Search Results for: European Union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has extended its formal investigation into state aid paid by the German regional government of Thuringia to eastern Germany porcelain companies Kahla Porzellan GmbH (Kahla I) and Kahla/Thüringen Porzellan GmbH (Kahla II). Brussels is to examine subsidies of Euro 14.9 million, which it thinks were probably unlawful under EU regulations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union research project – the Medicago scheme – is trying to discover knowledge about the genes of legumes such as the grain pea to boost their usage in Europe; five per cent of cultivated EU farmland is used for legume production, compared with more than 25 per cent in the USA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is a curious fact that whilst Britain has a lot more wind than Germany, it has significantly less wind power electricity generation. Also, why has a country blessed with as much sun as Greece, failed to develop solar panels as quickly as its fellow southern Mediterranean EU Member State Spain?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH the rulebook of the Kyoto Protocol all but written, the European Commission has been considering innovative ways in which it can help reduce the EU’s production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Much emphasis has been made in the past on reducing industrial pollution or emissions from cars and lorries, but Brussels has now turned its attention to a source of the gases that is very much under the control of local authorities: waste disposal.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN and the Netherlands have been authorised by the EU council of finance ministers to begin negotiations with associated territories – in the UK’s case the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Caribbean dependent territories – for the elimination of secret savings accounts.…

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.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined 10 companies Euro 313.7 million for forming a cartel in the carbonless paper industry, the second largest such penalty imposed by Brussels. Arjo Wiggins Appleton PLC received the heaviest charge; Euro 184.27 million, with the rest being shared by Carrs Paper Ltd Euro 1.57 million, Papierfabrik August Koehler AG Euro 33.07 million, Zanders Feinpapiere AG Euro 29.76 million, Bolloré SA Euro 22.68 million, Mitsubishi HiTech Paper Bielefeld GmbH Euro 21.24 million, Torraspapel SA 14.17 million, Papeteries Mougeot SA Euro 3.64 million, Distribuidora Vizcaina de Papeles S.L.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched an investigation into state aid payments made by the French government to compensate shellfish farmers harmed by the oil spill following the sinking of the tanker Erika in the Bay of Biscay and also damages from a particularly violent storm, both in December 1999.…

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 ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Commission officials believe that rapidly growing oil and gas shipments from Russia to the EU could in time pave the way for the adoption of the Euro as a petro-currency. Gerassimo Thomas, spokesman for the Commissioner in charge of the euro, Pedro Solbes, said that the Commission had considered pushing for the euro to be used globally to denominate the price of oil but “we can’t tell the market how to behave.”…