Search Results for: Greek

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ITALIAN and Greek governments have signed an agreement to build a gas interconnector between their countries, filling a missing link in the growing pipeline network bringing gas to western Europe from Turkey, the Caucasus and central Asia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s agriculture committee is resisting European Commission attempts to overhaul the European Union’s (EU) wine market system, notably calling for the retention of compulsory distillation to ease over-production. It has adopted a report written by Greek socialist MEP Katerina Batzeli, who while arguing that the “public storage of alcohol should be abolished,” calls for the retention, even expansion, of market-distorting subsidies helping vineyards survive and avoid grubbing up.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EASTERN Mediterranean University (EMU) in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus is waiting for an imminent ruling from the European Ombudsman charging the European Commission with “maladministration” over its refusal to allow access to the EU’s Socrates and Erasmus programmes and the Bologna Process on higher education structure.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONSERVATIVE anti-reform opinion has held sway at the European Parliament over proposed European Union (EU) wine market reforms, with MEPs approving the cautious report by Greek socialist member Katerina Batzeli. The parliament’s ruling plenary accepted her call for maintaining distillation subsidies and limiting grubbing up, although the decision on such matters rests with EU ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEK government is being taken to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission over its alleged failure to abide by the European Union single sky regulation and create a national supervisory authority, mandated with tasks such as air navigation service provider certification.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN UNUSUALLY tough political row between European commissioners has stalled plans to control the emission of carbon dioxide from cars, with intense disagreements erupting over whether limits should be voluntary or compulsory.

On one side is environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas, of Greece, who wants to set compulsory CO2 emissions for European Union carmakers, because they are likely to break 2004 promises to reduce CO2 emissions to an industry average of 140 grammes per km, or 25% of 1995 levels by 2008.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH
GREECE will be one of the last of the last countries in the European Union

(EU) to possess any common stigma in cigarette smoking – if it ever will.

There is a disdain and defiance of those who, for whatever reasons, disapprove of the habit.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London
THE EUROPEAN auto industry is keeping a close eye on the European Commission at the moment, where a heavyweight political struggle is being staged over whether mandatory CO2 caps should be imposed on auto manufacturers. At the heart of this dispute is an argument over whether companies should shoulder the burden of reducing CO2 emissions from new vehicles or whether the job should also involve people like fuel suppliers, tire and other components suppliers and even consumers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will spend around Euro 4 million helping Cypriot, Greek and Portuguese wine producers export to the USA, Canada, Japan, China, India and other big non-European Union (EU) markets. As usual in these cases, Brussels is funding 50% of planned marketing programmes, matching financing from national governments or private sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE IRISH government has been formally threatened with European Court of Justice (ECJ) action by the European Commission, over Ireland’s fixing of minimum and maximum prices of cigarettes. Brussels claims that such systems have already been declared illegal in previous similar cases by the court, which has found them breaching European Union treaty commitments protecting competition.…