Search Results for: European Parliament

BY MONICA DOBIE
VINEYARDS in Kosovo are bearing fruits for the first time in more than a decade because of a joint regeneration programme developed from the Commission, the United Nations and the European Agency for Reconstruction.

In 1990, nearly 10,000 acres of vineyards produced high-quality wine to traditional recipes, 80 per cent of which was exported creating a thriving wine industry in the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN utilities will be able to apply for grants from budgets of Euro 1.7 billion, which has been earmarked for energy, transport, sustainable development and global change and of Euro 3.6 billion, for information society research – including telecommunications – if proposals from the European Commission for a new framework research programme, are agreed.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IN an attempt to stamp out smuggling and fraud, the European Commission is proposing that excise duties on popular cigarettes sold throughout the 15 EU countries should be brought much closer together. In a proposed new directive, the Commission says there should be a minimum fixed amount of excise duty of Euro 70 (about Pounds 42) per 1,000 cigarettes in the most popular price category, which would be in addition to the existing minimum excise requirement of 57% of the retail price.…

Keith Nuthall
A REPORT on allegations of irregularities and fraud regarding EU subsidies paid for the production of flax in Spain, has been sent to the Spanish authorities by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). The report, which is expected to lead to criminal proceedings, has also been sent to Michaele Schreyer, the EU budget commissioner, the European Parliament and to the European Commission’s DG agriculture.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has adopted a series of action plans to integrate the protection of biodiversity into EU agricultural, fishery, environment and development policies. Their aim is to stop losses in wildlife, ecosystems, crop varieties, domestic animals and fish.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union has announced that it will accept the ruling of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organisation, which found that Brussels had broken international rules on anti-dumping duties in a case regarding Indian bed linen imports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN manufacturing industries will be able to apply for grants from budgets of Euro 1.7 billion, which has been earmarked for energy, transport, sustainable development and global change and of Euro 1 billion for aeronautics and space – if proposals from the European Commission for a new framework research programme, are agreed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Commission president Romano Prodi has identified Britain and Spain as the governments holding up progress towards the creation of the so-called single European sky and the resulting accession of the EU to Eurocontrol. In a speech to the European Parliament on the outcome of the recent EU Stockholm summit, Mr Prodi said: “As we all know, a whole series of landmark proposals is now blocked, awaiting a bilateral agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has set itself on a collision course with the European Commission, by amending the cosmetics directive to ban the sale within the EU of products tested on animals.

In a vote on plans by the Commission to ban animal testing within the EU, while allowing the sale of imported cosmetics that have been produced with such tests, MEP’s voted for a reinstatement of a ban that was agreed in 1993, but has never been implemented.…

KEITH NUTHALL
DISCUSSIONS are to be held between the European Commission and ACEA, the European car producers’ association, on striking a voluntary agreement on guidelines for car front designs, that will minimise pedestrian casualties in accidents.

A statement from the Commission, following a meeting with manufacturers, said that there were benefits in a voluntary deal over a regulation, in that “a negotiated agreement can be considerably faster to implement and thus more lives could be saved faster.…