Search Results for: France

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has concluded in a detailed report that a fully functioning European Union (EU)-wide single market in natural gas and electricity is far from complete. It spoke of a "mixed picture of the progress of completing the internal energy market".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the use of drift nets by French fishing boats to catch bluefin tuna breaks existing EU wildlife conservation laws. France had disputed European Commission claims its small-scale fishing vessels broke this law because they were a maximum of 10km long compared to the drift nets banned by a 2002 EU regulation, which were often 100s of kilometres long.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A U-TURN by the French government on key conditions of bail-out loans for its auto manufacturers averted a possible crisis at Sunday’s European Union (EU) recession summit in Brussels. One day before, the EU’s executive the European Commission announced Paris had abandoned plans to tie Euro 6.5 billion in loans for its car makers to a pledge not to close plants in France during the current slump and use French suppliers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE IMPLEMENTATION of new retaliatory USA tariffs against European Union (EU) filled chocolate and chewing gum exports has been delayed one month from March 23 to April 23, the US Trade Representative (USTR) office has announced. This follows progress in negotiations with the European Commission on the EU’s hormone-treated beef ban.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

IN the early 1990s the nuclear power industry faced a bleak outlook. High profile accidents such as in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in, Pennsylvania, the USA, had raised public concern about the safety of the industry to all time high.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE THUMBSCREWS are being turned on the world’s tax havens, preventing their banks hiding assets from tax investigators worldwide. A comprehensive communiqué from April 1 and 2s’ G20 meeting in London committed member governments "to take agreed action against those jurisdictions which do not meet international standards in relation to tax transparency."…

BY MARK ROWE

AS book reading online enters the mainstream, one question that has plagued academic and cultural journals for years has re-emerged: digital obsolescence. Publishers are concerned about keeping pace with technological advances and preserving access to digital material.

No sooner, and at significant expense, is literature scanned and digitally secured in a given format, than it risks being overtaken by the latest storage versions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

DESPITE widespread initial scepticism about its viability, the ITER project to build the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion reactor is now under way. It is employing specialists (nearly 300 staff and rising at the end of 2008); releasing Euro millions in research and procurement funding; and in November of last year moved into its headquarters, in Cadarache, southern France, which is where the first nuclear fusion reactor will be built on a 180 hectare site.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is claiming its reform of the European Union (EU) sugar and isoglucose sector has been a success, lowering prices for confectionery manufacturers. Brussels also claims that a planned contraction of EU sugar production over the past three years has left a sustainable industry based on efficient producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have approved Euro 3.9 billion in EU spending on energy investment projects, after they finally finished wrangling over the detail of this keystone of their economic stimulus package.

As expected, the final programme has more projects in southern and eastern Europe than in previous drafts.…