Search Results for: European Court of Justice

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called for the closure of EU coalmines that perform poorly economically, where they have been lavished with state aid paid with the view to them being restructured and turned around.

In its latest report on state aid to the mining industry, (for the year 2000), Brussels adopts an aggressively negative tone about aid paid by national governments to the coal industry, which it claims “is in crisis, despite several years of state aid.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have reached political agreement on two new proposed directives that are supposed to ensure the safe disposal of discarded electrical equipment, including computers and household appliances.

The Council of Ministers, (environment), has backed the directive on the treatment of waste from electrical and electronic equipment and the directive on the limitation of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER governments of the European Union now have a legal duty to hold full-scale environmental impact assessments of proposed hotel and tourism projects, when they have called them in from local authorities to make national decisions on planning applications.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PLANS to develop a new kind of European Union patent, which would allow R&D units to gain protection for their inventions across the EU by making one comparatively simple application, are being discussed. A so-called Community Patent would be easier to operate than the existing European Patents, which have to be translated into the official language of each Member State in which it is to apply.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALTHOUGH petrol and diesel consumption rose by 45 per cent in the European Union between 1985 and 1998, technological improvements meant pollution actually fell during this time, a study from Eurostat has claimed.

Between 1980 and 1998, the EU witnessed a 25 per cent drop in nitrogen oxides and non-methane volatile organic compound emissions, for which road transport is largely responsible.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
GERMANY has been served notice by the European Commission that it may be taken to the European Court of Justice unless it brings in national legislation to implement the EU’s gas liberalisation directive. Brussels has given Germany two months to respond to a “reasoned opinion” over its failure to incorporate the directive within its national laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to lend Euro 21.5 million to Balkanpharma, Bulgaria’s leading producer of pharmaceuticals, to support the modernisation of three production sites. It is hoped that the reforms will enable the recently privatised company to raise its standards to meet European Union and Bulgarian official good manufacturing practice levels, allowing it to maintain traditional export and domestic markets and increase its access to the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has called on the World Trade Organisation to arbitrate in a dispute with Argentina over the time that it has to implement an earlier ruling opposing Argentine tanning industry controls on the export of raw and semi-tanned bovine hides.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WORKERS in companies with 50 employees or more will have sweeping rights to be informed and consulted about management decisions affecting their future following agreement by EU employment ministers on a new work directive.

Britain had held out against the legislation but gave in when it became clear that other Member States would out-vote it on the matter.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EMPLOYEES working abroad within the European Union, who require benefits after being forced into a part-time job by their employer, should claim social security from the country of their employment, not their home residence, the European Court of Justice has ruled.…