Search Results for: France

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE UNITED States will become the largest wine market in the world by the end of the decade, according to the California-based Wine Institute. Currently, only France and Italy have more demand for wine and last year, whilst wine consumption dropped to 370 million cases in France, American consumers drank 14 million more cases, rising to 250 million cases.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
FRENCH tobacconists have staged a national demonstration in central Paris, vowing to keep pressure on their government that wants to raise taxes on tobacco products for the third time in six months this January. According to the Confédération des Débitants de Tabac de France, 22,000 protesters took to the streets, including retailers, tobacco consumers and sympathetic mayors, (police estimates said 13,000 protested).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CONSUMPTION of nuclear energy within the European Union (EU) increased by 0.7 per cent in 2002, compared with 2001, according to the latest comparative figures released by EU statistical agency Eurostat. There was also an identical rise in nuclear energy production, with France continuing to be the largest producer, increasing its output buy 4.2 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE’S prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has signalled that his government is weakening its insistence that his country should implement reforms to the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy two years after other EU Member States. The French government had negotiated the right to replace production-linked subsidies with direct payments to farms in 2007, compared with 2005 elsewhere.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A SUPERBUG in northern France has infected 112 people, 18 of whom have died since the summer. French health officials said 21 hospitals have discovered the presence of the bacterium acinetobacter baumannii. The infection rate has recently slowed but officials remain worried because the bacterium is resistant to most antibiotics.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ordered Italy to liberalise its regulations governing access to the Italian legal profession, by demanding that its national bar council does not reject out of hand qualifications gained in other European Union (EU) Member States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFTER a long period of consultation, a comprehensive directive protecting the European Union’s (EU) groundwater reserves has been proposed by the European Commission, which would force Member States to establish and police locally sensitive pollution limits. The legislation would insist that national governments carefully monitor groundwater quality and take steps to reverse its pollution, where it has exceeded these self-imposed thresholds.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AGRICULTURE ministers of five European Union (EU) countries have pledged to reject the European Commission’s proposals for ending tobacco-growing subsidies and say they will draw up an alternative scheme aimed at continuing production. A letter signed by the agriculture ministers of Greece, Spain, Italy, France and Portugal warned the Commission of the “very serious” social and employment impact of its plan, which they say will lead to widespread job losses with “grave” social consequences.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
FRENCH wine producers are protesting against their government’s anti drinking and driving campaign, with wine producer associations claiming wine sales in restaurants have dropped 15 per cent because people are afraid of being caught over the blood alcohol limit of 0.5g/litre, which has recently been strictly enforced.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE’S prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has signalled that his government is weakening its insistence that his country should implement reforms to the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy two years after other EU Member States. The French government had negotiated the right to replace production-linked subsidies with direct payments to farms in 2007, compared with 2005 elsewhere.…