Search Results for: Ireland

ONCE upon a time, an overly curved cucumber could not be labelled ‘cucumber’ in the European Union (EU) because it did not comply with ‘official’ definitions of the fruit, which included limits on curvature. The European Commission eventually modified the rules: ugly and misshapen fruit and vegetables now sell freely under their own time-honoured names.…

A major international survey of education standards has found serious weaknesses in the EU countries when compared to levels in other parts of the world. In spite of the heavy investment in higher education in recent years in the EU, the study suggests that a fifth of the working age population has worrying low literacy and numeracy skills and a quarter of adults lack the digital skills needed to effectively use ICT.…

EUROPEAN AND Canadian meat traders are looking to boost overseas sales after today’s formal announcement of the widely anticipated Canada-European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Speaking in Brussels, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said: “We were able to strike a very good balance between our offensive and defensive interests [in agriculture],” while noting that this area was particularly sensitive during the negotiations.…

TECHNICAL and security experts have gathered at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to consider how to roll-out developing automated border control (ABC) systems, which offer hard-pressed airports the ability to better process surging passenger numbers.

Staged at ICAO’s headquarters, in Montréal, Canada, from October 22 to 24, the agency’s ninth symposium and exhibition on MRTDs [machine readable travel documents] biometrics and border security debated ABC developments such as newly-emerging technologies; trust issues; reliability; non-intrusiveness; biometrics; effective inspections tools; trusted traveller programmes; challenges to border integrity and ways to address them.…

THE EXTENT of waste in Europe’s austerity-hit public health services was one of the ‘elephants in the room’ – a big issue seldom discussed – identified by a professionals’ conference in Brussels, Belgium, on September 4 and 5.

150 delegates at the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) annual conference heard that, on average, between 3% and 10% of budgets for European Union (EU) national health systems was lost through waste, but in some cases could even reach 30%.…

Scientists are developing new nano-gas storage systems that may allow automotive engineers to build more cars that can operate more efficiently on gas-based fuels. The storage systems are built out of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) that can store more gas (such as methane, hydrogen or CO2) than empty cylinders.…

Leading European offshore wind companies are examining how reducing the steel in turbine foundations could help to reduce by 40% the cost of power from this renewable energy source.

Denmark’s DONG Energy revealed late last week that it has been the lead industry partner since August 1 for PISA (Pile Soil Analysis), an 18-month offshore wind cost-reduction R&D project involving an academic consortium of three leading European universities.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) food and feed safety rapid alert network (RASFF) has warned of a spate of problems involving salmonella contamination of imported meat and meat products. In some instances, consignments were exported from outside the EU, and others, within it.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission proposed yesterday (Wed) the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), a move described as historic by the European Union (EU) justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. Its exclusive task will be to investigate and prosecute crimes affecting the EU budget, although that includes import duty evasion as well as EU spending, because these tariffs are earmarked as income for EU institutions.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have agreed reforms to the EU’s VAT directive 2006/112/EC enabling member states to swiftly impose reversed charge VAT mechanisms to fight tax fraud. They would act when faced with a sudden onset of large-scale VAT fraud, forcing suppliers to pay the tax, rather than final consumers.…