Search Results for: European Parliament

KEITH NUTHALL
SOPHISTICATED controls on the access of the European road haulage industry to ecologically sensitive areas such as the Alps should be introduced, not simple traffic bans, a new European Environment Agency report has claimed.

‘Road Freight Transport and the Environment in Mountainous Areas’ points out that the inevitable concentration of road traffic through mountain barriers, such as the Alps or the Pyrenees, will have “a large impact on human health and the ecosystem, especially in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A SIGNIFICANT extension of airport security measures across the 43 countries of the Council of Europe, including for the first time three republics of the former Soviet Union, has now become a real possibility.

The Council’s economic committee has agreed to recommend to its member governments a range of sweeping airport reforms based on the AVSEC package drawn up by the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC).…

ALAN OSBORN
The European Commission is bringing actions in the European Court of Justice against Sweden and Portugal for failure to adopt an EU directive on maritime safety. The legislation, which was approved by the EU council in 1999, provides for the regular safety examination of ships arriving at or leaving EU ports and calls on member states to co-operate fully in investigations of marine accidents and incidents.…

Keith Nuthall
TIGHTER noise restrictions on commercial aircraft visiting European Union airports have been proposed by the European Commission; it has tabled a new directive that would allow the worst affected airports to ban aircraft that marginally comply with the existing Chapter 3 standard accepted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, (ICAO).…

KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission paper Working together for the Future of European Tourism has proposed the establishment of research centres serving the industry at national, regional and local levels. It has also proposed the development of statistical benchmarks to evaluate EU tourist services and destinations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILS of the trade agreements struck earlier this year between the European Union and South Africa have been published by the European Commission, in two legal texts submitted to the EU Council of Ministers for formal approval.

Assuming this is granted, EU import quotas for South African wine will rise to 353,000 in the New Year, increasing gradually every 12 months to 420,200 hectolitres in December 2011.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has stepped up a quarrel with France over bananas, where Brussels says French importers are entitled to only 4,000 tonnes of reduced-duty imports a year; France is insisting on 50,000 tonnes. Paris has now been given a month to respond or face action in the European Court of Justice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FISHING catch quotas in European Union territorial waters are to be slashed again to reduce pressure on stocks, which Brussels says “are in a parlous state.” The European Commission proposed a reduction of the total allowable catch of haddock in the Irish Sea by 52%, sole in the North Sea by 25% and langoustines in the Bay of Biscay by between 45 and 50%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Intellectual Property Organisation’s digital copyright treaty is to come into force on March 6, next year, after Gabon became the 30th country to ratify its provisions, the minimum number required to make it international law.

This convention safeguards the rights of authors whose works are published on the Internet and in other digital media, protecting literary and artistic works, including online books, computer programs, music, art, and films.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE USE of azocolourants for dyeing leather and textile goods is to be banned throughout the European Union following acceptance by EU ministers of scientific evidence that they present a cancer risk. Some EU countries already ban the nitrogen-based chemicals and the European Commission wants to harmonise the situation in the interests of free trade.…