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By Keith Nuthall

Higher education and research institutions will have to fight their corner to secure the additional public spending being made available in Europe this year, as politicians loosen their purse strings to head off economic depression.

Before Christmas, European Union (EU) heads of government approved a major economic stimulus package, designed to pump ?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FRENCH car manufacturer Renault is likely to receive a Euro 400 million low interest loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) money to develop electric vehicles. Renault is planning to spend Euro 1 billion on this project said the EIB, which could ultimately involve retooling.…

By Alan Osborn

We should have known better than to believe the French last year when they said they wanted a new, reformed common agricultural policy with lower subsidies for farmers. That, incredibly, was what French president Nicholas Sarkozy said in September 2007. 

Incredible is right.

A year later Paris has thrown such pledges into the dustbin.

Late November’s French government paper setting out ideas for a meeting of EU agriculture ministers, when the future of the CAP was to be discussed, makes clear that France wants to preserve the traditional shape of the CAP with protection of farmers’ incomes uppermost.…

BY RUSSELL BERMAN

THE INTERNATIONAL cosmetics industry is watching closely for signs of regulatory changes that could be afoot under the incoming Obama administration and a new Congress in the United States, with increased Democratic majorities.

Maybe the biggest question is over environmental policy, where the president-elect has pledged to be much more aggressive than George W Bush and may push for added regulations that would prove costly to leading cosmetics firms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the current European Commission begins its final year in office, has it fulfilled its promises to slash European Union (EU) fraud? Only in part, reports Keith Nuthall

IT was one of the major priorities of the European Commission led by president José Manuel Barroso: get a handle on the financial crime that bleed EU budgets of millions in Euros every year.…

BY MICHAEL ROSTON

ENERGY policy has been at the front and center of American politics, and played a major role in the 2008 presidential election. The candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, skirmished often on the best ways to deal with the cost of energy and global climate change, with Obama making the creation of millions of green jobs a centerpiece of his appeal to American voters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FAILURE of the European Union’s (EU) 2004 waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive to promote recycling has led the European Commission to propose revamping this legislation.

Brussels has admitted the existing system – aimed at forcing manufacturers to provide free disposal facilities – has proved complex to administer and included unrealistic targets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AGREEMENT has been struck over future European Union (EU) targets for CO2 emissions from cars, with an informal deal being forged by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. The agreement is a compromise, with energy and automobile companies securing a phase-in between 2012 and 2015 of an agreed 120g/km target.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, DOMINIQUE PATTON and LUCY JONES

The growth in outsourcing within the clothing and textile sector worldwide has highlighted a key issue, and that is the relative merits of running an integrated company that handles basic production and design, or relying on a string of specialist suppliers to deliver the goods, from fibre supplies, to textile manufacture, design, clothing assembly and retail.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, JAMES BURNS, and JULIAN RYALL

With technological change being forced upon the auto manufacturing industry by high oil prices, plants are being retooled faster than in living memory. At such a time, companies are always looking for new ideas and technology.…