Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SPANISH wine makers will receive the most money – Euro 162 million – for improving their vineyards, in the latest tranche of European Union (EU) grants earmarked for this purpose.

The European Commission will spend Euro 510 million across the EU on viticulture reform in 2007/8, with money allotted for variety conversion, relocation of vineyards and improvements to vineyard management techniques.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has weakened the value of saleable CO2 emission permits which would be issued to company car fleets, should road transport be included in the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading regime. This issue is currently under consideration by the European Commission, which is drafting a green paper on which sectors should trade greenhouse gas emissions from 2013.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

SOME five hundred scientists and other experts held a two-day meeting in Brussels this week at a Food Safety Summit to mark the fifth anniversary of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which organised the conference.…

BY MARK ROWE

ONE of the most perfidious environmental legacies of communism in eastern Europe was that of mining pollution. In particular, across a swathe of the Balkans, from Albania to Bosnia & Herzegovina, (the former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo, up to 150 mines have been identified by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as areas of concern.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has circulated throughout the European Union (EU) series of consumer alerts made over potentially harmful nail polish receiving retail bans in member states. Using its RAPEX alert service, the Commission warned of a marketing ban in Estonia of US-made nail polish range Pinnacle.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee wants European Union (EU) rules to insist that biofuel production is environmentally sustainable, even an increase in this growing fuel sector reduces CO2 emissions. The call was made in amendments tabled to European Commission proposed reforms to the EU fuel quality directive to reduce CO2 production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that garlic extract powder capsules should be legally considered a foodstuff and regulated as such, dismissing claims from Germany that such products should be regarded a medicine and be subjected to import controls for pharmaceuticals.…

BY CHRIS JONES, in Paris

AUTO manufacturers in Europe are calling for greater support from national governments and European Union (EU) institutions in promoting eco-driving – where good motoring styles are adopted which reduce the greenhouse gas and other polluting emissions from vehicles.…

BY MARK ROWE, in London, JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo, and RACHEL JONES, in Caracas

PERSONAL care products – soaps, cosmetics, lotions and hair products – have always been important consumers of vegetable and animal-based oils and fats. Yet, this is a complex sub-sector of the global oils and fats industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is refusing to give up on Russia and its neighbours as stable energy partners for the future, despite the largely inconclusive summit between member states and Moscow last month (October) in Mafra, Portugal. It failed to make progress on the demands from the European Commission for reciprocal liberalisation in Russian energy markets, should the EU allow Russian companies – notably Gazprom – a free hand in member states gas sectors.…