Search Results for: International business

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has rejected European Union (EU) calls for countries to have the right to impose aviation fuel taxes on all airlines operating within their territories. ICAO’s general assembly listened to opposition from the US, China, Brazil and Russia, postponing any decision until 2007, at the earliest.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHILE the voters of many European Union (EU) countries express misgivings about greater continental integration, Bulgaria has been making great efforts to join the Brussels club by 2007. But its reputation for commercial crime and the lack of strong governmental structures able to tackle the problem are hampering efforts to clean up the country’s reputation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OFFICE International des Épizooties (OIE), the world animal health organisation, has reported more than 1,000 cases of bluetongue disease amongst sheep in Morocco, with 13,000 animals being susceptible within 142 outbreaks across the country. This mirrors the recent cases in southern Spain that have led to European Union (EU) export controls.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILED and comprehensive regulations have been proposed for approval by European Union (EU) ministers, harmonising how EU car-makers design models to ward off head-on and lateral collisions. The rules would enshrine in EU law technical guidelines drawn up by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which cover issues such as air bag operation, child restraints, steering wheel position and crash test dummies, whose performance has recently been improved by an international project.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH
THE INCOMNG European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Policy has held out little hope that the industry could be given any state-aided relief on diesel fuel.

Joe Borg, former Foreign Affairs Minister of Malta, told a European Parliament hearing this week (5-10) that he had every sympathy about the problems the ever rising fuel price was causing but doubted that the crisis could be tackled at a European Union (EU) level.…

Keith Nuthall
THE ITALIAN government is likely to come under pressure from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to increase the liberalisation of its groundhandling services market. In a formal opinion to the court, which are usually followed by judges, ECJ advocate general Philippe LÃ(c)ger has ruled that by protecting the social rights of existing groundhandling services and their staff, Italy is breaking directive 96/67/EC, the European Union’s first attempt to open up this airport sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ERRORS made by the European Commission lawyers have wrecked a European Court of Justice (ECJ) case designed to force Spain to recognise air traffic control qualifications gained in other European Union (EU) member states.

Judges threw out Brussels’ application, citing a litany of legal mistakes.…

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 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
BRUSSELS whistle-blower and now anti-fraud MEP Paul van Buitenen has been using his new position to undermine his countrywoman competition-commissioner designate Neelie Kroes. Van Buitenen followed up a short broadside against Kroes’ commercial links at this week’s European Parliament hearing by circulating detailed allegations on paper to its press officers: these were all vigorously denied by Kroes as “unfounded and nonsensical”.…