Search Results for: France

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SWEDISH government will have to review its state monopoly system for the retail sale of medicine, after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that it illegally impeded the import of pharmaceuticals from other European Union (EU) member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend Euro 26.1 million on 26 programmes promoting the sale within the EU of organic food products, olive oil, milk and cheese, ham, fruit and vegetables, plus some drinks products. There will be matching funding from participating countries Britain, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Cyprus.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT’S coming up to 18 months since the French tobacco industry was hit by the last of a triple whammy of excise tax increases over a single year and it seems a reasonable moment to take stock. The three tax increases – 10% in January 2003, 20% in November 2003 and 10% in January 2004 – were part of a health drive by Jacques Chirac’s government, worried by the continued popularity of smoking among young people among other things.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PLANS to create European Union (EU)-wide driving licences have received a set back, with the EU Council of Ministers failing to approve the directive that would bring them into being. The German government, supported by France, Austria, Poland and Denmark successfully blocked agreement of the proposal, which will now be pushed by the UK government, which took over the EU presidency on July 1.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW group of specialists and academics forged by the European Commission will focus on the cancer risks associated with environmental and nutritional factors, as well as individual susceptibility. This ‘Network of Excellence’ ECNIS (environmental cancer, nutrition and individual susceptibility) is the latest group established to link experts from across the European Union (EU), under the European Research Area policy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EARLIER this year, European Union (EU) competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes promised to review the competitiveness of the EU insurance industry; she is now delivering. The special review to “identify and remove remaining barriers to free competition” in business insurance announced last week is unusual for a traditionally reactive Commission competition directorate, regulating proposed cross-border mergers and acquisitions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE and Italy will share Euro 1.57 million of European Union (EU) money for promoting the sale of their hams within the EU over the next three years, along with their cheeses and wines. The countries will provide matching national funding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on the European Commission to frame an action plan on simplifying red tape for the fishing industry, “reducing their bureaucratic workload and the restrictions that bear down on fishermen”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FUSION energy research cooperation agreements have been signed between EURATOM, the European Atomic Energy Community, and new European Union members Poland and Slovenia. The deals will see special fusion research units being created in both countries: Poland’s unit will develop plasma diagnostics for fusion devices including Britain’s MAST, Germany’s TEXTOR and France’s TORE-SUPRA; Slovenia’s will conduct plasma-wall interaction field and activation calculations.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A EUROPEAN Commission report has reported a “significant decline” for the six years to 2003 in the number of animals used in the testing of cosmetic products for safety purposes in the European Union (EU). The numbers dropped from 4,200 to just over 1,600 animals over this period with virtually all the activity occurring in France.…