Search Results for: Austria

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMONGST all European Union (EU) countries, Finland has the highest number of nurses and midwives per head of population, – 2,181 per 100,000 inhabitants – according to the recently released and latest available comparative figures. EU statistical agency Eurostat said that these 1998-2000 figures showed Portugal as having the least nurses and midwives (379 per 100,000) and Greece the second worst performer (391).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PUNITIVE tolls levied on Austria’s trans-Alpine Brenner motorway have been undermined by a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling, which has opened the way for hauliers to claim compensation against their effect. The decision is a precedent across the European Union and could be used to challenge other punitive tolls, designed to dissuade hauliers from using environmentally sensitive routes.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ABUSE of drugs and alcohol in the workplace may be a growing concern in European Union (EU) countries but there seems little evidence that the relevant authorities are unduly alarmed by it. An informal survey by Occupational Health of organisations and government departments suggests that little attempt has been made so far to assess the scale of the problem, still less to devise legislation aimed at workers, as distinct from society in general.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE FIRST step towards admitting “interspecific” vines, or hybrids, to the top wine classifications in Europe has been taken by the European Commission, which has ordered a study to see if such vines can produce quality wines to rival Bordeaux, Graves or Chianti.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed the introduction of river basin management systems of water resources in the Czech Republic, a key requirement of the European Union’s (EU) water framework directive. This legislation has proved challenging for existing EU Member States, let alone countries joining the EU in May, such as the Czech Republic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SERIES of exemptions from the European Union’s (EU) new energy taxation directive have been proposed by the European Commission for the eastern and southern European countries joining the EU in May (barring Cyprus).

They would be added to the already long list of exemptions negotiated by existing Member States that prompted EU internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein to liken the legislation to “Gruyere cheese”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NETHERLANDS has restricted to 22,000 the number of working migrants it will accept from the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) this May. The announcement is the latest in a string of such caps imposed by existing EU Member States, (made by Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain), ahead of the expansion of the union.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to lend Euro 60 million to Austria’s Böhler-Uddeholm Group to finance the modernisation and extension of production, plus researching and developing the metallurgy of special, high grades steels. This work will be carried out at the company’s production centres in Sweden as well as Austria, in underdeveloped regions qualifying for European Union (EU) development assistance, safeguarding 4,500 direct manufacturing jobs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking six national governments to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) because of allegations that they have failed to implement the large combustion plants directive that seeks to cut air pollution through strict limits on sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions.…

BY PHILIP FINE

A US airport is working on an agreement with a German company to jointly run a baggage-handling operation that they can market to local airlines. Jacksonville International Airport and Fraport AG – the Frankfurt-based company that owns and operates that city’s airport – would save airlines the expense of hiring workers and buying equipment needed to move bags to and from aircraft.…