Search Results for: Dutch

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH bitumen suppliers BP and Shell are amongst 14 companies fined Euro 266,717 for participating in a cartel setting the price of this crucial construction material in the Netherlands. The secret agreement included eight suppliers, also including Esha, Klöckner Bitumen, Kuwait Petroleum, Nynäs, Total and Wintershall, and six construction firms: Ballast Nedam, Dura Vermeer, Heijmans, Hollandsche Beton Groep (now part of Koninklijke BAM Groep), Koninklijke BAM Groep and Koninklijke Volker Wessels Stevin.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) may work with private food health alert services, after reviewing how it discovers and combats emerging risks. In an assessment paper, EFSA admitted it "will need to devote new internal resources for the work with emerging risks", which have recently ranged from fresh foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks, to dioxin contamination and new diseases such as SARS.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition of sole control of Dutch plastics product manufacturer Synbra Group BV by investment house GIMA BV, also of the Netherlands. Acting as the European Union’s senior competition authority, the Commission has cleared the deal without conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DUTCH engineering team has developed an emissions-free scooter that uses heat generated from braking to help recharge its battery. Epyon, a spin-off company from the Netherlands’ Delft Technology University, has designed a hybrid hydrogen-battery energy supply enabling its models to outperform standard scooters without pollution.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATVIA and Netherlands governments want the European Commission to lower securities demanded from sugar producers wishing to restructure as the EU lowers production aid. Brussels currently demands 120% of grants be lodged as security. Latvia said such "abnormal demands" prevented companies participating; the Dutch branded the demand "severe".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, will lend US$70 million over 10 years to independent Argentine oil producer Companias Asociadas Petroleras SA (CAPSA), which works within the southern province of Chubut. The money will finance capital expenditures, working capital requirements, and general corporate activities.…

BY MARK ROWE, in Munich

EUROPEAN governments have little choice but to embrace nuclear energy as part of their future power strategies, according to the head of the European Commission’s research and policy body. Roland Schenkel, Director General of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), which operates independently from private or national interests, said nuclear energy would play a hugely significant role in meeting Europe’s energy needs in coming decades, and that the need for European countries to address the issue of energy security was immediate.…

BY MARK ROWE, in Munich

THE NOTION that people with phobias or who have been involved in traumatic events should confront their demons has become accepted psychological practice in recent years.

Now, however, this treatment is going a step further, in the form of a virtual reality simulator.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission looks likely to be blocked from forcing the UK and Dutch governments to repay Euro 7.4 million’s worth of subsidies for downsizing their fishing fleets by transferring two boats apiece to Argentina. Brussels was angered when both countries subsequently registered four replacement vessels, claiming this contravened the grants’ conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states are entitled to charge tobacco companies for additional excise stamps, even if they have previously bought such tax tokens, and they have subsequently been lost, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.…