Search Results for: France

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) competition commissioner has indicated she could push for regulatory reform to improve competition in EU energy markets, in parallel with legal enforcement action using existing rules. Neelie Kroes highlighted "bundling of generation, supply, pipelines, grids, and distribution (as) at the heart of the current EU energy market failure."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

France has been ordered by the European Commission to pay fines of Euro 57.7 million for every six months in which it fails to comply fully with a ruling about fish landings issued originally in 1991. In that year the European Court of Justice found failings in the French fisheries control system and sanctions were imposed for breaches of EU rules on the landing and marketing of immature fish, especially hake.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A new EU energy policy involving investment of some 1,000 billion euros in infrastructure and technologies is expected to be approved in broad outline by the EU heads of government at their summit in Brussels later this month though a major dispute over the cross-border take-over of key companies is still unsettled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DEBATES are continuing within EU institutions over whether vaccination is a safe response to bird flu. The EU’s standing committee on the food chain and animal health has approved limited vaccination in France and the Netherlands. But this was resisted by Austria, Denmark, Germany and Portugal, who fear vaccination’s potential cost, damage to consumer confidence and resulting overseas import bans.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FACT BOX

Population of Cyprus: 793,100

Number of students enrolled at university: 5,000 (see text)

Percentage of university students who are Cypriots: 90%

Percentage of Cypriots (excluding mature students) attending university in Cyprus or other countries: 80%

INTERVIEW

OUT of every ten young people who apply for a place at the University of Cyprus, only three actually gets admitted.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) building materials paint and coating sub-sector is being asked whether it wants the EU’s construction products directive liberalised, so member states allow the sale of materials approved for use in other EU countries. The public consultation follows long criticism levelled at the 1989 legislation, which requires rigid European CE standards for products such as roofing products or façades.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) industrial minerals sector is being asked whether it wants the EU’s construction products directive liberalised, so member states allow the sale of building materials approved for use in other EU countries. The public consultation follows long criticism levelled at the 1989 legislation, which calls for rigid European CE standards for products such as thermal insulating products, cement, roofing products or façades.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A ROW has broken out between European Union olive oil exporting countries and the European Commission over its withholding contributions to the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC). Italy and Spain, supported by France, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus, told the EU Council of Ministers they wanted the Commission "to ensure the swift payment of its voluntary contribution to the IOOC…to allow the resumption of its promotional activities."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ITALY and Spain, supported by France, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus have called on the European Commission "to ensure the swift payment of its voluntary contribution to the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) "to allow the resumption of its promotional activities."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Once again British students have shown a curious and perhaps worrying reluctance to attend universities in other European countries under the EU Commission’s Erasmus programme for student and teacher exchange. Newly-released figures show that for all 25 EU countries there was a rise of 6.3% to 144,037 in students participating in university exchanges in 2004/5 but the number of UK students going abroad for study actually fell from 7,539 to 7,214.…