Search Results for: Greece

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GREEN energy projects will be a priority for infrastructure spending from a Euro EUR68.7 billion European Union (EU) fund managed from 2014 to 2020, say detailed proposals released by the European Commission. These focus on the next phase of the European Union’s (EU) ‘Cohesion Fund’, which helps countries with 90% or less of the EU average income – the 12 eastern and southern European countries becoming member states since 2004, plus Spain, Portugal and Greece.…

By Emma Jackson

Researchers say they have secured the future of Europe’s huge volumes of digital data, having created an open source software that will protect digital data from becoming unreadable or unusable because it is incompatible with newer technologies. This has been developed by the European Union (EU)-funded CASPAR (Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval) programme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SUGAR has been at the centre of continuing concern about fraud draining European Union (EU) budgets of duty revenue. The latest operational report from EU anti-fraud unit OLAF (which reviewed 2009) recalled how fraudsters made millions of Euros from exporting 3,400 tonnes of sugar from the EU to neighbouring non-member state Croatia via the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES, PAUL COCHRANE

CYPRIOTS are Europe’s heaviest smokers, according to figures from European Union (EU) pollsters Eurobarometer. For those living in the internationally recognised predominantly Greek Republic of Cyprus (RoC) portion of the island, consumption of consumers aged 15 and above during 2009 averaged 21.7 cigarettes daily, and those in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 21.6.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN chemical industry federation CEFIC has called for a review of administration under European Union (EU) chemical control system REACH to help small-and-medium-sized paint and other chemical companies (SMEs) deal with its burden. As the first key REACH chemical deadline of November 30 approaches, CEFIC director general Hubert Mandery said REACH costs hit smaller firms hard, especially for the oncoming two REACH registrations, involving smaller tonnages of chemicals.…

BY KATHERINE DUNN

EUROPEAN Union (EU) honey production will receive receive Euro EUR32 million annually for the next three years from the European Commission, to help fight the decimation of bee populations by disease. A European Commission communiqué said EU co-financing for national beekeeping subsidies in 2011 would increase from EUR25 million-per-year.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE PROCESS of ‘unbundling’ in the European Union (EU) gas industry as called for under the EU’s third energy package, notably the gas directive 2009/73/EC, adopted in 2009, has come to a bit of a standstill. This will not last.…

BY MARK ROWE

ENERGY production that uses renewable sources or drastically reduces the use of fossil fuels are of course increasingly entering the market place, and with such transformation, innovation is at a premium. Demand for novel thinking and processes is being inflated in Europe by the European Union’s EU2020 objectives for a 20% reduction in CO2, and for 20% of energy to be generated from renewable energy sources by 2020.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

DRINKS retailers and wholesalers are coming under pressure in Greece as duty increases ordered within the government’s tough austerity programme start to bite. Excise duty on spirits rose three times since the beginning of the year – twice by 20% in February and March and 30% in April and now comprises at least 65% of the total price, while in addition VAT was increased from 19% to 21%.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, and KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN imagining Europe’s greenest and most efficient energy systems, the countries of the former Yugoslavia do not readily spring to mind. The simple truth is Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and even Slovenia have a reputation for having ageing energy dirty systems.…