Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot has acted to shore up the shaky future of EU global positioning satellite network Galileo, which has been designed to offer hauliers reliable high-tech navigation services from 2010. Squabbles amongst the consortium chosen to build Galileo’s network and satellites over allocation of work have been highlighted in a report to the EU Council of Ministers from Barrot, who voiced “concern” over “the status of concession negotiations.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has presented Inventors of the Year 2007 awards to two pharmaceutical research teams, for developing new and successful medicines with a global impact. Professor Marc Feldmann, of Britain’s Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College, London, received a lifetime achievement award for identifying the role of cytokines in the treatment of autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and finding a treatment, “which has helped millions of people all over the world”, said a Brussels statement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has dropped legal action against Germany’s strict deposit and return scheme for drinks packaging, concluding reforms stopped it being an illegal restriction of trade. Germany now allows bottles and cans to be returned to “every shop selling beverages in packaging of the same material type”, not the same brand as before.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LONGTIME sluggish continental construction market is now booming, according to European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat, with a year-on-year February increase in activity for the whole of the EU of 9.2%. What is especially noteworthy is that construction activity growth in the western European Eurozone was even higher – 10.4%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has called for EU table wines to be labelled with their grape variety and vintage year, abolishing a restriction that reserves such information for appellation wines. Speaking to the Intervitis Interfructa Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, yesterday (23-4), the commissioner said: “This rule only ties down the marketing efforts for some of our producers.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
Italian ports had the most seizures of counterfeit cigarettes, said OLAF, which said customs teams found 27.7 million sticks in four containers. There were three containers found in Spain with 26.6 million sticks in total; 25.6 million sticks in five containers in Britain; 21.2 million in three containers in Greece; 15.4 million in two containers in Romania; 10 million in one Germany container; and 9.5 million in a Belgium container.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
HEADS of government of the European Union (EU) have taken a significant step towards world leadership in the climate battle by pledging themselves to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 (from 1990 levels) and raising the total share of energy produced by renewables to 20% by the same date.…

BY MARK ROWE
FOLLOWING the ‘big bang’ of European Union (EU) expansion in May 2004, when 10 countries acceded to the EU, followed by Romania and Bulgaria this year, analysts were curious to see how those new members with well-regarded drinks industries would cope in the new pan-EU family.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY cemented its position last year as European Union (EU) wind power capacity leader, installing 2,233 MW in generation during 2006, raising total capacity to 20,621 MW, nearly twice as much as Spain, the second largest EU player, which also grew – by 1,587 MW to 11,615 MW.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has laid formal charges against European flat glass suppliers – including Britain’s Pilkington – alleging the existence of a European Union (EU) cartel controlling the sale of this key construction material. Brussels has not named companies receiving formal ‘statements of objections’, however, Pilkington has admitted these cover “alleged violations of competition rules by a number of glass manufacturers in the European building products glass sector, including Pilkington.”…