Search Results for: Dutch

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A KEY European Union scientific committee has opposed a ban imposed by the Dutch government on copper-based anti-fouling coatings being applied to pleasure boats sailed in the Netherlands, opening the way for possible legal action by the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ACQUISITION of Greek tobacco company Papastratos by the Dutch subsidiary of Philip Morris has been approved by the European Commission, which can concluded that the deal is not anti-competitive, even in Greece. Even though Brussels accepted Philip Morris would become the national market leader as a result, its concerns were eased by the fact that its existing brands are not in the same price segment as Papastratos’s lines, such as Assos and President.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given competition clearance to the takeover by Volkswagen’s financial arm of a stake in the Dutch car leasing company Pon Financial Services. The deal will lead to the joint control of Pon with VW importer in the Netherlands Pon Holdings BV.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has this week (Mon22/10) launched the results of a programme of studies into the health problems caused by indoor pollutants, with paints and coatings named as prime sources. Releasing the reports at the opening of the 13th annual conference of the International Society of Exposure Analysis, at Stresa, Italy, the centre said its data revealed “insights into potential causes of acute indoor symptoms such as allergies, asthma, mucous irritation, headaches and tiredness.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is providing Euro 850,000 to fund a study into whether the use of mobile phones causes deafness. The GUARD project, which involves teams from seven countries including the UK, will report in December. No scientific evidence yet exists to suggest mobile phones affect hearing but this will be the first extensive study on humans.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE NUMBER of fish in the North Sea has increased but the average size of them has got smaller according to a study by the Institute for Fisheries Research of the Netherlands. This does not mean that fish of a particular species have shrunk in size but rather that there are now relatively fewer large fish species and a greater number of fish smaller than 30 cm, such as sprats and whitebait.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A SOLUTION to the problem of ink corrosion, one of the most serious and persistent of those facing museum and library curators charged with the preservation of old drawings and documents, may at last be in sight.

The InkCor project, backed by museums, research institutes and universities in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Slovenia, and largely funded by the European Union’s (EU) Fifth Framework Programme for research, is developing a treatment that will at the very least stabilise the present situation and slow down the corrosion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and PHILIP FINE

EUROPEAN Union consumers have a "reasonable level" of confidence in making online financial transactions, although concerns are more intense in southern Europe. According to European Commission figures, on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 representing absolute confidence), on average EU citizens rate their feelings at 7.08.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HOPES that the shrinking of the world’s ozone hole might lead to its disappearance altogether have been shown to be premature. Satellite data from the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute has shown this year’s ozone hole was nearly as large as in 2000, after it shrank by 40 per cent and even split in two during 2002.…

Keith Nuthall
CELEBRATED European Union (EU) whistleblower Paul van Buitenen is back working at the European Commission, after one year of personal leave, being posted in the same floor as his new boss, internal affairs Commissioner Neil Kinnock. The posting has raised a few eyebrows at Brussels, given that Mr Kinnock has had an unhappy relationship with the Dutchman, over a dossier of corruption allegations.…