Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ITALIAN car giant Fiat has been granted Euro 46 million in state aid by the Italian government, one month after its boss attacked handouts for other European auto makers. The European Commission authorised this state aid today (April 29) which will be spent on retooling the company’s Termini Imerese plant in Sicily so it can make a new Lancia model.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has drawn back from a robust collective response to the swine flu crisis, despite the disease spreading around Europe. Meeting on Thursday, the EU Council of Ministers for health rejected a French proposal for an EU-wide travel ban to Mexico, the source of the outbreak.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

IF there was a year when long-term textile and clothing market forecasters missed by a mile, 2008 was it. Forecasts made in 2007 were dominated by looming concerns about trade restrictions, investment in technology, a potential slow-down of production and a consolidation of business investment but no one predicted what devastating effects an unexpected recession would have on the textiles and apparel sector.…

By Lorraine Mallinder, in Montréal

As the polar ice cap continues to shrink, the five nations surrounding the Arctic Ocean are hurriedly positioning themselves for what is shaping up to be one of the biggest geopolitical brawls of the coming years.

Beneath the thinning ice lies the tantalising prospect of up to a quarter of the world’s untapped oil and gas reserves and the promise of new shipping routes between East and West. It’s enough to turn the heads of even the most placid nations.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PRINCIPLE of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is of course well established amongst energy suppliers: polluting industries, such as coal, would be able to continue to burn fossil fuels, but carbon dioxide, rather than being expelled into the atmosphere, would be harvested in the energy production cycle and securely locked away.…

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 WAY has been cleared for all 27 European Union (EU) member states to charge low rate VAT on alcohol served in restaurants, with the EU Council of Ministers backing the idea yesterday (March 10). This right is still expected to be introduced from January 2011.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED acquisition of chemical producer Ciba, of Switzerland, by BASF SE of Germany, has been cleared by the European Commission, after the German chemicals giant agreed to allow to share certain UV filters owned by the Swiss firm.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is backing a research study investigating cures for arthritis, follows up a previously successful European Union (EU)-funded study into medicine for inflammatory bowel disease. Brussels will tap its Seventh Framework Programme for research for the KINACEPT project, whose aim is developing drugs for novel anti-inflammatory compounds for autoimmune diseases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY recession has a silver lining: inefficient competitors are unmasked and forced out of business; and governments usually spend freely to pump prime an ailing economy. And for major essential industries such as the power sector, economic slumps can be good times.…