Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has indicated that British fleet drivers who are victims of accidents in other European Union (EU) member states, can sue the insurer of responsible party in the UK. The ECJ precedent-making ruling came in a case where a German driver was injured in the Netherlands.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has given the go-ahead to legislation which will end design protection for most spare parts and other machinery components across the 27-country European Union (EU).

MEPs voted for the changes to the EU’s legal protection of designs directive, which will come into force in 2013, assuming it is backed by the EU Council of Ministers – which shares veto rights over EU legislation.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Kuwait City

KUWAIT is set to follow Dubai by banning smoking in public places, a move that is expected to further hit local struggling non-premium tobacco distributors, who are still reeling from a hike in duty and advertising bans imposed five years ago.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LEVEL of incineration and recycling of municipal waste within Britain is as low as former communist countries in eastern Europe, a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report has concluded. In an assessment of the contrasting waste management practices in the 27 European Union (EU) member states, the EEA bracketed Britain with Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PORTUGUESE presidency of the European Union (EU) has called for compromise proposals on the European Commission’s energy unbundling plans, under discussion at a Council of Ministers meeting on Monday (Dec 3). A paper released by Lisbon clarified the split between member states: supporting the proposal are Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Romania and Sweden; opposing are France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovakia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED liberalisation of European Union (EU) design rights legislation, allowing lorry parts makers to copy and sell spares already made by vehicle manufacturers across the EU has been accepted by the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee. A committee communiqué said: "The directive will allow suppliers to produce motor vehicle components which are identical to the original parts without infringing design protection."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GERMANY’S capacity to produce electricity from geothermal sources has surged ahead over the past two years the latest comparative statistics on this key renewable technology has shown. German geothermal power production capacity has risen from 0.2MWe to 8.4MWe between 2005 and this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHINA’S strong economy, its innovation and determined government policies have been praised for pushing its renewable energy sector into world beating prominence. Think-tank the Worldwatch Institute has released a report ‘Powering China’s Development: The Role of Renewable Energy’ that says China will probably achieve – even exceed – its target of obtaining 15% of its energy from renewables in 2020, up from today’s already healthy 8%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED liberalisation of European Union (EU) design rights legislation, allowing car parts makers to copy and sell spares already made by vehicle manufacturers across the EU has been accepted by the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee. It said: "The directive will allow suppliers to produce motor vehicle components which are identical to the original parts without infringing design protection."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GERMANY RULING AT ECJ COULD ALLOW GOVERNMENTS TO STRIP TRANSPORT COMPANIES OF CARBON CREDITS

EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto manufacturers may be offered a chance to make extra money in the future – by selling permits to pollute set amounts of carbon dioxide, but a recent ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has made this potentially lucrative scenario less attractive.…