Search Results for: Austria

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is about to complete its own recommendations on safety improvements in long road tunnels. Its proposals include roadside checks on lorries to detect overheating and also rules on the amount of fuel carried through tunnels.…

KEITH NUTHALL
IN what could almost be said to be a Brussels tradition, the beginning of the long summer break at the European Commission – when officials disappear to the south of France to lap up the Mediterranean sun – is usually heralded by the announcement of a series of legal cases against Member States.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SIX European producers of plastic film are being investigated for possible price-fixing, the European Commission announced today Friday. “Dawn raids” on companies in Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and the UK, were carried out by competition officials from Brussels, and the national governments on August 22nd announced a spokesman for Mario Monti, EU competition commissioner.…

Alan Osborne
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Safety and Health at Work has published a series of good practice case studies from around the continent, in a bid to advise companies how to improve their record in protecting employees from harm.

Called Quality of Work: New Approaches and Strategies in Occupational Safety and Health, the report is available for free and focuses on initiatives in Britain, Spain, Ireland, France, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided to come out fighting in its row with Member States over the liberalisation of energy markets. Calling on EU Ministers and the European Parliament to “rapidly adopt” its March 2001 proposals to completely liberalise gas and electricity markets by 2005, the Commission threatened to use exceptional powers granted to it under EU treaties to pass directives and decisions on market fairness, bypassing opposition from national governments and MEPs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has finally given EU Member States the green light to help their electricity producers meet expensive ‘stranded costs’ that were incurred before the power market was liberalised in the late 1990’s, although Eurelectric has attacked Brussels for acting too slowly.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITISH hauliers could face new obstacles at trans-alpine crossings in Austria, if a decision by the transport committee of the European Parliament to reject proposals for increasing the number of trips across the Alps is backed by the full assembly.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has been active recently, using its unique powers within international law to bring EU Member States to heel for failing to implement European legislation promoting health and safety.

Unlike any other international court, the ECJ has the power to fine sovereign states, which ignore its rulings.…

Keith Nuthall
AUSTRIA and Ireland have been warned by the European Commission that they could face action in the European Court of Justice for failure to introduce legislation covering roadworthiness tests for diesel motor vehicles.

The EU directive concerned is 1999/52/EC, which concerns emissions from diesel engine vehicles and in particular with “vehicle preconditioning with a view to avoiding damage to the engine,” said the Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a series of legal proceedings against EU Member States, which it claims have broken oil-related directives.

It has decided to take Italy to the European Court of Justice over its special tax on engine lubrication oils, which Brussels claims contravenes EU excise duty laws.…