Search Results for: Finland

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is largely on track for a timely start to its emissions trading system on January 1, with the unconditional approval in late October of six more CO2 emission allocation plans, from Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Portugal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has lent Euro 85 million to Finland’s Outokumpu, to co-finance a Euro 1 billion expansion of its stainless steel mill at Tornio, to the north of the Gulf of Bothnia. This project should by next summer more than double its annual capacity to 1.65 million tonnes in melting and hot rolling and 1.2 million tonnes in cold rolling.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has confirmed that countries in its eastern Europe and central Asia area of focus are booming because of high oil prices. Its annual 2004 Transition Report says Russia and the Ukraine are experiencing “skyrocketing annual growth”, making the former Warsaw Pact the world’s second-fastest-growing region (up 6.1%), next to China and its southern neighbours.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the creation of a retail joint venture in the Baltic States, run by Scandinavian food retailers Kesko Oy, of Finland, and ICA AB, of Sweden and Norway. This new business will buy and sell daily consumer goods in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, combining the two Scandinavian company’s existing outlets in the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ARCTIC Climate Impact Assessment by scientists from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russian, Sweden, and the USA has warned global warming-generated melts of ice and permafrost could damage oil and gas pipelines. Their stability would be threatened by thaws turning tundra into plains of mud.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPE’S Nordic countries have agreed to forge a common front against alcohol liberalisation policies in the European Union (EU) and push anti-drinking campaigns worldwide. Meeting in Copenhagen, the health ministers of Finland, Sweden and Denmark agreed to act en bloc during discussions on alcohol at the EU Council of Ministers, being joined by Norway, Iceland at European Economic Area (EEA) meetings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFTER 30 years of discussions, a European Union (EU) Company Statute is now in place, allowing the creation of European holding companies, joint subsidiaries or merged operations, theoretically able to work seamlessly in at least two member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Finland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) claiming that the country’s vehicle transfer permit system breaks European Union (EU) freedom of movement of goods rules. Residents of Finland wanting to bring into the country a vehicle previously registered and used in another EU member state must apply at the Finnish border for a temporary transfer permit, including temporary licence stickers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PUBLIC procurement procedures are illegal if they insist cost should be local authorities’ sole consideration in selecting a contractor for certain jobs, according to a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling. It concluded that an Italian law (109 of 1994) broke EU directive 93/37/EEC by insisting that except for certain construction and management jobs “contracting authorities use only the criterion of the lowest price”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S largest think tank has advised developed country governments to adopt programmes helping families achieve an acceptable work-life balance, boosting child development and general well being amongst adult workers. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has abandoned its usual laissez faire approach to economics and society by encouraging its rich country members to promote part-time work.…