Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FARMERS may know them as the high priests of capitalism and expect them to preach against agricultural subsidies, but a recent report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has laid bare doubts that a truly effective farm support system has yet been invented, let alone implemented.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOVES are being made by the European Parliament’s transport committee to preserve the right of national governments to strictly control who provides port pilotage in the European Union. A proposed directive that includes the liberalisation of these services is currently being debated in Brussels.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
NEIL Kinnock, vice-president of the European Commission, is to appear before the budgetary control committee of the European Parliament tomorrow (Tuesday) in a crucial session for the credibility of the Commission’s accounting procedures and possibly for Mr Kinnock’s own future in Brussels.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union’s revised take-over directive is facing new obstacles following an unexpected decision by Britain to side with Germany in opposing a number of key aspects of the proposal. Thus far Germany has been alone in rejecting provisions in the draft directive, which would limit national mechanisms to frustrate take-over bids.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission and Vietnam have struck a new textile and clothing trade deal. Until 2005, the EU will increase the size of Vietnam textile and clothing export quotas by between 50 and 75 per cent, generating Euro 200 million of trade opportunities and boosting Vietnamese exports to the EU by 25 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will stage a conference in May to discuss the consequences of the abolition of quotas under the WTO’s agreement on textile and clothing. This symposium – The Future of Textiles and Clothing Trade after 2005 – will be held in Brussels on May 5-6.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNET tool for analysing radionuclides and their radiation has been launched by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and international science publishing company Springer-Verlag. ‘Http://www.nuclides.net/’ is, said a JRC note, “a sequence of computer applications, which run over the Internet on a web server, supported by a powerful user-friendly interface.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TWO international organisations have highlighted opportunities for European water companies, which may be called upon in the next few decades to boost supplies to arid parts of the world, notably the Middle East.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) World Water Development Report says this region is the poorest in terms of water availability, with Kuwait being the most parched (10 m³ is available per person annually), followed by Gaza Strip (52 m³), the United Arab Emirates (58 m³), Bahamas (66 m³), Qatar (94 m³), Maldives (103 m³), Libya (113 m³), Saudi Arabia (118 m³), and Malta (129 m³).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition by Belgian pharmaceuticals and speciality chemicals firm UCB SA/NV of the resins, adhesives and additives businesses of US company Solutia Inc, following an investigation into the deal’s potential for damaging competition in Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GLOBAL code of practice for the harvesting and manufacturing of fish and fishery products is being drawn up by the world food trade standards body, Codex Alimentarius. Its committee on food hygiene recently endorsed a draft set of worldwide list of rules on handling fish, which are being developed to promote trade by creating uniform, albeit voluntary, standards.…