Search Results for: Greece

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL agreement has been forged at the European Union’s Council of Ministers for employment and social policy on a new ‘health and safety: physical agents (noise)’ directive, that should introduce pan-EU workplace exposure limits.

Ministers managed to strike a compromise, ironing out some long standing disagreements on the upper limit value for noise exposure and whether there should be special rules for the maritime and air transport sectors, as requested by Greece, Italy and the UK governments.…

Keith Nuthall
ALTHOUGH petrol and diesel consumption rose by 45 per cent in the European Union between 1985 and 1998, technological improvements meant pollution by emissions such as nitrogen oxide actually fell during this time, a study from Eurostat, the EU statistical agency has claimed.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has formally approved reforms to the European aid system for Greek cotton production. Ministers sanctioned an increase by two per cent to a planned 50 per cent reduction to the guide price affecting subsidies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CASE brought by the European Commission against the Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds corporations for their alleged involvement in cigarette smuggling has opened at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The Commission has now been formally joined in the case by Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Luxembourg, who have given mandate Commission lawyers to represent them.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that Greece’s Thessaloniki and Heraklion, (Crete), airports are to receive investment of Euro 131 million from the European Regional Development Fund, as part of a Euro 1.4 billion injection of EU cash to update Greek transport services.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked the European Court of Justice to fine the Spanish government Euro 45,600-a-day, until it complies with an earlier ECJ ruling that it should implement the directive regarding its inland bathing waters. The fine would be levied until Madrid convinced the court that it had raised water quality levels to a sufficient level, as required under the bathing water directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE REVIEW of the Common Fisheries Policy is likely to create the largest overhaul in European Union fishing policy in years, matching the crisis in stock levels in European waters. At its heart is the integration of environmental and conservation concerns into the organisation of the EU fishing market, a principle that – judging by conclusions agreed by the Council of Ministers – will have significant consequences when changes are put in place next year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY appears to be the most industrially innovative country in the European Union, filing 43.6 per cent of all EU patent applications with the European Patent office in 1999, well ahead of its nearest rival France, which filed just 14.9 per cent.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE FAILURE of Greece, Italy and Spain to pass national laws, reducing sulphur content in a range of fuels, as required by a EU directive, has led to their governments being formally threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL action plan to fight forest fires is being drawn up with the assistance of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. Experts from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and USA have been discussing proposals for a system involving mutual assistance and coordinated approaches to forest fire management.…