Search Results for: European Union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPROMISE deal has been struck in Brussels over a transitional regime for the European Union sugar industry, which will last until July 2006, when a comprehensive review is expected to have taken place.

The European Commission had been pressing to deep cuts in market supports, but these have been resisted by some Member States, who are represented on the EU Council of Ministers, which approved the final agreement.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
COMPANIES sending personal data to countries outside the European

Union will be able to ensure their legal compliance with the EU’s data protection directive by incorporating a set of new standard clauses in their contracts under proposals announced by the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALTHOUGH petrol and diesel consumption rose by 45 per cent in the European Union between 1985 and 1998, technological improvements meant pollution actually fell during this time, a study from Eurostat has claimed.

Between 1980 and 1998, the EU witnessed a 25 per cent drop in nitrogen oxides and non-methane volatile organic compound emissions, for which road transport is largely responsible.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
COMPANIES with manual labour using heavy plant will have to check their guidelines regarding employees’ safety from exposure to mechanical vibrations, because of a proposed EU directive.

The Council of Ministers, (general affairs), last week gave the proposal its formal approval.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A COMPROMISE has been agreed by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament over the proposed bus safety directive, on the “carriage of passengers: vehicles comprising more than 8 seats or maximum length 15m, (amending directive 70/156/EEC).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has opened a formal investigation into state aid provided by the Spanish government for the restructuring of copper, gold and silver mining company Minas de Rio Tinto SAL, in Huelva.

In 2000, Madrid guaranteed loans of ESP 1,500 million, (Euro 9 million), which were linked to a restructuring plan to turn the company around.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted competition clearance to a new joint venture that will design, develop, manufacture and sell devices to route Internet and other electronic communications to homes and offices in Europe and the USA, via existing electrical wires, without laying any additional cables.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a change in the organisation of the EU wine market aimed at encouraging young people into wine growing. Brussels said that some Member States had been pursuing active policies of generational replacement and these had proved their worth, “particularly in the wine sector where there is a great need to attract younger growers.”…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that EU ministers approve an application from France to extend for another seven years the right to reduce the rate of excise duty applied in mainland France to traditional rum from the French overseas departments of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion and Guyane.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has tried to make up for its failure to strike fishing access deal with Morocco by forging an improved agreement with its north African neighbour Mauritania which Brussels claims its “the most important with a third country” that it has made.…