Search Results for: Greece

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEDITERRANEAN countries face raising duties on fortified wines such as port and sherry under a proposal to increase minimum European Union (EU) excise duties by 31%. The European Commission wants to maintain the value they commanded when introduced in 1993.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The Dutch are Europe’s top recyclers of household rubbish, recycling 65% of their total waste according to a new study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Next come the Austrians at 59% and the Germans at 58% says the report though it notes that in parts of Germany some local areas charge per kilo of waste not recycled and the regional collection of recyclable materials goes up to more than 65 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PUBLISHERS could benefit from a quantum leap in data storage seeing two million books copied onto electronic chips as small as a postage stamp.

The downsizing of such digital memory, and its access by laptop computers, mobile telephones, iPods, palmtops, datachips and other consumer durables has seemed inevitable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked European Union (EU) ministers to authorise until January 2011 the right of the Isle of Man and 13 foreign EU member states to levy low rates of VAT on certain building repair services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency (IEA) has said in its latest annual report that wind energy still only satisfies 1.2% of power demand in its 20 rich country members, although that proportion is increasing fast in some cases. It said that from 1995 to 2005, the contribution of wind power to national electricity demand rose from 0.2%, with 12 IEA members being in the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEW executive director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has hailed her agency’s initiative to develop a common scientific approach to assess the fish feed additives as "strongly in the interests of environmental protection and the health and safety of consumers."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UNIVERSITIES are set to benefit from a quantum leap in data storage that could see the pages of two million books copied onto electronic chips as small as a postage stamp.

The downsizing of digital memory and related computers, mobile telephones, iPods and other consumer durables has almost seemed like an inevitable progression.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is offering a comprehensive European Union (EU) free-trade deal to Russia, to secure cheaper and more reliable gas and oil supplies. Commission president José Manuel Barroso said the EU will offer this to Russia once it has joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), maybe this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LIVESTOCK and Meat Commission for Northern Ireland is to benefit from the latest batch of European Commission grants for promoting meat and other foodstuff sales within the European Union (EU). Brussels will subsidise a Northern Irish meat marketing and information campaign with Euro 207,365 over one year, with matching money being demanded from the UK government and local meat producers, the usual condition of such grants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched a major public consultation exercise, which will include fish farms, to forge a common European Union (EU) method for assessing the environmental risks posed by fish feed. EFSA is not happy that in the European Union "no specific environmental risk assessment guidance exists for the aquatic compartment".…