Search Results for: Scotland

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved a scheme for the development of the natural gas infrastructure in Northern Ireland that will mean supplies from the Republic of Ireland being pumped into the north for the first time. The Commission said that eventually the infrastructure may be extended to north-westerly regions of Ireland, such as Donegal, which are not currently served by natural gas and it therefore “takes a big step towards the development of an all-island natural gas infrastructure.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the British government to grant Euro 9 million to eight coal production businesses, which can be used to offset operating losses in 2001 and January to July this year. The aid is intended to improve their economic viability by reducing production costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LOCAL government could be consulted on planned European Union legislation, before it is even drafted, under a root-and-branch reform of the way that the EU is governed.

The idea is to be discussed at the Convention on the Future of Europe, the body chaired by former French President Giscard d’Estaing, having been received by a member of its praesidium, Ana Palacio, an MEP.…

BY MARK ROWE
THAI canneries are looking to invest in re-exporting north American wild salmon as a means of boosting revenue. Companies are planning to promote exports of wild salmon, which have been processed in Thailand in favour of farmed salmon, usually supplied from Norway, Chile and Scotland.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A PROPOSAL that biofuels should be made exempt from excise duty within the European Union has been made in Brussels. The idea has been suggested by the Committee of the Regions, which represents powerful sub-national administrations, such as those for Scotland, Wales, Catalonia and Bavaria.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SOCIOLOGISTS and police have gathered together at Europol’s headquarters in the Hague, to share intelligence on a number of killings across Europe that appear to have been ritualistic in nature; these include the “Adam” case, where the savagely dismembered torso of a boy about five years old, was found in the Thames last September.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Environment Agency has claimed that energy use is still rising in the European Union, mainly because of increasing transport consumption and has alleged that the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions could return to their 1990 levels by the year 2010 unless Brussels and Member States take firm action; this would include promoting renewable energy, said the EEA.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed an expensive twin-track programme to secure the European Union’s energy supplies, diversifying production by promoting renewables and limiting demand by boosting energy saving initiatives.

It has asked EU ministers to spend Euro 215 million on its planned Intelligent Energy for Europe programme, which would span 2003 to 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ENGLISH lawyers would firmly oppose the establishment of EU legislation harmonising European contract law practice, claims the European Commission.

Releasing the results of wide-ranging consultation on four options for potential reform, Brussels said that the keenest opposition to EU legislation came from English lawyers, who “fear that the global significance of English common law would suffer.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN is being threatened with fresh legal action over its failure to comply with a European Court of Justice ruling concerning ground waters and surface freshwaters affected by nitrate pollution. These proceedings could result in London being given massive recurring fines of up to Euro 100,000 a day, until it obeys the ECJ.…