Search Results for: Belgium

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEGAL action is being prepared by the European Commission against another three European Union (EU) countries over their minimum price systems for cigarettes. Brussels opposes these as an illegal restriction of trade, and recently forced Belgium into abandoning its minimum price system.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE PLASTICS industry is currently faced with a wave of European Union (EU) legislation in different stages of enactment and implementation that will impact on its operations and sales. One particularly important and long-debated law is the new and comprehensive waste directive that is now approaching a final phase in the EU decision-taking process, and could be in force within a year from now.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has sent final legal warnings to 10 European Union (EU) member governments, telling them to abide by minimum standards for the training of professional drivers working in their countries. EU directive 2003/59 imposes requirements for initial qualification and continuing training: compulsory basic training of 280 hours, and periodic training of 35 hours every five years to update knowledge and skills.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has struck an important deal with Algeria, ensuring it supplies gas to European markets competitively, scrapping restrictive profit sharing contracts. Algeria is a key gas exporter in the EU’s fight to secure energy security without relying on Russia, and Algiers has now agreed with the European Commission that pipeline gas can be sold-on within Europe, without a cut going to Algerian gas producer Sonatrach.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CONCERNS that non-British bus and coach drivers from 10 European Union (EU) member states could have weak professional driving training and be a public transport safety risk are being addressed by the European Commission. It is threatening action at the European Court of Justice against these countries for not complying with an EU directive on professional drivers training that insists upon 280 hours compulsory basic training and 35 hours further training every five years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOODS transport firms wanting to exploit full scale liberalisation of the European Union’s (EU) postal services may see swift progress this month, with the EU’s German presidency pushing reforms at the EU summit, June 21-22, in Brussels. This follows debates last week at the EU Council of Ministers, after which Germany’s economics minister Michael Glos said: “Clear progress is discernable on the path towards the liberalisation of the European postal services,” adding he was “very confident that a positive decision will be taken in the near future”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GOODS transport firms wanting to exploit full scale liberalisation of the European Union’s (EU) postal services may see swift progress this month, with the EU’s German presidency pushing reforms at the EU summit, June 21-22, in Brussels. This follows debates last week at the EU Council of Ministers, after which Germany’s economics minister Michael Glos said: “Clear progress is discernable on the path towards the liberalisation of the European postal services,” adding he was “very confident that a positive decision will be taken in the near future”.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

RESEARCHERS from VIB, the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, in Belgium, have discovered a protein that both protects human skin from sun damage and retains moisture. The protein caspase-14 is crucial in maintaining the ‘stratum corneum’, a layer of flattened dead cells that acts as a protective barrier for our skin, their research has shown.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
RESEARCHERS from VIB, the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, in Belgium, have discovered a protein that both protects human skin from sun damage and retains moisture. The protein caspase-14 is crucial in maintaining the ‘stratum corneum’, a layer of flattened dead cells that acts as a protective barrier for our skin, their research has shown.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A LENGTHY row over European Union (EU) energy policy is shaping up following the publication in April of a detailed independent study sponsored by the European Commission of the electricity markets in six EU countries.

The study – Structure and Performance of Six European Wholesale Electricity Markets in 2003, 2004 and 2005 – was drawn up by the consultants London Economics in association with Global Energy Decisions and focuses on the electricity wholesale markets in Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the UK excluding Northern Ireland.…