Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a formal investigation procedure into British government plans to grant aid north Wales newsprint producer Shotton Euro 35 million (Pounds 23 million) to enable it produce newsprint from waste paper rather than virgin pulp.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has set out its stall at the World Trade Organisation’s agricultural liberalisation talks, offering the US and other key trading partners the carrot of a 55 per cent cut in “trade distorting domestic farm support” subsidies, if they reciprocate with similar reductions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUNDBREAKING development aid scheme has been launched with the support of the European Commission, which specifically promotes the development of Internet networks and related e-commerce in poorer areas of Europe. The Euro 4.35 million e-MINDER scheme will target Cyprus, Galicia, (Spain), and Pomerania, (Poland), pump-priming small and medium-sized businesses to develop e-commerce projects, boosting regional economies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A POLITICAL agreement has been struck at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers (environment) on reforming the EU packaging and packaging waste directive. Member States provisionally agreed increased minimum targets for the recycling of specific materials: 60 per cent for recycling paper and board, 15 per cent of wood and 22.5 per cent of plastics, recycled back into plastics.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the acquisition by US office supplies firm Staples of the office supplies distance-selling business of French company Guilbert. Brussels agreed that the take-over did not pose competition problems, because, although it would boost Staples’ position in Europe, the giant would still face strong rivals, notably the US-based Office Depot.…

BY PHILIP FINE

HEINZ did something this year that its rival large USA-based food producers seem to be shying away from. They put their own name on an organic product.

One would think other US companies would have, by now, employed the same strategy as Heinz: use organic-friendly Europe as a test-market for an eventual US launch of an organic product, but the idea seems to be slow in catching on.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen has called on European governments and public institutions to examine further ways of encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to spend more on research and development into medicines for rare diseases. Highlighting the special marketing rights granted in the EU to orphan drugs, the Commissioner told a Brussels roundtable on the subject: “We should more and more find means to get the pharmaceutical industry involved in clear and targeted projects.”…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has closed competition investigations into the Star Alliance of Lufthansa, SAS and United Airlines; and the KLM-Northwest Airlines compact. This follows Star partners offering to surrender slots at Frankfurt airport to Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a system of public compensation for violent crimes committed across the EU. Its suggested directive on compensation to crime victims lays down minimum standards of compensation for intentional violent crimes, including sexual, racist and xenophobic offences committed on a Member State’s territory.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment by the German government of Euro 25 million in investment aid to Kunz Faserplattenwerk Baruth to help it set up a new medium density fibreboard (MDF) mill, in Brandenburg, eastern Germany. The company is part of the Kunz Group, which develops, produces and markets timber-based material.…