Search Results for: France

BY ALAN OSBORN and GEORGINA OLIVER

ACCORDING to Jean Castarède, author of a lay-reader’s guide to the luxury industry published in 2008 in the popular ‘Que sais-je?’ (What do I know?) paperback series, France’s couture and high-end ready-to-wear sector then represented one third of the world’s Euro 30 billion luxury fashion market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TURKEY – the lynchpin of European Union (EU) efforts to secure energy independence from Russia – has started negotiations to join the EU’s Energy Community. The organisation currently extends EU energy legislation to non-EU Balkans countries, but there are plans to add Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey to its membership.…

By Alan Osborn

Technology researchers will benefit from a new research investment of ?18 million from the European Commission, designed to reinforce its support for the LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard for the fourth generation of wireless telecommunications, in preference to the alternative WiMax technology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HACHETTE Ireland was one of 12 publishers honoured this week at the first awards of the new European Union Prize for Literature (Monday Sept 28). The Dublin-based branch of the Hachette publishing empire was praised for producing one of 12 award winning books: ‘Longshore Drift’ (2006), by Karen Gillece.…

BY SHABTAI GOLD

THE CREW over at Top Gear, the BBC petrol-lovers show, recently declared that the Switzerland part of the Alpine mountain range has some of the best roads in the world for driving. But they were in top sports cars, costing a fortune and hardly designed for bringing farmers’ produce to the supermarkets.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE FRENCH government has pressed for urgent financial support from the European Commission to offset losses in Europe’s pigmeat sector, which has been struggling since the price dropped in 2007. Since then, the global recession, falling demand and growing gaps between cost and price have further damaged pigmeat profits, noted a Paris-written report for the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers.…

BY MINDY RAN

IT could be a workingman’s cafe just about anywhere: pool tables, basic food where everything is served with chips, TV permanently tuned to football. Except for one thing: this is one of two big truck stops in the Netherlands, nestled between the cross points of two main motorways in the centre of the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ANNOUNCEMENT this weekend by European Union’s (EU) agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel that she is standing down has sparked intense speculation on her potential replacement. The white-haired 66-year-old Dane has been something of a surprise star in the current crop of rather uninspiring Commissioners: she has handled a tough brief with efficiency and diplomacy.…

BY ANDREW SALMON

AFTER passing the fortress-like medieval gate of Namdaemun, visitors enter central Seoul’s traditional shopping quarter: a jumbled maze of stalls and alleyways. A 15-minute walk through the raucous bustle of this 600-year old market, leads to its modern equivalent: The neon-lit, pedestrianised square mile of Myeong Dong.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CROSS-PARTY group of French MEPs have called for the axing of the Euro 500 note, which they fear is easy prey for counterfeiters and money launderers. Deputies from the ruling UMP, the socialists and the communists released a report to France’s National Assembly demanding the note be withdrawn "at a European level".…