Search Results for: Ireland

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have approved Euro 3.9 billion in EU spending on energy investment projects, after they finally finished wrangling over the detail of this keystone of their economic stimulus package.

As expected, the final programme has more projects in southern and eastern Europe than in previous drafts.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

GREEN is the colour for many future oil and gas industry jobs, according to a recent study predicting that environment-friendly energy will not only tackle the world’s energy crisis but also create millions of new jobs worldwide.

Green Jobs, published by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington DC-based research organisation, says the renewable sector and its supplier industries already employ at least 2.3 million people worldwide, including about 300,000 workers in the wind power industry, 170,000 in solar photovoltaics and 600,000 in the solar thermal industry alone.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR the past 10 years, the message from the environmental movement has been "biofuels good, fossil fuels bad". And the search for alternatives has exercised many industries, not least the cosmetics sector, which widely uses mineral oils, but has increasingly been looking for ways to use bio-based oils and fats.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, in Paris; ANDREW CAVE, in Oxford; and SYMON ROSS, in Belfast

IT is a tough time in the European petrol retail market at present. High prices last year have been followed by a global recession. It is no wonder fuel sales are depressed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) consumer safety alert service RAPEX has reported the withdrawal from sale in Belgium of a Democratic Republic of the Congo-made whitening cream – Topclaire Plus. Its use of hydroquinone breaks the EU cosmetics directive. RAPEX has also reported a withdrawal from sale in Ireland of China-made ‘GIRLZ’ children’s cosmetics sets.…

By Katherine Dunn

The travails of Roman Polanski in Switzerland this autumn have offered some lessons to the world’s wanted over extradition laws and how to deal with them. The Polish director has of course been living in France, with little fear of extradition, since 1978, when he fled the USA facing statutory rape charges.…

By Alan Osborn

The failure of business to invest significantly in innovation projects remains the major weakness in the European Union’s (EU) research picture, says the European Commission. While there is "substantial progress" in some aspects of the EU’s innovation performance, investments by business in R&D and IT projects "are still relatively weak, especially if compared to the US and Japan," claims Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND’S Electricity Supply Board and National Microelectronics Applications Centre Ltd want partners for a Euro 1.39 million research project developing power grid fault monitoring systems. This is being coordinated by Europe’s Eureka research network and potential partners include Britain’s Electricity North West and Germany’s Tyco Electronic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it wants Euro 3.5 billion of the general European Union (EU) economic recovery plan it announced in November spent on energy investment. It has proposed spending Euro 1.75 billion on gas and electricity interconnection projects; Euro 500 million on offshore wind power; and Euro 1.25 billion on carbon capture and storage.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MAXIMUM amount of duty-free or duty-paid tobacco that can be brought into the European Union (EU) from a non-EU country without paying EU excise duty can now be reduced to just 40 cigarettes. That is an option now offered to member states, which can maintain the previous 200 cigarette limit if they choose.…