Search Results for: European Union

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the creation of three joint ventures by the German company Siemens VDO Automotive AG and the Japanese company Yazaki Corporation, who want to combine their electronic electrical distribution systems operations for passenger cars. The deal would create two new companies handling the sale, programme management and development of these systems, for Siemens and Yazaki customers in Europe and the USA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared a planned Spanish publishing joint venture between Germany’s Bertelsmann and Arnoldo Mondadori Editore SpA, of Italy, combining all the book publishing divisions and imprints in Spain and Latin America of Random House and Mondadori.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has re-launched its civil case against Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, teaming up from the start with Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg, to scupper any further defence that the EU had no substantive complaint against the tobacco firms.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided to come out fighting in its row with Member States over the liberalisation of energy markets. Calling on EU Ministers and the European Parliament to “rapidly adopt” its March 2001 proposals to completely liberalise gas and electricity markets by 2005, the Commission threatened to use exceptional powers granted to it under EU treaties to pass directives and decisions on market fairness, bypassing opposition from national governments and MEPs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the spending of Euro 119.2 million, (Pounds 74.71 million), of EU grants on rural development programmes in England from 2001 to 2006. Money is to be funnelled from the EU’s Leader Plus initiative via 23 Local Action Groups, which are to be selected by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NASA and the European Space Agency, (ESA), have adapted their plans for the joint Cassini-Huygens mission, that is supposed to relay scientific data from the Saturn moon Titan. Scientists have had to adapt the path of the Cassini orbiter, and will make several modifications to the Huygens probe – due to enter Titan’s atmosphere in January 2005 – to ensure the maximum efficiency of its communications system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the creation of a joint venture called SuperH, involving Hitachi Ltd., of Japan, and Dutch firm ST Microelectronics N.V.; it will consolidate, in a stand-alone company, the two companies’ existing co-operation in the development of microprocessor cores.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission and European Court of Justice are shaping up for a conflict over the rights of national governments to hold golden shares in privatised utilities that given them special rights to intervene in shaping their policies, even when they do not own them.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has drawn up plans to lend US $5 million to Bulgarian gold and copper mine Navan Chelopech A.D., to improve productivity and efficiency, “by bringing the mine up to international operating and environmental standards.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A THAI flint lighter manufacturer is likely to escape having to pay the stiff 51.9 per cent EU anti-dumping duties payable on most exports of the product from Thailand, having proved that its low prices are due to lower costs, rather than unfair trading practices.…