Search Results for: Finland

BY ANDREW CAVE

Food commodity prices are seldom out of the news nowadays, due to a mushrooming global population, the food-for-fuel controversy, an increasing focus on sustainability and the continued growth of the organic sector. However, beyond the generality of crop prices spiralling to new highs in 2007 and 2008 and then plummeting – in some cases – back to where they were before the boom, the picture is far from uniform.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOSER trade relations between the European Union (EU) and oil-rich Iraq are being negotiated, with a round of talks being held last month (May) in Baghdad aimed at forging a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). This would involve the creation of a special cooperation council and annual ministerial meetings to erase trade barriers – such deals are usually forged with eastern European neighbours of the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UPDATED detailed guidelines have been issued for Arctic oil and gas exploration and extraction projects taking into account the region’s punishing, yet delicate environment.

They have been released by the Arctic Council, which represents countries with Arctic territory: Canada, Denmark (through its Greenland dependency), Iceland, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Norway and the USA.…

By Leah Germain

Telecommunications giant Nokia Siemens Networks has just received a Euro 250 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support the research and development of cutting edge Radio Access Network technology (RAN).

The company is a global joint venture is run by Finland’s Nokia Corp with Germany’s Siemens AG.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GLOBAL initiatives designed to promote sustainable practices in the bio-based oils and fats industry are making strong progress. The key Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) has now released "principles and criteria" designed to ensure soy production does not cause long term damage to the environment and society.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend Finland’s Orion Oyj Euro 75 million to help it stage pharmaceutical research and development work from this year to 2012. Part of a Euro 300 million programme, the work would be carried out within Orion’s existing R&D facilities, laboratories, pilot plants and clinical centres.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Switzerland have staged a public row over Swiss bank secrecy.

In a highly undiplomatic letter to Hans-Rudolf Merz, the Swiss president, OECD secretary general Angel Gurría complained that "some Swiss officials have characterised the OECD as not having been fair to the Swiss government on…international cooperation on tax matters", and that he wanted to "prove the inaccuracy of such statements".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A STUDY coordinated by Norway’s National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO) has concluded a common European clothes sizing standard would help consumers, after its research found labelled sizes erratic. Assessing clothes in Norway, Sweden and Finland, the institute especially found "great variation in sizes of women’s clothing."…

BY MARK ROWE

THE AIRPORTS of Norway and Iceland are well suited to dealing with the impact of border-free travel with each other and many member states of the European Union (EU), having joined the EU’s frontierless Schengen-zone in 1999, abolished all border checks for travel to member countries in December 2001.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, LEAH GERMAIN and MONICA DOBIE

MAYBE the best sign that renewable energies have hit the mainstream is that they now have their very own international organisation: the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Launched in Bonn, Germany, this January, with the support of 76 countries, including its host nation, Spain, Italy, France and Sweden, the roster of signatory nations has since been swollen by India and Belarus.…