Search Results for: France

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FRENCH government has issued its own energy plan for Europe, which calls for nuclear power to have key role in fighting CO2 emissions, calling for increased research efforts for new technology, notably international projects focused on developing a fourth generation nuclear reactor.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GERMANY is being taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for allegedly failing to implement directive 2003/96/EC extending EU minimum tax rates from mineral oils, to all energy products, including solid fuels, such as coal. The European Commission is also formally threatening France with ECJ action for the same reason.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the acquisition of sole control of France’s Safic Alcan natural products division by British sugar commodity trader E D & F Man Holdings, trading as Man.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The Austrian presidency of the EU is calling for a negotiated solution to the Russia /Moldova natural gas dispute reflecting deepening concern in Brussels about Europe’s increasing dependence on potentially unreliable outside energy sources. Russia supplies a third of the EU’s gas imports (a fifth of all gas used in the EU) with Germany, Italy and France the main buyers, though a number of EU countries are critically dependent on supplies sent by the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom through the Ukrainian pipeline: 100% for Slovakia, for instance, 92% for Greece and between 60 and 75% for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Austria.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A FIERCE row has broken out between European Union (EU) national governments and the European Parliament over planned Euro 13 billion cuts to the EU trans-European networks (TENs) transport budget for 2007-13. The slashing of the planned budget from an initial Euro 20 billion came in December’s EU medium-term budget deal, brokered by the UK government, with transport being a victim of Britain’s refusal to cut much of its rebate and France its agricultural subsidies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW tough fuel and road transport pollution standards have been proposed for the European Union (EU) by the European Commission, removing a loophole enabling sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to be covered by looser emission limits currently allowed for commercial vans.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined 16 firms Euro 290.71 million for operating a cartel in the plastic industrial bags market, in clear violation of European Union (EU) fair trade rules. One British participant – British Polythene Industries PLC – escaped being penalised, along with Belgium’s Combipac BV, however, after they tipped off the Commission about the cartel, which covered Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project has developed medical equipment aiding cancer drugs by administering electric shocks to patients. The ESOPE programme has created a ‘Cliniporator’ that uses short high voltage pulsed electric fields to make the membrane of tumour cells more porous, and more receptive to medicines.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission is to provide euros 25.5 million – half the total cost – of 25 programmes to promote agricultural products in 14 EU countries. These are meant essentially as information/publicity projects, highlighting quality, food safety, regional specialities, organic produce and animal welfare as well as underwriting participation in fairs and agricultural shows.…

EU SUGAR REFORM MARKET REPORT – CAP

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DECEMBER 2005’s semi-successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong means that the sacrifice forced upon the European Union’s (EU) well protected sugar sector the month before will – largely – be worth the pain.…