Search Results for: International business

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW group of specialists and academics forged by the European Commission will focus on the cancer risks associated with environmental and nutritional factors, as well as individual susceptibility. This ‘Network of Excellence’ ECNIS (environmental cancer, nutrition and individual susceptibility) is the latest group established to link experts from across the European Union (EU), under the European Research Area policy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved an plan fighting illicit drug use in the EU until 2008, listing more than 100 actions, distributing responsibilities and deadlines amongst EU, national and local administrations. The move has been welcomed by EU justice, freedom and security Commissioner Franco Frattini, who said: “The EU has opted for the most effective way of tackling the drugs phenomenon: a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach which considers the issue from every angle: demand reduction, fight against illicit trafficking and international action”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) will in September will publish a new standard for food safety management systems, designed to ensure there are no weak links in food supply chains. A final draft is being checked by national member organisations.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE UNIMAGINABLE happened in Canada this past winter. There was no professional ice hockey, the national sport. The entire season was hockey-free due to a lockout by the National Hockey League (NHL) team owners, who tried unsuccessfully to persuade NHL players to agree to terms that would potentially hamper their already fat salaries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend up to Euro 200 million to Hungary’s main telecommunications utility Magyar Telekom, helping it roll out new broadband business services and further expand existing consumer broadband services. Assuming final approval from the bank’s board, the low interest loan would fund half of a Euro 400 million project, which would also reinforce the telecom company’s “national fibre backbone and its access network”, said an EIB note.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE REMARKABLY quick approval of the European Union’s (EU) Third Money Laundering Directive this summer has delighted the EU’s law enforcement agencies but it may have done little for the composure of lawyers who had hoped, in vain as it turned out, that the measure would tackle what they see as the deficiencies of the 2nd directive approved in 2001.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RUSSIAN government has accepted a 1993 international ban on the dumping of radioactive wastes at sea, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has announced. It means all 81 contracting members of the 1972 London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter have formally promised to cease maritime nuclear dumping.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPENSATION will have to be paid by two large insurance companies to the European Parliament for abandoning their coverage of its buildings following the September 11 attacks in the USA. AIG Europeet and HDI International have been ordered by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to together pay many millions of Euros to the parliament to help the parliament meet the additional costs incurred by having to secure alternative cover from Fortis Corporate Insurance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SURVEILLANCE Authority of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) has launched its own competition inquiry into business insurance services, in parallel with the investigation launched earlier this month by the European Commission. The EFTA probe will examine whether there are competition problems requiring immediate legal action or long-term reforms within the business insurance sectors of its member states Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EARLIER this year, European Union (EU) competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes promised to review the competitiveness of the EU insurance industry; she is now delivering. The special review to “identify and remove remaining barriers to free competition” in business insurance announced last week is unusual for a traditionally reactive Commission competition directorate, regulating proposed cross-border mergers and acquisitions.…