Search Results for: France

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MAJOR investment could be required by European Union (EU) gas utilities because of a new EU regulation insisting that member states have sufficient storage capacity to deal with supply crises such as the Russia and Ukraine dispute in 2008 and 2009.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

IT has been a tough last few years for north African knitwear, clothing and textile manufacturers, but the signs are that the knitwear sub-sector is outperforming its woven textile partners. With the European Union (EU) the region’s primary export destination, the region’s manufacturers have been hit by the end of restrictive quotas on imports from China in 2008, and then by the impact of the global financial crisis when demand slumped.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the proposed sale of Belgium-based Polimeri’s polystyrene business, to France-owned Total Petrochemicals Feluy. Following an inquiry, the Commission concluded there were no major "competition concerns" and approved the deal without conditions. Total Petrochemicals Feluy makes commodity polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene), and is controlled by French fuel giant Total.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF is claiming focusing on larger frauds and referring smaller scams to national law enforcement agencies is paying off. More than 75% of cases closed in 2009 led to judicial or financial recovery proceedings, according the agency’s latest annual report.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has started financing a major planned upgrade of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, in Nairobi, Kenya, which will boost its annual capacity from 2.5 million to 9.3 million passengers. The EIB will be co-financing the project with US dollars USD99 million, alongside USD93 million from France’s Agence Francaise de Developpement.…

By Keith Nuthall

Historians are working with Unesco and educationalists to try to develop a common African history syllabus, including the teaching approach and pedagogical materials. The ambitious project will initially focus on helping primary and secondary schools across the continent and, this coming year, an assessment will consider how universities in Africa could benefit from such work.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INTERNATIONAL consortium will generate and investigate a liquid library of 3,600 plant extracts, hunting for compounds useful for cosmetics (and food) manufacture. Germany’s BASF and Bruker Biospin GMBH, Greece’s Korres SA Natural Products will work with national research centres from Greece, France and South Africa plus universities from Greece, Panama and Switzerland in this 2010-2014 Euro 4.2 million, European Union-funded research project.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMAGINATION and guile continue to help fraudsters milk hundreds of millions of Euros from the European Union’s (EU) well-stocked budgets, explains the latest report from EU anti-fraud agency OLAF, writes Keith Nuthall.

OLAF spends a lot of money sniffing out fraud in the institutions and programmes of the EU and the payment of duties earmarked to fund this spending.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission proposed today (July 20) a major additional cash injection of Euro 860 million plus in European Union (EU) funds to develop the nuclear fusion demonstration reactor ITER. The proposal is Brussels’ response to a potential serious budget shortfall to meet its commitments to fund the construction of the ITER reactor, needing to find an additional Euro EUR1.4 billion from 2012 to 2013.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A US Geological Survey expert has warned environmental difficulties could prevent Europe harvesting significant reserves of shale gas maybe in Britain, Germany, Sweden, Poland, France, Hungary and Austria. Research geologist Don Gauthier told a French Institute for Foreign Relations conference in Brussels the "high density" of wells required, including horizontal wells, could anger urbanised Europe.…