Search Results for: European Court of Justice

KEITH NUTHALL
THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has issued formal guidelines to its (mostly rich and often European) member governments to use their financial muscle when striking contracts for electricity supplies and power projects generally, to impose conditions that favour environmental good practice.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE INTRODUCTION of the Euro as a retail currency in 12 EU countries at the beginning of the year has done virtually nothing to level out the wide variations in new car prices between them, the European Commission said today (Monday).…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved a Euro 20 million loan for Lithuania, to improve the energy efficiency measures of a range of public buildings. Consultants are to help Vilnius prepare an action plan for making the improvements, starting work in May.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked EU ministers to extend until December 2009 special tax advantages offered by the German government to Hochtemperatur-Kernkraftwerk GmbH to enable the company to completely dismantle Uentrop nuclear power station, shut down since 1989.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU’S anti-fraud organisation OLAF has held its annual Task Group Cigarettes meeting, in Seville, Spain, with European customs departments, to discuss the targeting of their collective fight against cigarette smuggling.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPLIT has emerged in the European Union Council of Ministers over the possible scrapping of subsidies to tobacco producers under a possible review the common market regime, which should happen this year. On one side in a debate at a recent agriculture council were a group including many of the EU’s tobacco growing countries, (Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal), who are opposed to cuts, whilst other Member States, (notably Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden), backed a recital to a current proposal to adjust subsidies over the next two years that calls on the EU to review the regime this year “to allow the progressive deletion of subsidies.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BINDING EU legislation to curb noise pollution – in particular the noise from rail, road and air traffic and building sites – is to be proposed within four years under an agreement reached by the European Parliament and EU government ministers regarding the proposed new noise directive.…

Keith Nuthall
WINES of SA, a non-profit organisation responsible for the promotion of South African wines, has reported that South African wine exporters are to begin targeting east Asian markets as a key to future growth.

The recent move will build on the industry’s existing successful penetration of the European markets coupled with the signing of the wine and spirits agreement between South African and the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY has admitted there were flaws in its testing for BSE in certain non-approved laboratories. The German agriculture minister Renate Kunast detailed “certain deficiencies” to other EU farm ministers this week, but said that measures had now been taken to correct matters on the advice of the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been given authority by European Union Council of Ministers (finance) to negotiate a comprehensive “Governing International Fisheries Agreement” with the USA. A Brussels official in the Commission’s directorate general for fisheries told Fishing News International that a future deal could lead to EU fishing crews being given access to fish US waters and for European factory ships to be allowed to buy stocks from American fishermen at sea.…