 and to decide on the regulation by June 2002.”…

KEITH NUTHALL
A PROGRAMME promoting sophisticated safety systems for lorries, (and other motor vehicles), is being drawn up by the European Commission and the EU automobile industry. This Action Plan on Active Safety (e-Safety) should establish guidelines for their introduction, and create a forum for discussing their market implications, said EU information society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ruled that tax breaks granted to German nuclear power operators, to help them build up reserves for the eventual decommissioning of their plants and the safe disposal of nuclear waste, do not actually constitute the payment of unfair and illegal state aid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has again voted for a name change for the proposed European Food Authority, which will henceforth be known as the European Food Safety Authority, unless ministers overturn the move. MEP’s also voted to streamline its management board and boost its democratic accountability, regarding public meetings and documents.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE RATE of increase in biogas production in the European Union is much lower than that required to meet targets written into the European Commission’s white paper on renewable energy, the EU’s Eurobserv’ER(NOTE TO SUBS:CASE IS CORRECT) monitoring system has claimed.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EU has agreed with a number of sugar-producing ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) countries and separately with India on the supply of cane sugar to European refiners over the next five years. A duty-free quota of 10,000 tonnes has been set for India but may be increased if other supplies fall short.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has acted upon its public warning that it was considering an extension of the Seveso II industrial safety directive, as result of the fireworks explosion in Enschede, the Netherlands, and the cyanide spill at the Baia Mare mine in Romania.…