Search Results for: European Union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined eight companies Euro 855.22 million for participating in cartels inflating prices of vitamins they produced between 1989 and 1999. Companies involved included Switzerland’s Hoffman-La Roche, BASF, of (Germany), AG Aventis SA, (France), Solvay Pharmaceuticals BV, (Netherlands), Merck KgaA, (Germany), Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, (Japan), Eisai Co Ltd, (Japan), and Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd, (Japan).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a one-year extension to the EU’s production aid scheme for certain nuts and locust beans, which was due to be phased out in January. Brussels wants EU ministers to continue funding until June 2002, along with a specific flat-rate aid scheme for hazelnuts production.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A GROUP of scientific experts assembled to advise the European Union and its Member States about the fight against chemical and biological terrorism met for the first time in Brussels yesterday. Their first task was to make a joint assessment of the existing knowledge about the subject in the EU and on the capacity of emergency services to deal with attacks of this kind.…

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
TIGHTER noise restrictions on commercial aircraft visiting European Union airports have been proposed by the European Commission; it has tabled a new directive that would allow the worst affected airports to ban aircraft that marginally comply with the existing Chapter 3 standard accepted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, (ICAO).…

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.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted for the oncoming 2002-6 Euro 16.2 billion EU Sixth Framework Programme on research to fund studies on “all aspects of food safety in the food chain from primary production to food processing.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Union internal market ministers have reached a “political agreement” to ban the use of azocolourants in the dyeing of a range of textile and leather goods. Azocolourants are dyes made from nitrogen-based compounds, which could cause cancer.…

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
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is lending Euro 35 million to the state owned Namibia Power Corporation Pty Ltd. for the construction of 400 kV power transmission lines, supplying the new Skorpion zinc mine in the south-west of the country.…