Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked the EU Council of Ministers to outlaw five national bans on genetically modified products: Austria’s ban on genetically modified maize (MON 810) and GM maize (Bt 176), Germany and Luxembourg’s ban on Bt 176; and Greece’s block on sales of GM spring swede rape.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on the European Commission to frame an action plan on simplifying red tape for the fishing industry, “reducing their bureaucratic workload and the restrictions that bear down on fishermen”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LEAK of around 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel into a steel container at Britain’s Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant, Sellafield, has prompted European Commission demands for European Union (EU) control over nuclear safety. The UK and Germany last year successfully resisted Brussels plans to force member states to abide by EU standards on the issue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GERMAN branch of Johnson & Johnson has persuaded the European Court of Justice’s Court of First Instance to reject a bid by French firm Ampafrance to secure European Union trademark rights to market care products using the brand MonBeBé.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FUSION energy research cooperation agreements have been signed between EURATOM, the European Atomic Energy Community, and new European Union members Poland and Slovenia. The deals will see special fusion research units being created in both countries: Poland’s unit will develop plasma diagnostics for fusion devices including Britain’s MAST, Germany’s TEXTOR and France’s TORE-SUPRA; Slovenia’s will conduct plasma-wall interaction field and activation calculations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ANDRIS Piebalgs, the European Union (EU) Commissioner for energy, has announced that energy conservation would be his top overall policy priority for his five-year term, not developing new energy sources. The European Commission will this year launch a ‘European Energy Efficiency Initiative’, he said, setting the EU “an ambitious but realistic and achievable target” to save, by 2010, the equivalent of 70 million tonnes of oil per annum, saving the EU Euro 15 billion annually.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ACCORDING to global consumption figures, Israel is the world capital of teenage soft drink demand, with hot weather combined with a competitive market to create something of a utopia for drinks companies. An international survey of soft drinks consumption published by the Economist by 15 year olds of both sexes suggests that Israel has the world’s biggest teenage consumers of carbonated and still drinks, colas, sodas, juices and the like on a per capita basis.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s rapid consumer alert system for food has warned of 55 cases involving the discovery in Italy, Spain and Germany of aflatoxins within pistachio nuts from Iran during March and April.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament and the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers have compromised on the final shape of a directive reducing sulphur content in marine fuels. The result is legislation that permits higher sulphur usage than the parliament wanted, cutting its marine fuels content to 1.5% by 2007, for all vessels in the Baltic, the North Sea, and the English Channel, and passenger ships in all EU seas and oceans.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
ASK the average motorist to identify which automotive technologies have advanced the most in recent years, and very few would mention coatings and finishings. Certainly, when it comes to innovation, carmakers are eager to promote new developments in performance, economy and safety.…