Search Results for: Ireland

BY ALAN OSBORN

WITH packaged goods moving with ever greater freedom and speed between the member states of the European Union (EU), it is of no surprise that the EU has legislated extensively to regulate the industry. It is a raison d’être of the EU to create harmonised rules of key economic importance to oil trade between its member states, and also to minimise cross-border problems such as pollution.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A US$10 million equity investment in Peru’s ethanol production is planned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank. The beneficiary will be Ireland-registered and Peru-based Maple Energy PLC, developing large scale sugar-cane ethanol production in Peru’s northern Piura region.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, in Dublin

THE REPUBLIC of Ireland’s economic growth over the past 15 years has been hailed as one of the success stories of the western world economies; however, in tandem with its economic growth commercial crime has also surfaced at an alarming rate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEGAL action is being prepared by the European Commission against another three European Union (EU) countries over their minimum price systems for cigarettes. Brussels opposes these as an illegal restriction of trade, and recently forced Belgium into abandoning its minimum price system.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE PRICE of tobacco products in Britain is the highest in the European Union (EU) claims EU statistics agency, Eurostat. In 2006, British tobacco goods were priced at 205% of the EU average with only non-EU member, Norway out-pricing it at 227% within the European Economic Area.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CONCERNS that non-British bus and coach drivers from 10 European Union (EU) member states could have weak professional driving training and be a public transport safety risk are being addressed by the European Commission. It is threatening action at the European Court of Justice against these countries for not complying with an EU directive on professional drivers training that insists upon 280 hours compulsory basic training and 35 hours further training every five years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DRAFT standard being developed by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) could harmonise traditional sizing practices within the European clothing industry, enabling clothing retailers to sell clothing across Europe without changing designs or labels.
The proposals have created something of an uproar amongst right-wing nationalist tabloids in the UK, because the proposals would being to an end Britain’s comparatively rigid size 4 to 32 dress sizing system, based on fixed hip and bust sizes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has sent final legal warnings to 10 European Union (EU) member governments, telling them to abide by minimum standards for the training of professional drivers working in their countries. EU directive 2003/59 imposes requirements for initial qualification and continuing training: compulsory basic training of 280 hours, and periodic training of 35 hours every five years to update knowledge and skills.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

FOOD prices in the UK and Ireland have reached Scandinavian levels according to the European Union’s (EU) statistics agency, Eurostat.
In 2006, Ireland-sold milk, cheese and eggs, for instance, cost 126% of the EU average, and they were 115% in the UK, compared with 104% in Sweden and 110% in Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has admitted that support for a comprehensive unbundling of EU energy suppliers and producers is weak within the EU Council of Ministers, signalling that he may have to water down tough draft proposals.…