Search Results for: France

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ITALIAN politician nominated to become the European Union’s (EU) new industry commissioner Antonio Tajani has said he is ready to fight cheap Chinese auto exports by promoting quality and investment, especially on pollution and safety.

Speaking at a European Parliament confirmation hearing last night (Jan 18) in Strasbourg, France, he said: "We cannot compete if the Chinese are able to, really, take the bottom out of the market.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA

INTRODUCTION

"INDIA can emerge as a leader in the global food processing industry," said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December 2009 while addressing a conference of food processing ministers of different Indian states in New Delhi, noting the country’s US$100 billion food processing sector grew by 14.7% in 2009.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE EUROPEAN Commission has committed Euro 17.9 million to market dairy products over three years across the European Union (EU). The money will be spent by dairy industry organisations in 11 member states, who will also contribute funds, along with their national governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PREDICTING oil seed production for a given year is always an imprecise science. If accurate projections could be made year-after-year, bio-based oil and fats specialists would all be commodity market millionaires. And they are not. However, as with betting on racehorses, the more information that is available, the better opportunity there is for getting something right, and with oil seed production – the more analysts know about market conditions, weather forecasts and regulation, the better.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, PACIFICA GODDARD, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FRANCE’S nominee to the new European Commission has publicly declared he will try to influence the Romanian proposed as the new agriculture Commissioner. Speaking at a press conference in Paris, Michel Barnier, who has been allotted the powerful internal market brief, said: "He will be independent but I will give him my opinion," a potentially undiplomatic statement given the concerns aired about French influence over nominee Dacian Ciolo?.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHIFT in European Union (EU) energy policy should become apparent from February 1, when Germany’s Günther Oettinger should become EU energy Commissioner. Replacing Latvia’s Andris Piebalgs for the next five years, the appointment of a German to this increasingly powerful position has been widely touted as shifting EU energy relations towards closer links with Russia.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, ERIC LYMAN and KEITH NUTHALL

INTRODUCTION

THE ITALIAN wine industry hit rock bottom a generation ago, when thousands of bottles of Italian wine were found laced with deadly levels of methanol, a key ingredient in antifreeze that had been used to raise the alcohol content of the wine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PLANNED shape of a new European Commission for the next five years has been unveiled, and it includes recreating a new single directorate general (DG) for energy. Since 2000, the Commission has operated a joint directorate general for energy and transport, but with the growing importance of the energy brief to the European Union (EU), energy policy will receive a new separate directorate general.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONSUMERS suing pharmaceutical companies can change the formal identity of a defendant in court proceedings after a standard 10-year limit for making such claims, if their old target is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the new. This was the conclusion of a European Court of Justice (ECJ) case involving France’s Aventis Pasteur SA – sued by a British patient over alleged brain damage from a vaccine.…