Search Results for: european union

BY ALAN OSBORN
SPAIN has expressed concerns to European ministers about delays in transferring control of the civilian-military Torrejon satellite imaging centre, near Madrid, from the increasingly obsolete Western European Union defence organisation to the European Union, which is setting up its own rapid reaction force.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has greeted with anger the decision by the European Parliament to reject a proposed directive on harmonising financial procedures for takeover bids that take place within the European Union.

The proposal was formally tabled six years ago and has been the centre of intense debate, leading to what was supposed to be a final compromise, struck between the parliament and the EU Council of Ministers, meeting in a conciliation committee.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MINISTERS from the 15 EU member governments have cut back the proposed representation of the European Commission on the management board that will run the new European Food Authority. Instead of four members on the 16-member panel, the Commission is to have only one.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALTHOUGH petrol and diesel consumption rose by 45 per cent in the European Union between 1985 and 1998, technological improvements meant pollution actually fell during this time, a study from Eurostat has claimed.

Between 1980 and 1998, the EU witnessed a 25 per cent drop in nitrogen oxides and non-methane volatile organic compound emissions, for which road transport is largely responsible.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COPPER production is expected to continue forging ahead, fuelled especially by surging Chinese demand, the World Commodity Survey 2000-2001, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, (UNCTAD), has predicted.

The annual survey, covering market trends of the trade in most major and minor metals, says that supplies should increase by seven per cent this year, with a number of mining expansion and development projects reaching maturity.…

Keith Nuthall
A REARGUARD action is being fought by the European Commission to save its ambitious proposals to impose a deadline of 2005 on the complete liberalisation of the EU electricity market. Following pressure from the French government, EU governments have agreed to rule the idea out, preferring a looser deadline, although this has yet to be formally agreed at the Council of Ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRUSSELS is always looking for big ideas by which it can justify its existence to a doubting public and one of the latest of these is the concept of a European Research Area. This idea is that Europe – with its patchwork of nations and national research units – should coordinate its academics and researchers, making sure that they do not duplicate their efforts, rather dovetailing them with a single European goal in mind.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A MAJOR extension of the powers of the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) has been proposed by the European Commission as part of a sweeping reform of EU pharmaceutical legislation. At present the EMEA authorises only the use of high profile medicines derived from biotechnology, such as those used for cancer, AIDS, multiple schlerosis and Alzheimers disease among others.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
WITHIN a few years, the UK could be required to recycle or reuse up to 72 per cent of recoverable material from the industrial waste stream and up to 64 per cent from the domestic stream. At a minimum, the figures would be 56 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament is pressing for large telecoms utilities to be given legal responsibilities not to exploit a possible future collapse in their market, by raising charges and hindering the entrance of new rivals.

MEP’s (June 14) have backed amendments suggested by the parliament’s legal affairs committee to the proposed universal service and users rights directive, which was tabled last year, as part of the European Commission’s wide-ranging telecommunications package.…