Search Results for: Ireland

BY ALAN OSBORN

ON the face of it, the UK, with other leading western European Union (EU) countries, leads the pack in terms of drawing up and submitting its River Basin Management (RBM) plans to the European Commission – the key first stage requirement of the EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD).…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

RIGA International Airport, located 13 km from the bustling Latvian capital is on the brink of undergoing major infrastructure changes. Its profile is high given it won the best airport in Scandinavia and the Baltic region at the prestigious 2009 OAG [Official Airline Guide] -Routes Airport Marketing Awards, beating the competition in richer countries such as Sweden and Denmark.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THIS summer will see the beginning of the promised introduction of smart metering across the UK. For the utility companies who are taking this step into the future, the key questions centre on interoperability and forthcoming European Union (EU) standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PEER reviews have begun assessing the banking and tax transparency systems promoted by the G20 group of nations following the international contagion of financial problems sparked by the credit crunch. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information will undertake the process.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

JUST six years ago, in March 2004, Ireland was the first country in the world to impose an outright ban on smoking in workplaces. A lot of European governments have followed its lead though Ireland (plus the UK and, surprisingly, Turkey) remain the only countries in Europe where the ban is total – that is it applies to smoking in all enclosed public and workplaces without exceptions.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THIS April, the long-awaited carbon reduction commitment (CRC) scheme will commence in the UK, bringing in the first phase of a carbon emissions trading programme unlike any other in Europe.

The programme covers virtually everything the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme (ETS) does not: any corporation, company or business – including transport and agriculture – which consumes more than 6,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA and Ukraine appear to have headed off an oil transit dispute that could have created a repeat of last year’s major disruption of European natural gas supplies. Moscow and Kiev have signed an agreement increasing by 30% the fees Ukraine charges on transporting Russian oil to the European Union (EU) – this alters a 2004 contract and the change had sparked a diplomatic tussle.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE EUROPEAN Commission has committed Euro 17.9 million to market dairy products over three years across the European Union (EU). The money will be spent by dairy industry organisations in 11 member states, who will also contribute funds, along with their national governments.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE BREAKDOWN of talks last week in Brussels to harmonise private copying levies has left collecting agencies bemused and disappointed, especially with information and communications technology (ICT) industry representatives. The levies, which are intended to compensate rights holders for private copies made legally on MP3 players and similar devices, are applied in most EU countries "though not in the UK or Ireland" and often differ markedly in rate and application.…

BY EMMA JACKSON, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, PAUL COCHRANE and BILL CORCORAN

WEST Africa is becoming a key region in the booming trade of illicit cigarettes, counterfeit copies of premium brands and smuggled properly branded and manufactured sticks. So much money is being made by criminals using this often-chaotic region as a hub to receive illicit sticks and then distribute them throughout Africa that this trade is becoming a matter of serious concern to the United Nations and even NATO.…