Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE has been added to a European Commission blacklist of Member States who have concluded so-called ‘Open Skies’ agreements with the United States, which grants relevant national airlines additional landing writes in America. Brussels opposes the deals, because they discriminate against carriers from EU countries which have not made similar agreements and also because they help US airlines compete with those based in Europe: the deals allow planes to fly onto a third country, a mixed blessing for EU carriers flying to the US, given its size.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A RANGE of compounds, chemicals, micro-organisms and toxins, together with test and production equipment and associated software has been published by the European Commission under its revised dual-use regulation for controlling the export of items that could be put to illegal use, including terrorism and warfare by rogue states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AGREEMENT in principle has been secured at the European Union Council of Ministers over a directive that will limit noise and air pollution from recreational boats and jet skis in the EU. The proposal has been developed over concerns about the effect of motor-boats on lakes and coastal areas, “where low noise levels are a significant but scarce natural resource.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANZ Fischler has been making a lot of speeches recently. It is not because he has time on his hands, he is in charge of the European Commission’s largest two budgets, agriculture and fisheries after all. Rather it is because he is cross with the Americans, whom he accuses of playing Janus at the WTO.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
OFF-LICENCES cannot rely on EU consumer protection laws when trying to protect themselves against unfair contracts imposed by suppliers, the European Court of Justice has ruled. The case centred on the supply of automatic drinks dispensers from a company called Idealservice to two Italian companies, which later objected to a clause in the operational contract.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CONSULTANTS report written for the European Commission by Pricewaterhouse Coopers has claimed that the EU’s GALILEO satellite navigation project is not only positive in cost-benefit terms, but should show an operational profit from 2011 onwards.

The assessment comes after the European Parliament threw doubt on the financing of the scheme, which the Commission hopes will attract more than Euro 2 billion private sector investment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the proposed take-over of Haindl, a German family-owned paper company, by Finland’s UPM-Kymmene and the subsequent sale of two of the Haindl mills to Norwegian paper manufacturer Norske Skog. Brussels concluded following an inquiry that the deal would not erode effective competition in European Union paper markets, notably in those for newsprint and wood-containing magazine paper.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN is being threatened with fresh legal action over its failure to comply with a European Court of Justice ruling concerning ground waters and surface freshwaters affected by nitrate pollution. These proceedings could result in London being given massive recurring fines of up to Euro 100,000 a day, until it obeys the ECJ.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AGREEMENT in principle has been secured at the European Union Council of Ministers over a directive that will limit noise and air pollution from recreational boats and jet skis in the EU. The proposal has been developed over concerns about the effect of motor-boats on lakes and coastal areas, “where low noise levels are a significant but scarce natural resource.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called on food safety experts to bid for contracts worth Euro 39 million to stage studies funded by the EU’s outgoing Fifth Framework Programme for research. Brussels says it will fund work on detection tests for infectious and toxic agents in the food chain and on ways to eliminate them.…