Search Results for: Belgium

BY ALAN OSBORN

OFFSHORE wind energy has moved with astonishing speed from being little more than an environmentalist’s dream a few years ago to a vast industry set to provide 4% of Europe’s electricity by 2020 with commensurate growth in jobs, associated industries and port development.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has signalled it is prepared to launch World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes actions should non-EU governments impose import bans on European meat and livestock over Schmallenberg Virus outbreaks. A meeting of the EU’s Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health late last week (Thursday and Friday) concluded such restrictions would be "disproportionate and scientifically unjustified".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project has developed eco-friendly dyes made from enzymes that can be used to colour textiles. The SOPHIED project, coordinated by the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, has extracted relevant enzymes from fungi using a nutrient-rich fluid bath.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

RUSSIAN authorities have defended their decision to temporarily restrict imports of cattle from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France from February 1 over the Schmallenberg virus and warn a meat ban may follow.

Alexei Alexeyenko spokesman for the Russian federal service for veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) told the Meat Trades Journal: "The risk of human infection has not yet been identified.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN EDINBURGH

INVESTORS want to make the United Kingdom the hot spot for new gas storage projects in the European Union (EU). The UK tops the EU’s league table of projects either applied for or with official consent: 11.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of space compared with 4.6bcm of current operational capacity.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking legal action against 14 European Union (EU) member states, it thinks are failing to protect egg laying hens against animal welfare abuses. According to the Commission, the countries have failed to comply with EU legislation that prohibits farmers from keeping egg-laying hens in confined, tiny cages smaller than 750 square centimetres.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE DUTCH government is pressing for a coordinated European Union (EU) response to fighting the Schmallenberg virus, a damaging disease spreading rapidly amongst livestock across Europe. Probably transmitted by insects, the virus is affecting goats, sheep and cattle, causing abortions, deformities, severe diarrhoea, fever and drops in milk production.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht is under investigation in his native Belgium over concerns his purchase of a holiday home in Tuscany, Italy, could have involved tax evasion. Following a Belgian lower court tussle, (which De Gucht lost), his bank records have been handed to Belgium’s Special Tax Inspectorate (ISI), a finance ministry arm combating "serious and organised tax fraud".…

BY JAMES FULLER

IF evidence were needed to show how globalised the confectionery sector has become – then look at the row between Ecuador and the European Union (EU) over possible EU controls limiting levels of toxic metal cadmium in cocoa powder and chocolate.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the European Commission’s recent flurry of recalibrated environmental targets aiming to cut emissions in the European Union (EU) transport system by 50% by 2050 (34% in the aviation industry) – airports along with air navigation services will have a significant role to play.…