Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RICHES that can be made from the illegal ivory trade are well known, but what of illicit imports and exports of rare flowers. Shipping protected orchids to Europe, Japan and north America can make criminals a lot of money.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union’s drinks industry is one of the continent’s key earners according to a report from EU statistical agency Eurostat, which says its productivity is much higher than that of the food processing sector.

The top performing country in the latest pan-EU figures available (1999) in the drinks industry was France, at Euro 103,700 generated in terms of value added by the sector per person in employment.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE LEGAL formalities for creating the Single European Sky are approaching completion. The initial proposal from the European Commission for integrating the EU’s national air traffic control authorities into a continental ATC system has now been approved by the EU member governments and, in slightly amended form, by the European Parliament.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMAN insurance group Gerling is providing financial and managerial support to a ground-breaking environmental initiative in the hope that it will be copied and that the company will be asked to underwrite similar initiatives because of its expertise.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AFTER intensive consultation the European Commission has come up with a proposed new EU take-over directive that it hopes will avoid the fate of its predecessor, which was rejected by the European Parliament last year. The earlier text was strongly opposed by Germany, which feared it could weaken defences against hostile take-overs.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A NEW “smart card” for health and safety to be launched in the UK next year could have important implications for insurance companies in the occupational safety and health field. The so-called Prevencard is being marketed by the Spanish company Grupo Prevencard International using technology developed under the EU’s 5th Framework Programme for research.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the creation of a central European Union aid fund commanding between Euro 500,000 and Euro 1 billion, which could be raided by Member States and eastern European countries wanting to join the EU that fall victim to natural disasters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW laboratory tasked with fostering innovative solutions for nuclear waste management has been inaugurated at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

Its Institute for Transuranium Elements, in Karlsruhe, Germany, has opened a Euro 10 million Minor Actinide Laboratory, which will manufacture and characterize the most suitable materials for the transmutation of long-lived toxic elements created by the nuclear industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROSTAT has praised Europe’s food industry for performing well regarding productivity, with growth from 1990-2000 being above that for manufacturing at 2.1 per cent per annum. For meat production, the most efficient country was Denmark, dairy – Germany, and other food industries – Britain.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a new directive to cover takeover bids in the EU that will allow, among other things, a majority shareholder to require minority holders to sell him their securities while empowering minority shareholders to require the majority holder to buy them out.…