Search Results for: Ireland

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is considering a range of requests to liberalise its insurance sector under commitments it will make in a future World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal, following the ongoing so-called Doha Development Round.

These include calls for it to eliminate existing restrictions in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal on the cross-border supply of maritime and air transport insurance.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
TEN of the 15 European Union (EU) Member States have so far failed to bring in national legislation putting into effect the end-of-life vehicles directive agreed in 2000 and could face legal action in the European Court of Justice, the Europe Commission announced today (Monday).…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union’s drinks industry is one of the continent’s key earners according to a report from EU statistical agency Eurostat, which says its productivity is much higher than that of the food processing sector.

The top performing country in the latest pan-EU figures available (1999) in the drinks industry was France, at Euro 103,700 generated in terms of value added by the sector per person in employment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANZ Fischler has given himself a tough job; trying to persuade dairy farmers it is time to expose themselves to unfettered world markets when prices are at rock bottom, while facing hostility to further CAP reform from some European Union governments, notably France.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled programmes promoting food sales within the EU. Products concerned include fruit and vegetables, cheeses and milk products, plus general campaigns on organically produced food. They will be 50 per cent co-financed by the Commission, which will spend Euro 32.1 million, generally over three years.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
TWO-THIRDS of the population of the Republic of Ireland are in favour of doubling the price of cigarettes, according to a new survey, which says the view is shared by 50 per cent of Irish smokers. The survey was carried out on behalf of the Irish Office of Tobacco Control, which was interviewing a “nationally representative sample of 1,500 people.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DISCOVERY this summer of the hormone MPA in treacle or glucose syrup used for pig feed in the Netherlands, originated in Ireland and were sold on via Belgium because of poor implementation of EU pharmaceutical waste laws and the carelessness of feed producers, the European Commission has claimed.…

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.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THIS YEAR will see the highest ever number of confirmed BSE cases in Irish cattle, according to official government figures. The country’s Department of Agriculture admits that the number of cases detected so far this year has reached 246, the same figure for all of 2001, itself a record year.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved a scheme for the development of the natural gas infrastructure in Northern Ireland that will mean supplies from the Republic of Ireland being pumped into the north for the first time. The Commission said that eventually the infrastructure may be extended to north-westerly regions of Ireland, such as Donegal, which are not currently served by natural gas and it therefore “takes a big step towards the development of an all-island natural gas infrastructure.”…