Search Results for: European Union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has extended its formal investigation into state aid paid by the German regional government of Thuringia to eastern Germany porcelain companies Kahla Porzellan GmbH (Kahla I) and Kahla/Thüringen Porzellan GmbH (Kahla II). Brussels is to examine subsidies of Euro 14.9 million, which it thinks were probably unlawful under EU regulations.…

Keith Nuthall
AN ACTION plan is being developed by the European Commission and the EU automobile industry to promote the introduction of high-tech safety systems in European motor-vehicles; the programme will probably include funding for research and the demonstration of innovations in the field.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN and the Netherlands have been authorised by the EU council of finance ministers to begin negotiations with associated territories – in the UK’s case the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Caribbean dependent territories – for the elimination of secret savings accounts.…

Keith Nuthall
THE SWIFT referral of merger cases from the European Commission to national authorities in Member States where the deal will have an overwhelming impact, has been suggested in a green paper has been issued by Brussels. The Commission currently has jurisdiction over some larger merger cases, even where participants are from the same Member State and Brussels wants these quickly transferred to national competition tribunals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH the rulebook of the Kyoto Protocol all but written, the European Commission has been considering innovative ways in which it can help reduce the EU’s production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Much emphasis has been made in the past on reducing industrial pollution or emissions from cars and lorries, but Brussels has now turned its attention to a source of the gases that is very much under the control of local authorities: waste disposal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is a curious fact that whilst Britain has a lot more wind than Germany, it has significantly less wind power electricity generation. Also, why has a country blessed with as much sun as Greece, failed to develop solar panels as quickly as its fellow southern Mediterranean EU Member State Spain?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is lending Euro 35 million to the state owned Namibia Power Corporation Pty Ltd. for the construction of 400 kV power transmission lines, supplying the new Skorpion zinc mine in the south-west of the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that the Spanish government should be authorised to levy a special 25 per cent tax on imports of tobacco into the Canary Islands, to help protect its dwindling tobacco industry; a Brussels report claimed that between 1985 and 2000, the sector shed 67 per cent of its jobs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s plan to establish the satellite-based global positioning system Galileo has been dealt a heavy blow by the EU Council of Ministers (transport), which has blocked finance for the crucial development stage of the programme. The Euro 3.6 billion, (Pounds 2.2 billion), Galileo scheme is designed to allow transport operators such as air traffic control services pinpoint navigational positions and reduce dependence on the American GPS system.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank is lending a town in northern Sweden Euro 33 million to build a biomass fuelled combined heat and power station, which will consume a fuel that is widely available in the area: timber and wood chips.…