Search Results for: International Law

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UTILITY research units can bid for funding for international collaborative projects into sustainable energy systems from a pot of Euro 3 million released under the European Union’s (EU) sixth framework programme. In a formal call for proposals, the European Commission is looking to fund studies that may have medium and long term impact.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNATIONAL Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed El Baradei called for the systematic distribution of nuclear energy systems using materials that cannot be used to create nuclear weapons. Writing in the Economist, he said systems should prevent countries diverting materials to weapons production and “prevent the misuse of facilities and equipment for the clandestine manufacture of (weapons) materials; and facilitate efficient oversight.”…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE, in Columbo
THE SRI Lankan government has announced that a domestic airport adjoining Columbo’s Bandaranaike International Airport will be opened next year. Minister of Tourism Gamini Lokuge said that the project would use part of a neighbouring Sri Lanka military air force base.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission wants to help the European Union’s (EU) textile industry increase its reliance on added-value high-end products to prepare for the oncoming liberalisation of the world’s textile trade in 2005.

With the scrapping of import quota controls through the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing opening the gates to cheap textile imports from developing countries, a new Commission Communication (policy paper) called for increased research and development in the sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ACQUISITION of Greek tobacco company Papastratos by the Dutch subsidiary of Philip Morris has been approved by the European Commission, which can concluded that the deal is not anti-competitive, even in Greece. Even though Brussels accepted Philip Morris would become the national market leader as a result, its concerns were eased by the fact that its existing brands are not in the same price segment as Papastratos’s lines, such as Assos and President.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has bit the bullet and drawn up plans to lend US$250 million to help build the planned key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is piling pressure on the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the organisation next May to abolish tax laws that currently break EU regulations and directives. The EU Council of Ministers has drawn up a list of 30 tax measures deemed “harmful” to Europe’s internal market that apply in the countries planning to join the EU next year, namely Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition of full control of the Finnish pharmaceutical distributor Tamro Oyj by German pharmacist Phoenix International Beteiligungs GmbH. The decision followed a cursory examination of the potential competition problems. The Commission swiftly decided there were none and fast tracked the decision, after being notified about the deal on August 29.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OFFICE International des Épizooties (OIE), the world animal health organisation, will review its guidelines on trade with countries with BSE outbreaks following requests from the USA, Canada and Mexico, but claims governments are already failing to implement its existing advice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILS of the European Commission’s plan to create a comprehensive European Union (EU) environmental health strategy have been unveiled by its environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom in a speech to a conference in Warsaw. She told environmental health specialists that a draft action plan would be presented to EU ministers next spring and would be debated in full at the Fourth Pan-European Environment and Health Ministerial Conference in Budapest, Hungary, in June.…