Search Results for: European Union

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
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 JONATHAN THOMSON
PERHAPS the greatest dilemma facing air transport in the new millennium is the need to balance the demand for airspace from passenger and cargo carriers, with the expectation of ever-improving safety in our skies.

Through its Safety Regulation Commission (SRC), Eurocontrol coordinates efforts to achieve consistent high levels of safety in air traffic management within the European Civil Aviation Conference, (ECAC), area.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE LATEST report of the European Court of Auditors on annual spending by the European Union is depressingly familiar. It says the figures do not warrant official approval. It puts a questionmark over some Pounds 2.5 billion out of the pounds 50 billion spent by the EU in 2000, with most of the suspect figures again in the farm sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE has been added to a European Commission blacklist of Member States who have concluded so-called ‘Open Skies’ agreements with the United States, which grants relevant national airlines additional landing writes in America. Brussels opposes the deals, because they discriminate against carriers from EU countries which have not made similar agreements and also because they help US airlines compete with those based in Europe: the deals allow planes to fly onto a third country, a mixed blessing for EU carriers flying to the US, given its size.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared a Dutch waste disposal system for car wrecks, following an investigation into whether it was illegal state aid. It is a voluntary agreement among companies, later declared binding by the Dutch government. It has set a levy for 2001-2003 of Euro 45 per car registered in the Netherlands, paid by car producers and importers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE ECONOMIC, regulatory and legal aspects of air traffic management in Europe have evolved significantly in recent years with measurable benefits for travellers and businesses and for economic growth generally. Now, as the European Single Sky project begins to take shape, we stand at the threshold of even greater change.…

From Alan Osborn
The European Commission in Brussels today (Thursday) announced

plans to replace 20 per cent of present EU consumption of diesel and

petroleum fuels in the transport sector by alternative fuels by the year

2020. It said there were three possibilities: biofuels, which were already

available, natural gas in the medium term and hydrogen and fuel cells in

the long term.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOOD practice regarding the prevention of mercury pollution, during the production of the metal, and its emission as an unwanted by-product, has been collected in a Position Paper on Mercury, released by the European Commission.

It tries to measure the effect of the metal on the EU environment and human health and makes recommendations on how to limit its impact.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released new ‘structural indicators,’ used to measure economic and social progress in the EU. The statistical tools are important in assessments helping to decide which European regions need grants and other Brussels assistance. In its latest set of indicators, the Commission has included a requirement to measure concerns about climate change, sustainable transport, public health threats and the management of natural resources, along with those on gender pay gaps, quality of work, science and technology doctorates and the location of communications industries.…