Search Results for: European Parliament

BY ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN and Japanese carmakers have struck an agreement with the European Commission on the voluntary introduction of measures to protect pedestrians and cyclists.

All new vehicles sold in the EU from 2003 would carry daytime running lights and anti-lock brake systems.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a formal state aid investigation into payments from the German government of Euro 7.83 million, which were paid to bankrupt Saxony textile company Erba Lautex GmbH and its successor Neue Erba Lautex GmbH.

Brussels is also taking Germany to the European Court of Justice, alleging that it ignored a previous order, banning the payment of Euro 61.36 million to Erba Lautex.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is distributing 1.2 million leaflets this summer – many via EU hotel and tourism federations – which aims to educate holiday-makers on how to use the single European currency, the Euro.

With its notes and coins due to be launched in January, “Don’t forget to Pack the Euro” encourages tourists to get used to the concept of the single currency whilst vacationing abroad this summer.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that Portugal be allowed to apply a lower rate of excise duty levied in its two Atlantic island autonomous regions on locally produced and consumed spirits: rum and liqueurs in Madeira, and liqueurs and eaux-de-vie in the Azores.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH restaurateurs and hoteliers could be forced to pay regular fees to record companies for piping music from radio broadcasts into their premises, if the European Commission wins a legal case against the British government.

It has asked the European Court of Justice to order the UK to scrap the existing system, where no royalty fees are payable for playing this background music free-of-charge to customers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is developing a set of common statistical indicators that will enable the EU and national governments to accurately assess where there are particular problems of poverty and social exclusion within the European Union. A statement from the Commission said that although progress was being made on this work, further development is “urgent” in two key areas: the development of non-monetary indicators and also improved measurement tools in relation to health, housing and education.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN has been formally threatened with legal action by the European Commission over its failure to introduce national legislation fully implementing the EU’s Hazardous Waste Directive. Brussels said that the UK was at fault over its legal definition of hazardous waste – which did not match that of the EU – and added that the ban on the mixing of hazardous wastes, outlined in the directive, “has not been fully implemented in Gibraltar or Northern Ireland.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered American medicines information company IMS HEALTH (IMS) to abandon its refusal to allow rivals to copy its pharmaceutical sales and prescriptions data collection system in Germany.

In an unusual step, Brussels has used its powers as a competition authority to tell IMS to immediately licence the use of its 1860 brick structure method, over which it has copyright, “on commercial terms.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action against the British government, claiming that it has failed to write the updated EU drinking water directive into UK national legislation. If Whitehall does not persuade the Commission within two months that it has satisfactory plans to implement its rules, it could face a case at the European Court of Justice.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that strict dioxin contamination limits are introduced from January 2002, covering foodstuffs including fish and fish feed.

Products with dioxin contaminants exceeding these levels would be considered “unsuitable for consumption.”

The following maximum levels for fish dioxins have been tabled:

*Fish oil: 6 nanogram/kg;

*Fish meal: 1.25 nanogram/kg;

*Fish feed: 2.25 nanogram/kg;

*Fish meat (farmed and wild): 4 nanogram/kg.…