Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FORMAL threats of legal action at the European Court of Justice have been made against Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy and Portugal over their alleged failure to implement the 1999 Directive on minimum welfare standards for laying hens. European Union governments were supposed to have introduced the standards, (including minimum cage sizes), by January 1, 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPANISH government is seeking to head off a move at the European Parliament to persuade the European Commission that Spain’s ambitious national hydrological plan breaks European Union (EU) environmental legislation and so should not be eligible for funding from Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
Europe’s ambitious Galileo programme to establish a global satellite navigation system is clearly a project that likes to keep its supporters in a state of fairly constant nervous tension. At a cost of 3.2 billion euros, Galileo was never a sure-fire runner to begin with.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THREE tobacco companies – Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and Japan Tobacco – have failed in an action in the European Court of First Instance to have the European Commission’s decision to open civil actions against them in New York annulled as illegal under EU law.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to acquire 35 per cent of the equity of one of the leading Kazakhstan insurance companies, Kazkommerts Policy (KPIC). The European Union’s EBRD, (the largest single investor in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union), said it was subscribing for 53,846 ordinary shares but declined to give a price.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s anti-fraud unit OLAF has said it took part in preliminary investigations leading to the raids on Imperial Tobacco’s German subsidiary Reemtsma, which uncovered evidence involving allegations of cigarette smuggling. OLAF said it “welcomes the actions undertaken by the German judicial and Customs authorities to investigate the activities of a number of managers of a cigarette manufacturer in the regions of Hamburg and Stade,” adding it would “continue to make itself available to the German authorities for any further action that they consider necessary.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has backed the Austrian government’s zero-tolerance policy regarding the contamination of smoked fish with listeria monocytogenes, ruling that Council Directive 91/493/EEC on placing fish products on the market allows such strict measures. The court rejected arguments that it and associated legislation banned a zero contamination rule as excessively tight.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined Ajinomoto Co. Inc. of Japan and South Korean companies Cheil Jedang Corp. and Daesang Corp respectively Euro 15.54 million, Euro 2.74 million and Euro 2.28 million each for participating in a price-fixing cartel in the flavour enhancer nucleotides.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has agreed in principle to strengthen the existing ban on hormones used as growth promoters for meat sold in the EU, by significantly reducing the use of oestradiol-17-ß, not only as a growth promoter but for other veterinary uses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission offered the US and other key trading partners at the WTO agricultural talks a 55 per cent cut in “trade distorting domestic farm support” subsidies, if they reciprocate with similar reductions. Brussels has also offered to cut its import tariffs on agricultural goods by 36 per cent and export subsidies by 45 per cent, while offering duty and quota free access for exports from least developed countries.…