Search Results for: International Law

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to help fund 109 environmental innovation projects in 18 EU member countries with Euro 76 million of grants from the European Union (EU) 2004 LIFE environment programme. It said the projects applied “ground-breaking technologies” to tackle environmental problems.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
BRITISH engineers have developed an invention making hybrid cars even more fuel efficient, possibly breaking the “magic target” of 100 miles per gallon, reducing their emissions and making them more attractive to consumers. Hybrid vehicles running on a combination of traditional fuel and electrical power have already produced significant pollution results.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INCOMING European Union (EU) Commissioner for research Janez Potocnik has declared he would be prepared to build an ITER-scale fusion reactor at Cadarache, France, if there is no international agreement on where to build the prototype. In answers to a European Parliament questionnaire, he said the EU “could consider launching the construction of the ITER at Cadarache…with those of its partners willing to be involved”, although only at the “very last resort”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ROMANIAN government will inaugurate the country’s first specialised commercial court on October 1, part of a process to match the country’s legal system with norms in the European Union (EU). Romania hopes to become a member state in 2007 and as a result, earlier this year passed a law reorganising its judiciary.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that European Union (EU) insurance laws allow owed salaries to be paid ahead of outstanding policy claims, when an insurance company goes out of business. Its ruling has come in a Greek case brought by a public road-accident liability fund – Epikouriko Kefalaio – against its government for ordering Intercontinental AE, also of Greece, to release part of its frozen assets to pay salary claims.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations agency coordinating the world’s airlines has claimed the industry is finally shaking off its post-September 11 gloom and will post robust growth figures this year and onto 2006. Predictions released by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) say that global airline passenger traffic should grow by 6.2% this year and continue to expand by 5.4% in 2005 and 5.2% in 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PROGRESS has been made in renewing the 1994 International Tropical Timber Agreement, which regulates trade in the commodity and expires next year. Representatives of 58 countries have asked UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) officials to draft a successor agreement for approval next February.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPANISH and Finnish governments have failed in a legal attempt to scrap the European Union’s (EU) working time directive regarding professional road transport drivers. Both countries claimed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that the legislation should not have applied to self-employed drivers, but this was rejected by the ECJ, along with other complaints.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Plant Genetic Resources Institute and United Nations Environment Programme have launched an In-Situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives Through Enhanced Management and Field Application scheme preserving biodiversity in species rich Armenia, Bolivia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has voiced concerns that the global tightening in nuclear material transport security is hampering the treatment of hospital patients with potentially lifesaving isotopes. These are used in nuclear medicine for diagnosis and therapy, treating cancer, diagnosing heart attacks or sterilising medical equipment.…