Search Results for: Ireland

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared illegal under European Union (EU) compulsory insurance laws, Irish regulations that fail to provide cover to all road accident victims entering a vehicle knowing its driver was uninsured. The ECJ said Ireland erred by not restricting that exclusion to passengers in a vehicle whose driver caused an accident.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW improved computerised information system helping police the unified Schengen border system for most European Union (EU) countries (not including Britain and Ireland) has been received approval by the EU Council of Ministers. The system with "new technologies and added functionalities" will be rolled out in 2009 and its development will be funded by EU budgets.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) has rejected a request by the UK for the annulment of an EU regulation setting out standards for the security features, including bio-metrics, to be carried on passports and other travel documents in the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HEAVIER vehicles such as SUVs and luxury models will be able to breach a proposed European Union (EU) carbon dioxide cap, under formally proposed legislation now tabled by the European Commission. Pressure from German manufacturers forced Brussels into abandoning an absolute cap for all new models of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometre.…

BY MARK ROWE

SKY high prices for precious metals have prompted a rise in thefts of catalytic converters from a wide range of motor vehicles; the problem is so serious that the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) has linked up with the Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales and Northern Ireland (ACPO) to tackle the issue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEMBERS of the European Parliament have called for a "common-sense" easing of "complicated" spot-checks on food industry suppliers, required for the payments of European Union (EU) subsidies. These checks cover food health standards, livestock welfare, environmental production controls and others, but a parliament motion agreed that since they were introduced in 2003, they have "proved very complicated to manage", especially for local regulators and small-scale farmers.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHICHEVER way you look, the oil and gas sector is investing in biofuels. The larger energy companies – driven by an eye for a new and potentially lucrative market as well as shareholder concern and governmental and international political pressure – are investigating both first and second generation biofuels.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

PUBLIC place smoking bans are spreading like wildlife these days, with one country after another drawing up rules preventing tobacco use where it could expose non-smokers to second-hand smoke.

In the European Union (EU), this year, public place smoking bans have been introduced in England, Estonia and Finland, for instance.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

FOLLOWING the introduction on July 1 of public place smoking bans in England 240 million people worldwide were covered by public smoking restrictions, according to the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). (NOTE – THIS IS A FRENCH ACRONYM)

The movement towards such restrictions is becoming ubiquitous in the European Union (EU), with Estonia, Finland, Scotland and Ireland already have full public-place bans, while Italy, Sweden and Malta have partial bans, allowing smoking only in closed-off, separately-ventilated areas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) order could force the Irish government to improve and expand its mandatory training programmes for road hauliers. The European Commission has asked judges to rule Ireland’s current training system is too scant to meet the safety standards required by the European Union’s (EU) directive on training professional drivers.…