Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) Council of Ministers is under pressure to agree proposals to set up a so-called ‘Community Patent’ that would give inventors the option of obtaining a single patent legally valid throughout the EU. Germany and Portugal are objecting to wording in the proposed texts and have succeeded in blocking the initiative, angering EU internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein who said the Commission “cannot accept that the proposed central and specialised EU jurisdiction should be watered down.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
Significant economic gains, including a better deal for insurance companies and other long-term institutional investors, will follow from the creation of a single EU market in financial services according to a research study made for the European Commission by London Economics, in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Oxford Economic Forecasting, published today (Tuesday).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is to lift a ban on another two Chinese food imports, which was imposed over concerns about the misuse of anti-biotics. The EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health has approved the health of Chinese crayfish and surimi.…

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
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 KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have formally approved the creation of an EU Solidarity Fund, helping Member States deal quickly with the effects of natural and man-made disasters; its funds will be mobilised immediately to assist regions affected by the floods of August and September 2002.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether Germany’s spirits monopoly law regarding the production of grain brandy, (Kornbranntwein), involves the payment of illegal state subsidies. The Commission wants to prevent small agricultural producers being unfairly favoured with state production subsidies denied to producers from other Member States, and, from 2006, to larger German commercial producers.…

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
THE SCOTCH Whisky Association has said that it will resist moves by the European Commission to liberalise Europe’s bottle size rules, claiming that re-establishing a free-for-all would not help consumers.

Spokesman Campbell Evans was speaking about the formal consultation that Brussels is staging until January 30 over its conclusion that EU rules on packaging sizes could be too restrictive, especially regarding small sizes.…