Search Results for: European Union

Keith Nuthall
AN ACTION plan is being developed by the European Commission and the EU automobile industry to promote the introduction of high-tech safety systems in European motor-vehicles; the programme will probably include funding for research and the demonstration of innovations in the field.…

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 ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union is to contribute Euro 47.6 million, (about Pounds 29 million), towards a six-year cross-border support programme for Ireland and Wales, which can be tapped by local authorities for policies covering spatial development, environmental issues and co-ordination of regional economic activities.…

From Alan Osborn
The fashionable term in setting up international energy projects these days is “flexible mechanisms” of which the best known is the trade in emission reductions, or carbon credits. The Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, which guides implementation of the Convention, laid down emission reduction targets for industrialised countries but allowed flexibility to meet them through the purchase of emission credits from poorer countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FISHING catch quotas in European Union territorial waters are to be slashed again to reduce pressure on stocks, which Brussels says “are in a parlous state.” The European Commission proposed a reduction of the total allowable catch of haddock in the Irish Sea by 52%, sole in the North Sea by 25% and langoustines in the Bay of Biscay by between 45 and 50%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers (environment) have agreed in principle that sulphur-free petrol and diesel should be introduced in every Member State from January 1, 2005, making the use of cleaner petrol mandatory from January 1, 2009; ministers agreed that sulphur-free diesel fuel should also become mandatory from that date, although this will be confirmed by a Commission review which will be completed no later than December 31, 2005.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ITALY and Spain are in breach of European Union competition regulations by refusing to allow the term “chocolate” to be used for products which contain other vegetable fats as well as cocoa butter, a judge at the European Court of Justice has said in a preliminary ruling.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNET legal advice service, providing information about European Union legislation affecting e-commerce, has been launched. The site, eLexPortal.com, will provide updated information on EU and national laws and regulations on the subject; it is free of charge, and allows users to e-mail queries to its online experts.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation has claimed that a probe of working conditions in Cambodian textile factories found no evidence of child labour, forced labour or sexual harassment, but revealed problems related to overtime payments, working hours and union discrimination.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Parliament this week (on December 11th) cleared the way for a European Food Safety Authority early next year with powers to set and monitor safety standards for the entire food chain “from farm to fork.”…