Search Results for: European Union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Safety and Health at Work has called for project proposals tapping a Euro 4 million funding scheme to encourage higher safety and health standards in small and medium-sized businesses. The agency will provide co-financing grants of between Euro 25,000 and Euro 200,000, especially for training, providing information and spreading good practice.*Details:…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Safety and Health at Work has called for project proposals tapping a Euro 4 million funding scheme to encourage higher safety and health standards in small and medium-sized businesses. The agency will provide co-financing grants of between Euro 25,000 and Euro 200,000, especially for training, providing information and spreading good practice.*Details:…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency is offering to check how countries are implementing environmental treaties such as monitoring the growth of forests under the Kyoto Protocol or their rate of shrinkage under the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. Its Treaty Enforcement Services using Earth Observation can use ESA satellites to check the extent of national woodland stocks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN a groundbreaking legal move, the European Commission has proposed a regulation that would force courts and other judicial authorities across the EU to recognise an uncontested order secured by a creditor, for the recovery of owed money held in another Member State.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is “continuously monitoring” developments involving the accountancy firm Andersen following the collapse of the proposed merger between the firm’s non-American operations and those of KPMG, officials have told Accountancy Age.

Brussels is concerned about the implications if Andersen’s practices are picked up piecemeal by local or international firms; if parts of Andersen were sold off to other major accountancy

firms on a local basis this “could justify an inquiry” but each case would be judged on its own merits, the official said.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers (transport) has approved the latest European Commission airport noise directive, accepting European Parliament technical amendments limiting for 10 years an exemption allowing the noisiest aircraft registered in developing countries to continue operating in Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called for EU legislation that would insist that passenger ferry companies take out compulsory insurance, which would cover them for no-fault strict liability claims of up to Euro 250,000 per passenger.

In a Communication, (discussion paper), “on the enhanced safety of passenger ships,” Brussels also suggests that if a carrier is at fault, unlimited liability should apply.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union, the USA, China and 87 other countries have agreed new global guidelines on how to rid wood packaging material of wood-eating insects, the United Nations has announced. To guarantee that packaging is pest-free, exporters would need to certify with a globally recognised symbol that the material has been heated or fumigated.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed an expensive twin-track programme to secure the European Union’s energy supplies, diversifying production by promoting renewables and limiting demand by boosting energy saving initiatives.

It has asked EU ministers to spend Euro 215 million on its planned Intelligent Energy for Europe programme, which would span 2003 to 2006.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union’s anti-fraud unit OLAF has reacted angrily to the leaking to German news magazine Stern of a confidential dossier of new EU corruption allegations compiled last year by Brussels whistle-blower Paul van Buitenen. Since he handed his report in August to OLAF and the Commission’s administration directorate, officials have been “analysing” its contents and discussing how to follow it up.…