Search Results for: Irish

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a little like the election of a Pope. The five-yearly reappointment of the European Commission – now underway – is shrouded in complex procedure and murky backroom deals. Closed discussions between Europe’s power-brokers in Brussels offices, embassies and national capitals divide up the available positions – currently there are 27: one per member state.…

By Leah Germain

A group of international scientists have pinpointed two genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a discovery that may lead to new treatments and possible cures for the progressive and degenerative disease of the brain.

Working with scientists from around the world, Professor Julie Williams, from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine in Wales, the UK, was the head scientist for the largest-ever joint Alzheimer’s disease genome-wide association study (GWAS).…

 By David Haworth, in Brussels

Among many things the ambitious Swedish presidency of the European Union hopes to achieve in the next five months is a revival of the so-called ‘Lisbon Process’. The what? A few may recall this initiative was launched in 2000 to chart the way the EU would become “the world’s most dynamic, knowledge-based economy.” Rhetorically it became a bouncy castle for politicians, left and right, who could jump up and down with ‘Lisbon’, confident of its crowd-pleasing potential, in Brussels and Strasbourg at least.

But the applause soon died – so much so the whole effort had to be revived a mere five years after it began.

It hasn’t been going great guns since then, either. Not unreasonably, however, EU officials think it’s worth taking out of the drawer in the context of the worst recession since the war.…

By David Haworth

Among many things the ambitious Swedish presidency of the European Union hopes to achieve in the next five months is a revival of the so-called ‘Lisbon Process’.

The what?

A few may recall this initiative was launched in 2000 to chart the way the EU would become "the world’s most dynamic, knowledge-based economy."…

 By David Haworth, in Brussels

No sooner has Sweden unveiled plans for the next six months of political endeavour in the European Union, than the wheel has fallen off before the new model can even be test driven. The Swedes who assumed the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1, had predicated their efforts on a quick reappointment of Jose Manuel Barroso, 53, the genial European Commission president, for another five years’ office.

The former Portuguese premier received the unanimous “political support” of EU leaders during their recent Summit. This endorsement, you might think, would be enough to confirm the head boy in his position for another term. But no, the presidency job is in the final gift of the European Parliament – and this is where the Swedish calculations have gone wrong.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ACCORDING to a report released by European Commission opinion polling organisation Eurobarometer, 55% of European Union (EU) citizens agree that adding a colour picture to text-only health warnings on tobacco products packaging would strengthen anti-smoking messages. Support for such images is underlined by EU citizens fearing the weakness of current health warnings, sometimes restricted to words.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

POTENTIALLY important findings for developing anti-bacterial drugs have been discovered by German, Swiss and Irish scientists. They identified 39 proteins interacting with bacteria damaging and entering human cells. Until now, only a few proteins had been listed, said a Cell Host and Microbe journal note.…

BY SYMON ROSS

THE SIPTU (Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union) in Ireland expressed concern this month (May) the country’s Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has inadequate resources to carry out workplace inspections.

The union said with 200,000 workplaces in the Republic of Ireland and only around 14,000 workplace assessments annually, a business could wait more than 14 years for a safety check from an HSA inspector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR cigarette smuggling boom is being reported in Ireland by customs teams, with a record 135.2 million cigarettes being seized last year, almost twice the amount seized in 2007. Of these, 56.82 million were counterfeits, the country’s Sunday Independent newspaper has reported.…

By Thompson Ayodele, in Lagos

As the Group of 20 top industrialised and developing economies prepared to meet in London, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned them that "the economic crisis may soon be compounded by an equally severe crisis of global instability." A key problem is that trade is deteriorating every day and political pressures demand import restrictions to protect employment. This is no way out: such protectionism would make this particular depression ‘Great’. 

Everyone says trade is the best way out – but on their own terms: last November, the G20 leaders signed a pledge against protectionism yet, in the second half of 2008, 17 out of the G20 passed 47 restrictions of trade, the World Bank claims. …