Search Results for: Climate change

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Greece with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), over its alleged failure to implement European Union (EU) legislation on solvency margins for non-life and life insurance companies. These rules had been written into EU insurance ‘winding-up’ directives and were supposed to have been transposed into Greek law by last September 2003.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have rejected calls by the European Commission for EU-wide legislation erecting market barriers against landfilling, such as ‘pay-as-you-throw’ levies. Considering the Commission’s Communication “Towards a thematic strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste”, ministers noted that such schemes have in the past “not always achieved the desired objectives – eg internalisation of costs and effective behavioural change – and can lead to market distortions.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REQUIREMENTS on national telecommunications regulators within the European Union (EU) to analyse a list of specific markets to see if controls are required on a dominant operator are to be frozen for 18 months. The European Commission had been due to review this so-called ‘ex ante’ recommendation last month, but has postponed this until December 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has – for a change – some good news to crow about regarding greenhouse gases, with the European Environment Agency (EEA) saying the old 15 member EU’s emissions fell by 0.5% from 2001-2, following increases in the previous two years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A STRATEGIC research programme promoting nano-electronics, funded from public and private sources, is to be established by the European Commission and specialist European Union (EU) companies. A European Nano-electronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC) will be formed to draw up the plan, being chaired by STMicroelectronics CEO Pasquale Pistorio.…

Keith Nuthall
THE USA’s Department of Homeland Security will in future favour fingerprints as the biometric of choice to incorporate into passports and other travel documents, having previously been lukewarm, preferring other images. The change followed a high-level security meeting with the European Union (EU), which wants to use digitally scanned fingerprints to control immigration, as suggested in a recently proposed technical regulation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AUSTRIA should allow women to work in its mines, an advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has concluded. Francis Jacobs said the court should order Austria to change its laws, as they break the European Union (EU) equal treatment directive.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WE don’t need reminding that industry is generally harmful to the environment but less understood is the potentially quite damaging ecological effect of rising agricultural production throughout the world. This theme came through pretty loud and clear at the Consumers, Farmers and Food conference held at the Royal Institute of International Affairs last week (5-6/July), in London.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in Strasbourg
THE ELECTION of celebrated European Commission whistleblower Paul van Buitenen as an independent Dutch member of the European Parliament in June puts the former European Commission whistle-blower in a unique position to intensify and broaden his anti-fraud campaign.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH counterfeiting of the Euro currency increasing, the European Central Bank (ECB) has released advice to businesses on how to spot fake notes, without installing special equipment. “You only need to check a few features. Just feel the banknote, look at it and tilt it.…