Search Results for: Austria

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has declared legal special funding systems in Austria for combined heat and power for public district heating and renewable energy, after the Austrian government partly changed the operation of these subsidies. The system for renewables had drawn particular criticism from the Commission, because it involved consumers paying a fixed price for green energy consumed in Austria.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GERMANY and Austria have now followed France in being censured by the European Court of Justice for failing to implement a directive – EC/2001/19 – removing bureaucratic obstacles preventing foreign European Union (EU) nurses working in their countries.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

OPPOSITION is being voiced within the European Union (EU) to the growing trend of banning smoking in bars and pubs, says an opinion poll by EU pollsters Eurobarometer. While across the EU, 61% of citizens polled support these bans, there were majorities against them in significant countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched legal action against five member states of the European Union (EU) to stop them imposing restrictions on imports of second-hand autos from other EU countries. The Commission thinks these trade barriers are so serious, they break these countries’ constitutional obligations under the Treaty of European Union to allow goods and services to be provided freely and easily across EU national borders.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ISSUE of whether public money should fund stem cell research is set to become a controversial topic again, with funding restrictions being tabled by MEPs for the European Union’s (EU) oncoming seventh framework programme (FP7). These include banning "research activities intended to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research or for the purpose of stem cell procurement".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN UNPRECEDENTED joint paper from the European Commission and European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana calls for the EU to diversify its energy sources beyond Russia. In particular, the paper suggests the EU looks closer to home: at Algeria and Turkey.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched legal action against five member states of the European Union (EU) to stop them imposing special technical tests and extra administration on imports of second-hand autos from other EU countries. The Commission thinks these trade barriers break constitutional obligations to trade goods across EU national borders.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU), Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria have pledged support for the Nabucco pipeline carrying gas from Azerbaijan, bypassing Russia, increasingly viewed as an unreliable energy partner.

EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, and the five countries linked by the pipeline (also including EU member states Hungary and Austria) have signed a joint statement promising to "successfully complete" the project.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

PLANS to lend Euro 400 million to help prepare for a new passenger terminal at Vienna International Airport, Austria, have been unveiled by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The bank wants to help operator Flughafen Wien AG (VIE) design, construct and commission a new passenger terminal and associated airside/landside infrastructure, assessing the project’s environmental impact.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA has sent another threat to Europe over gas supplies, undermining its reputation as a potential reliable energy partner for its western neighbours. Semyon Vainshtok, the president of Russia pipeline monopoly Transneft has told the daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Russia has "overfed Europe with crude".…