Search Results for: European Court of Justice

BY ALAN OSBORN
SPAIN has expressed concerns to European ministers about delays in transferring control of the civilian-military Torrejon satellite imaging centre, near Madrid, from the increasingly obsolete Western European Union defence organisation to the European Union, which is setting up its own rapid reaction force.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament is pressing for large telecoms utilities to be given legal responsibilities not to exploit a possible future collapse in their market, by raising charges and hindering the entrance of new rivals.

MEP’s (June 14) have backed amendments suggested by the parliament’s legal affairs committee to the proposed universal service and users rights directive, which was tabled last year, as part of the European Commission’s wide-ranging telecommunications package.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, has agreed a communiqué, stating that the EU must “respond to citizens’ concerns about…. issues related to outbreaks of infectious diseases and resistance to antibiotics.” The heads of government noted the intention of the European Commission to present formal proposals on the subject by the end of this year, signalling that they would try and give them a fair political wind within the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A MAJOR extension of the powers of the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) has been proposed by the European Commission as part of a sweeping reform of EU pharmaceutical legislation. At present the EMEA authorises only the use of high profile medicines derived from biotechnology, such as those used for cancer, AIDS, multiple schlerosis and Alzheimers disease among others.…

Keith Nuthall
TOUGHER control of airline slots at EU airports have been proposed by the European Commission, in a bid to reduce delays. Its proposals include sanctions against abusive practices and incentives for airlines to use slot portfolios efficiently through exchanges and re-timing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL agreement has been forged at the European Union’s Council of Ministers for employment and social policy on a new ‘health and safety: physical agents (noise)’ directive, that should introduce pan-EU workplace exposure limits.

Ministers managed to strike a compromise, ironing out some long standing disagreements on the upper limit value for noise exposure and whether there should be special rules for the maritime and air transport sectors, as requested by Greece, Italy and the UK governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that a joint company is set up to manage the development of Galileo, the planned EU global positioning satellite. The company would also be responsible for raising investment from the public and private sector.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has announced that it is lending US$40 million to Volkswagen Argentina S.A., a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, to support investment for the production of gearboxes for passenger cars in its plant located in Cordoba, Argentina.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A DUTCH government aid scheme to help reduce CO2 emissions in inland waterway, road and rail transport in the Netherlands has been approved by the European Commission.

The budget for the scheme, which is part of the Dutch effort to meet its EU objectives under the Kyoto protocol, is put at Euro 36 million and will run until the end of 2007.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched formal state aid investigations into the purchase of overpriced shares by the Walloon regional government, of Belgium, from the Flemish carpet manufacturer Beaulieu.

Officials consider that the payment was in effect a debt write-off, as Beaulieu settled a debt of BEF 113.7 million owed to the regional government by transferring 9,704 shares in the Holding Verlipack II company, also of Belgium.…