Search Results for: Climate change

BY ALAN OSBORN
MAJOR changes in European Union (EU) legislation that could vitally affect the meat processing industry are in prospect this year with the main elements likely to be agreed before the summer break. The outstanding single item according to Jean-Luc Meriaux – general secretary of the European Livestock and Meat Union – is the so-called “hygiene package” of three regulations and a directive which will be considered by the European Parliament at its second (and usually final) reading in March.…

BY MARK ROWE
PRODUCTION of vodka and other hard liquors dropped in Russia last year, as the country’s bourgeoning middle class continued to choose more upmarket drinks. Analysts believe the trend may reflect the improvement of the Russian economy and the greater disposable incomes of white-collar workers.…

BY RICHARD HURST
Nigeria is widely regarded as the country as the hub of money-laundering activities in the region, despite having a reasonably comprehensive set of anti-money laundering laws in place. Press and non-governmental organisation reports have highlighted cases where Nigerian banks have been hit by money launderers trying to conceal illicit earnings from corruption, the arms trade, narcotics and the e-mail frauds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SUPPORT has been secured within the European Parliament for a proposed increase in the borrowing ceiling for the European Union’s (EU) nuclear energy arm Euratom, raising it from the current Euro 400 million to 600 million. The approval did not come without strings however, with MEP’s calling for Euratom to be restricted in its spending of this money to projects improving safety, decommissioning plants or establishing storage and disposal facilities for radioactive waste and spent fuel.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is proposing to harmonise legislation authorising the procedures for marketing the sophisticated manufacturing processes involved in human tissue engineering. The first products being developed in this growing field include artificial skin, cartilage and bone. Brussels said that the novel technology required to make these products promised to change medical practice “profoundly” by regenerating diseased tissues and organs instead of just repairing them.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE LARGEST museum in the world and – arguably – the grandest of them all, the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is returning to its roots. In the middle of a long and painstaking modernisation process, the Russian museum is striving, in addition to the urgent physical restoration required to bring the museum into the 21st century, to recapture the ambience of its Imperial origins, when its vast palaces were the residence of the Tsars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPULSORY pollution insurance could be introduced for companies at risk of breaking the proposed European Union (EU) environmental liability directive, under amendments approved to the legislation this week by the European Parliament.

The change tells the European Commission to check in five years’ time whether the directive has sparked private insurance and security instruments allowing polluters to cover themselves for potential liabilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPULSORY pollution insurance could be introduced for companies at risk of breaking the proposed European Union (EU) environmental liability directive, under amendments approved to the legislation this week by the European Parliament.

The change tells the European Commission to check in five years’ time whether the directive has sparked private insurance and security instruments allowing polluters to cover themselves for their potential liabilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOVES are afoot in Brussels to pass a law requiring all companies handling food to be inspected annually, then publicly ‘named and shamed’ should they be found breaking health and hygiene rules. The idea has been tabled by the European Parliament’s environment committee as an amendment to an umbrella food safety regulation proposed earlier this year covering food quality, animal feed, safety, labelling and inspections, providing for criminal penalties for serious breaches of its rules.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled long-awaited proposals on boosting the security of energy supplies within the European Union (EU), and although the its package of measures falls short of tabling binding targets on infrastructure, the plan has been criticised by environmentalists.…