Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has launched a strong attack on the Council of Europe’s draft convention on cybercrime, a political move that could lead to delays in its adoption and which will almost certainly damage its reputation.

In a paper using unusually strong language for diplomatic circles, the EU’s Working Party of Data Protection accuses the draft of being “too vague and confusing” and of threatening “fundamental rights and freedoms.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been asked by justice and internal affairs ministers of the 15 EU countries to consider legislation that would make it compulsory to include an adjective and alphanumeric code specifying the colour of a vehicle on the registration certificate.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE LOCAL Council – what are the worst images conjured up when thinking of those words?

Let me make it easy for you.

Lazy employees that take forever to process requests, generally unhelpful and bored, unfulfilling positions that can transform a new recruit full of fresh ideas and faith in the system, to the jaded staff that many of us have encountered at our local councils.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EXEMPTION from European working time regulations for self-employed drivers, could last a lot longer than the three years that was agreed in the informal deal struck in the EU Council of Ministers last year.

Looking at the detail of the amended directive that has now been accepted formally by the Council, the three-year deadline only gives the European Commission the right to propose an end to the exemption.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union Tacis programme grants are to fund much of the Euro 33.3 million contract for the construction of a radioactive waste management facility near the Chernobyl power plant that has been signed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy (represented by Energoatom, the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company) and the German contractor NUKEM Nuclear GmbH.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union steering group has been launched to help protecting the European single currency, the Euro, against counterfeiting. It includes representatives of the Commission, the ECB and Europol. It will try to promote co-ordination between these bodies by overseeing their anti-counterfeiting work, developing a common strategy and proposing a series of concrete priority measures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THIRD generation mobile service providers should be encouraged to share infrastructure whilst they exploit their often expensively won licences, according to the Communication from the European Commission, called The Introduction of Third Generation Mobile Communications in the European Union: State of Play and the Way Forward.…

Keith Nuthall
A PREMIUM paid to companies stripping car wrecks in the Netherlands, so that their parts can be re-used or recycled, is being investigated by the European Commission, which claims that the rates could be so high, that they would be an illegal subsidy, outlawed by European Union law.…

Keith Nuthall
A COMPROMISE deal has been struck between the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers over a new tyre noise directive, which will lead to reduction by one decibel of the maximum noise that can be created by tyres on road vehicles and their trailers.…

Keith Nuthall
A NEW power-charging system for electric cars has been developed by a European Commission funded research project. The idea is to set up land-based recharging terminals at that can combine with apparatus attached to cars, leading them to be automatically recharged with electricity when they are parked.…