Search Results for: Belgium
10 results out of 1189 results found for 'Belgium'.
EUROPE'S UTILITY CUSTOMER SERVICE IS AS DIVERSE AS THE CONTINENT ITSELF
BY PHILIPPA JONES, LEE ADENDOORF, E. BLAKE BERRY, SYMON ROSS, MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL
CONSUMER issues have been a key focus of European Union (EU) initiatives regarding utilities of late. The European Commission’s Citizens’ Energy Forum has been busy, recently focusing on improving billing practices, promoting good practice and calling for "clearer, more understandable and accurate bills".…
EU ROUND UP - TURKEY TO JOIN ENERGY EU
BY KEITH NUTHALL
TURKEY – the lynchpin of European Union (EU) efforts to secure energy independence from Russia – has started negotiations to join the EU’s Energy Community. The organisation currently extends EU energy legislation to non-EU Balkans countries, but there are plans to add Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey to its membership.…
KROES WARNS GERMANY NOT TO ADD STRINGS TO OPEL DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned the German government it must not at string to its support of the planned Magna International and Sberbank takeover of Opel requiring the protection of German jobs and plant.
In a speech yesterday (Sept 14) to the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, European Union (EU) competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that Berlin’s offer of Euro 4.5 billion to the planned New Opel company "cannot be subject – de jure or de facto – to additional conditions concerning the location of investments and/or the geographic distribution of restructuring efforts."…
EU ROUND UP - UKRAINE MAY GET US$3 BILLION HELP FROM EUROPE FOR GAS REFORMS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SIZE of the planned international investment in Ukraine’s gas distribution system has been revealed in a European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) memorandum: up to US$3 billion maybe pumped in. Money would start flowing with a US$300 million working capital loan from the EBRD for purchasing gas, repayable after this winter heating season.…
OPEL DEAL UNDER INTENSE POLITICAL PRESSURE OVER SUBSIDY CONCERNS
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE SALE of General Motors’ European auto-manufacturing subsidiary Opel to a Canadian-Austrian-Russian consortium is developing into a bitter dispute over how job losses arising from the deal are allocated between European Union (EU) member countries and who provides the funds for Opel’s restructuring.…
KROES WARNS GERMANY NOT TO ADD STRINGS TO OPEL DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH dealers of Vauxhall and Opel cars can draw comfort from a European Commission pledge to prevent the planned Magna International and Sberbank takeover of Opel/Vauxhall being framed to close UK plants ahead of those in Germany. Speaking to the European Parliament, European Union (EU) competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the German government’s offer of Euro 4.5 billion to the planned New Opel company owned by Magna/Sberbank must not have strings.…
EU RESEARCH PROJECT LAUNCHES SENTIENT DRIVER ALERT SYSTEM
BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN-CAR technology recording and analysing driver motoring styles, then releasing alarms if motorists depart from these norms in dangerous circumstances, has been unveiled by a European Union-funded research project. Researchers from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Italy and Lithuania in the DRIVSCO network say their system produces fewer false alarms than sensors focused on standardised driver-error prompts and external risks.…
FRANCO-GERMAN BLOC PUSH FOR MORE DAIRY SUPPORT AS QUOTAS PHASED OUT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ATTACK by France and Germany on the European Commission’s ‘health check’ reforms to phase out European Union (EU) dairy quotas by 2015 is gathering support, with 16 member states backing increased subsidies. Having failed to persuade the Commission to abandon quota liberalisation, a growing Franco-German-led alliance at the EU Council of Ministers is backing increased subsides while restrictive production quotas expand from 2010 and disappear in 2015.…
BRUSSELS SPENDS TO PROMOTE HONEY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend Euro 96,670 promoting sales of Belgium and Luxembourg honey within the European Union over three years. The money will finance marketing and information campaigns across Europe already planned by relevant industry organisations: Apaq-W, of Belgium; and FUAL, of Luxembourg.…
INNOVATION ABOUNDS IN DEVELOPING SECOND GENERATION BIOFUELS
BY MARK ROWE and GAVIN BLAIR
THE ANSWER to the world’s future fuel needs may be literally all around us, and freely available in abundance, thanks to the throw-away society of the 21st century. Bioenergy, produced from all matter of waste products, from wood chips, to agricultural husks and slurry, has been steadily elevated up the list of potential sources of energy that will be required in a low-carbon world.…