Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the German government’s Euro 2.7 billion 2005 coal industry aid package, saying it complied with a previously agreed 2003-5 subsidy programme. More than half – Euro 1.49 billion – is for operating aid, Euro 597 million reducing production, Euro 617.5 million exceptional costs and Euro 21.6 million miners’ benefits.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s consumer alert service RAPEX has reported the voluntary withdrawal from distribution from German stores of a Turkey-made shampoo range ‘Hobby Collection Baby Shampoo’, both blue and pink bottles. RAPEX reported "presence of excessive quantities of pseudomonas aeruginosa", and non-compliance with the European Union cosmetic product directive.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
THE WORLD is waking up to biofuels, increasingly produced from food crops and their waste by-products, and now one of the growing energy alternatives to conventional fossil fuels. As prices for traditional energy rise year on year, and energy watchers warn of oil production peaking around 2010, governments are looking towards food producers to grow the raw feedstock for the fuel of the twenty-first century.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has highlighted Britain, Germany, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, and the only European Union (EU) countries offering drug addiction programmes for young offenders. These countries, its 2005 annual report noted approvingly, have "selective prevention programmes for first-time offenders (largely cannabis users), offering psychological support, training and counselling."…

BY ALAN OSBORN
TO talk of the German paint industry – the largest in Europe – is to talk of a recession in construction that simply won’t go away. The overall paint market is mature, stable, highly competitive and characterised, at least in recent years, by virtually no growth.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA has sent another threat to Europe over gas supplies, undermining its reputation as a potential reliable energy partner for its western neighbours. Semyon Vainshtok, the president of Russia pipeline monopoly Transneft has told the daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Russia has "overfed Europe with crude".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined three chemical companies Euro 216.91 million for operating a cartel in monochloroacetic acid production; it makes detergents and thickens cosmetics. The companies concerned included Akzo Nobel, of the Netherlands (Euro 84.38 million); Atofina – now Arkema – of France (Euro 58.5 million); and Hoechst, of Germany (Euro 74.03 million).…

Keith Nuthall
BRITISH taxation inched up from 2002 to 2003, but according to the latest comparative European Union (EU)-wide figures, the UK still has one of the lowest European tax burdens. As a proportion of GDP, Britain’s total taxes were 37.1% in 2003, compared with 37% in 2002, up from 36.7% in 1995, before the accession to power of the Labour government.…

Keith Nuthall
THE LATEST government debt figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat shows that Italy and Greece have a long way to go before breathing easy over their governments’ indebtedness. Under the Growth and Stability Pact underpinning the value of the Euro, any country using the currency with debt exceeding 60% of GDP must ensure they are steadily moving towards the black.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A SUCCESSFUL European Union (EU) research project, which has developed plant-based health treatment alternatives to antibiotics in feed for cows and goats, is being expanded into the fish-farming sector. The RUMEN-UP project found 23 out of 500 samples of plant materials with beneficial health effects on ruminants, especially cattle.…