Search Results for: Greece

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUND-breaking environmental initiative is being developed in Greece involving a desalination plant being powered wholly by the heat of the earth’s upper crust.

The plant’s electricity turbines will be driven by geothermal fluids pumped from deep underground fissures under the island, whose temperatures can reach 100°C.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PROVIDERS of domestic care services to the young, elderly, sick or disabled, may be offered the chance to cut the VAT they charge their customers in the future, with the European Commission planning to extend a pilot scheme currently operating in Ireland, Portugal, France and Greece.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken an important step towards giving EU water legislation more teeth, by moving against Belgium’s system of “tacit approvals” of pollution. Belgian law allows companies to assume that they have a right to pollute if they make an application to regulators and then receive no reply.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOVERNMENTS and international organisations have highlighted tobacco smuggling as one of the largest illegal drains on their tax revenues. An international conference has brought law enforcement professionals together with health officials to fight this problem. Keith Nuthall reports.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A DYNAMIC online forum on European energy policy has been launched by an international consortium; the European Union-funded INTUSER website contains information about current energy issues and questionnaires allowing specialists and the public to contribute to policy debates. The three year project’s website includes special sections on alternative, renewable, fossil and nuclear energy.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has filed an appeal against the dismissal of its cigarette smuggling action in the US against three tobacco companies: Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds and Japan Tobacco. Notably, it has received formal support in the proceedings from the US Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association for its action, along with the World Health Organisation, the US Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHEESE sold in the European Union as Greek Feta will be only produced in certain areas of Greece and follow strict product specifications if a proposed registration of the product as a Protected Designation of Origin is approved by EU ministers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
MINISTERS of the 15 European Union countries have reached agreement on the Trans-European Energy Networks directive. The ministers have essentially supported the Commission proposal of last year and Brussels officials predicted that the European Parliament will do likewise later this year.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fixed Greece’s cotton production this year at 1.25 million tonnes, resulting in EU aid of Euro 571 million (Pounds 354 million) and a minimum price of Euro 593-a-tonne (Pounds 368). New rules have been introduced to prevent a volume of cotton being placed on the market which, said the Commission, “could have an adverse effect on the environment and cause significant falls in the price paid to growers.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE ASSOCIATION of Travel Agents and Tour Operators in the EU

(ECTAA) is advising its members to seek advice from lawyers over their

potential exposure to claims arising out of so-called tailor-made holidays.

Until now most agents have taken the view that tailor-made holidays are not

covered by EU package holiday legislation but this now has to be revised in

the light of a judgement by the European Court of Justice.…