Search Results for: European Parliament

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union is to lay down maximum concentrations for 15 natural

substances in natural mineral water that it says may pose long term health

risks in high concentrations. Labelling provisions are also to be strengthened.

If a natural mineral water does not comply it will be required to undergo an authorised separation treatment and some producers will need to invest heavily in treatment processes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has quashed a 2000 ban imposed by the European Commission on certain slimming drugs. Judges ruled that Brussels had exceeded its powers by withdrawing a 1996 marketing authorisation for products containing amphetamine-like anorectic agents (amfepramone, clobenzorex, fenproporex, norpseudoephedrine and phentermine).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CARBON dioxide emissions from new cars sold in the European Union have declined by 10 per cent since 1995, according to a new Brussels survey. It added that last year members of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association reduced emissions by 2.5 per cent, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association 2.2 per cent and the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association 2.6 per cent.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
PROPOSALS by the European Commission to ban state aid for the disposal of slaughterhouse waste and fallen stock could put many British slaughterhouses out of business, said Robert Kennard, a spokesman for small abattoir operators.

Under the Brussels plan, state aid for the disposal of slaughterhouse waste of any kind would be made illegal from the start of 2003, though European Union (EU) Member States would be given leeway in exceptional circumstances to grant 50 per cent aid for the disposal of specified risk material and meat and bone meal with no further commercial use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MINIMUM and mandatory standards for the care of asylum seekers in European Union (EU) Member States have been agreed by the EU’s Council of Ministers for justice and home affairs. The resulting directive, has been drafted “to ensure that asylum seekers have a dignified standard of living,” said a council memorandum.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BETS are off over whether the new code on maritime safety and security agreed by the International Maritime Organisation this month will actually allow insurance companies to reduce the premiums that they charge shipping companies and ports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union and its allies at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) negotiations over the creation of a global register for protected geographical indications in the wine and spirit trade have made a significant concession, which may be the basis for a future deal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will examine “as a matter of urgency” how the cost of installing additional airport and airline security following last year’s September 11 attacks could be shared between public authorities and air industry operators. It is an attempt to break an impasse between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, which has wanted to shift the burden onto the industry.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A FINAL agreement on legislation lowering the maximum level of sulphur content in diesel and petrol to 10 ppm has been agreed by the European Union Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. Under a deal struck in a EU conciliation committee, these low sulphur fuels must be available throughout the EU from January 1, 2005, and mandatory from January 1, 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SUCCESSFUL negotiations between the European Commission and the governments of Cambodia and Nepal have led to a deal over the extension of existing textile trade agreements between these Asian kingdoms and the European Union (EU). The Commission has asked European ministers to formally agree that these agreements should be prolonged until December 2004, appending a new list of textile products that can be imported into the EU without any quota limits.…