Search Results for: Finland

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has made its formal offer at the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round to boost access to the European Union insurance market to non-EU players. However, following pressure from national European capitals, its services talks liberalisation package is hedged with a large number of exceptions protecting local interests.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INNOVATION from European Union-funded research has continued to offer improvements to the way that EU water utilities work. For instance, the European Commission-funded MicroChem initiative has developed miniaturised laboratory-on-a-chip systems suitable for rapid field testing of water streams. They examine water in tiny pictolitre quantities, flowing through microbore channels produced by photolithographic etching.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SURVEY has been released by the European Commission which shows how a decline in confidence regarding genetically modified food could be deterring investment in medical biotechnology, potentially leaving the European Union at a competitive disadvantage. This Eurobarometer poll says that overall support for GM food is only found in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Finland; with most Europeans considering them “of little value and dangerous for society.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is formally threatening France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria and Finland with legal action at the European Court of Justice over claims that they have failed to implement new EU regulations on the release of genetically modified organisms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH government is being threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice for allegedly failing to protect the vulnerable Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans). Finland is the only European Union home of this species, which lives in old forests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GLITZY mobile anti-smoking campaign has been launched by the European Commission, using a campaign truck to stage events such as karaoke, quizzes, competitions and even auditions for appearances on MTV as a backdrop to anti-cigarette propaganda. The EU-roadshow will rumble into a series of youth events this summer, such as the Edinburgh Funfest in August and the FIFA under-17’s world cup in Finland, also in August, having graced April’s Paganello Frisbee Party/World Beach Ultimate Cup in Rimini, Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH architects are among the most lightly regulated in the European Union (EU), with their Danish, Irish, Dutch and Swedish colleagues enjoying a similarly light regulatory burden, according to a European Commission-funded survey, promoting liberalisation in Europe’s professions.…

Keith Nuthall
BRITONS work the longest hours in the European Union (EU), even though working time agreed in collectively agreements is below the EU average, according to a survey by the European Union’s European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has offered to open up the European Union’s market in environmental services to suppliers based outside the EU, as part of the ongoing Doha Development Round at the World Trade Organisation.

If its trading partners offer adequate concessions in return, Brussels is offering to remove regulatory restrictions to foreign providers of waste water, sanitation, solid and hazardous waste management, soil clean-ups, air pollution reduction and similar services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) may pose as the globe’s environmental crusader, but the latest figures from the European Environment Agency (EEA) – for 2001 – have shown that for a second year running, EU greenhouse gas emissions have risen.…