Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has rejected a claim by a bereaved mother that European law entitled her compensation for the death of her son in a road accident, where he was a passenger sitting in an unseated rear area of a Citroën C 15 D diesel van.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN masters degree in renewable energy has been launched. Coordinated by renewables research group EUREC, the one-year course aims at teaching technically qualified students about a variety of renewable energy methods.

Professor Arthuros Zervos, EUREC vice president said that the course was unique in obliging students to study in at least two different countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMMERCIAL ferry is being fitted with optical sensors by two universities to conduct an environmental survey of the surface of the Irish Sea, which will provide comprehensive data to improve the management of its ecosystems.

The University of Wales’ School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor, and the National University of Ireland are using Irish Ferries’ Ulysses for the experiment.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AS with any organisation that represents members with a common basic purpose but often with radically different approaches towards achieving it, CANSO has had some difficulty in defining its voice in the community in which it operates. Indeed it is a fairly new organisation, formally set up in 1998, and composed of leading civil air navigation service operators who until then had been used to speaking their own minds without any need to temper their opinions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has publicly backed the growing privatisation of Europe’s water utilities, with its internal market commissioner backing British government moves to inject competition into its national sector.

Indeed, Frits Bolkestein defended the much-maligned record of privatised water services in the UK, blaming the price rises in the 1990’s on a failure to ensure private water companies could compete and previous government neglect.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has sued RJ Reynolds in New York, seeking damages against allegations that it illegally laundered the proceeds of cigarette smuggling. The case – which also involves Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg – also seeks an injunction stopping future alleged laundering.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission wants to extend for 12 months an experiment allowing shoe and leather repairers in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to charge lower rates to their customers. The idea is to promote labour intensive industries such as shoe repairing and the Commission is considering making the scheme permanent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCIENTISTS have used data from NASA and the European Space Agency to examine the impact of the 1997-98 Indonesia bushfires, and have concluded that they contributed significantly to the largest recorded annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. They calculated the fires released up to 2.57 gigatonnes of carbon, 40 per cent of average worldwide fossil fuel carbon emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN AND PHILIP FINE

THE EUROPEAN Union, the United States and their various allies seem to be moving towards a deal 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.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) Council of Ministers for competitiveness has failed to agree legal proposals for setting up a so-called ‘Community Patent’ that would give inventors the option of obtaining a single patent legally valid throughout the EU.…