Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

GEOGRAPHICALLY Russia is part of Europe. Moscow is 1,557 miles from London, but 3,456 miles from New York. The Russian capital is also just 760 miles from Stockholm, as the crow flies. These figures are worth considering when trying understanding the often fraught energy diplomacy between Russia and the European Union (EU).…

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 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 in Brussels

Initial support from ministers representing the European Union’s (EU) 27 member states has been secured for the expansion of the EU’s global Erasmus Mundus exchange programme. Assuming formal approval comes from the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, the scheme will spend ?493.69 million from 2009 to 2013 on exchange programmes for students and academics from the EU and other countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the European Commission continues drafting a carbon dioxide cap law for European Union (EU) cars, a rift is growing between Germany and France – usually dominant partners in EU politics – over the treatment of luxury cars.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London

THE AUTOMOBILE manufacturing industry in Europe has given a generally positive welcome to the proposal from the European Commission that two years’ hence, all new vehicle types should have to have brake assist systems fitted. The systems boost a driver’s braking power in emergencies and, says the Commission, could save as many as 1,100 pedestrian lives a year.…

THE DEPENDENCE of the European Union (EU) on gas from Russia has been made starkly clear by the latest detailed trade figures released by EU statistical agency Eurostat – 42% of imported natural gas came was Russian in 2005. This 4.9 million terajoules compared with 2.6 million terajoules (22%) from Norway; 2.2 million terajoules from Algeria (19%) and 1.9 million from other sources (17%).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH road transport sector has to play catch up with many of its European Union (EU) competitors regarding the introduction of sulphur-free fuels, a report from the European Commission has shown. Although the UK Petroleum Industry Association has indicated it expects Britain to switch to sulphur-free fuels by a 2009 deadline imposed by the European Union (EU), in June the government admitted the issue was complicated because "the UK fuel distribution network can only accommodate a single grade of diesel", preventing small introductory sales of sulphur-free diesel.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s decision to appoint ‘project co-ordinators’ to try to spark movement in four long-stalled cross-border energy projects in the European Union (EU) has drawn widespread cynicism from many in the industry. However, here and there, there is an admission that these high-level trouble-shooters might just get results where so many others have failed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH road transport sector has to play catch up with many of its European Union (EU) competitors regarding the introduction of sulphur-free fuels, a report from the European Commission has shown. It shows that as long ago as 2005, member states such as Germany, Italy and Ireland were already selling this environmentally-friendly petrol and diesel, while Britain was still selling low sulphur fuel, of between 10 and 50 parts per million sulphur content.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TACOGRAPH spotchecks by British highways officials and police have revealed continental van and lorry drivers are far more likely to break European Union (EU) working time rules on UK roads than Britons. Looking at newest available EU-wide comparative data 27,418 of offenders detected in 2004-4 on British highways were UK citizens, while 11,565 were from the much smaller pool of drivers from other EU member states.…