Search Results for: Macedonia

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round moves towards completion, a big push is underway to see a wine and spirits geographical indication register established within final deal. A WTO special group for the issue met yesterday (Mon Dec 3) and supporters of the register pushed for full negotiations on the issue, ending technical discussions that have dragged on for years.…

BY MARK ROWE

ONE of the most perfidious environmental legacies of communism in eastern Europe was that of mining pollution. In particular, across a swathe of the Balkans, from Albania to Bosnia & Herzegovina, (the former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo, up to 150 mines have been identified by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as areas of concern.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ENVIRONMENTAL health officers may think there are a lot of smokers in the UK – in 2005, 24% of adults aged 16 or over in Britain smoked cigarettes, but spare a thought for officials in Greece – home of Europe’s keenest smokers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SECURITY of nuclear power installations may be a priority in terrorism-fearing rich countries, but not in poorer states, with many other problems. But it is equally important of course: nuclear accidents, sabotage and terror attacks are devastating wherever they occur.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH the key May 18 European Union (EU)-Russia summit in Samara, Russia, looming, the European Commission is continuing efforts to find suitable alternative energy partners to Moscow. Russia and the EU want to start tough negotiations on forging a new energy agreement, with both sides firming up their positions.…

BY MARK ROWE
MEMBERSHIP of the European Union (EU) appears to represent something o a ‘promised land’ for the nations of the Balkans. A major sticking point for countries pushing for membership, though, is corruption, and in particular efforts to push through practical and applicable anti-fraud legislation.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

CONSIDERING everything against it – a turbulent political history since the break-up of Yugoslavia, a weak, cash-based and largely ‘grey’ economy, poor living standards and feeble inflows of foreign investment among other things – Macedonia has done very well to set up a relatively impressive slew of anti money laundering legislation in recent years.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

A SIGNIFICANT boost in funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will speed the challenging switchover from ageing nuclear power stations in central and eastern Europe (CEE) to a cleaner, more efficient and more sustainable energy scene in these new and aspiring entrants to European Union (EU) membership.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for European Union (EU) electricity utilities to be protected against unfair competition from those based in neighbouring Balkan countries signing an Energy Community Treaty with Brussels. This effectively extends the EU single market in electricity to nine non-EU countries.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OUT of 60 recommendations made in a report last December by the European Parliament on strategies to prevent human trafficking only one specifically mentioned money laundering and even there the message was essentially "carry on as before" and "keep your eyes open".…