Search Results for: Irish

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) order could force the Irish government to improve and expand its mandatory training programmes for professional passenger and goods vehicle drivers. 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.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have backed the European Commission’s move to introduce private storage aid for pigmeat to fight current low prices. Under the programme, pigmeat producers can claim EU aid when storing meat for between three and five months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve an increase in the exploitation by EU ships of the rich tuna stocks surrounding Indian Ocean island archipelago the Seychelles. EU fishing businesses will have to pay for the privilege however: whilst the general limit on EU tonnage accessing Seychelles waters should rise from 55,000 to 63,000 tonnes, the money paid by vessel operators will rise from Euro 25 to 35 per tonne per annum, which would – said a note from the European Commission – bring fees in line with other EU tuna access agreements.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has toughened proposed European Union (EU) legislation on the production of pesticides, but has pulled away from backing some major restrictions on the use of these chemicals. In a first reading of an EU directive and regulation on the issue, MEPs backed amendments saying potentially immunotoxic or neurotoxic substances should never be part of pesticides used in the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed a cooperation agreement struck between the British and Irish governments to prevent illegal waste shipments across the land border between their two countries. Brussels was threatening legal action over the problem, because it broke European Union (EU) waste shipment rules, but with London and Dublin combining their forces, and tougher waste regulations being approved for Northern Ireland, the Commission has been satisfied.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED ban on all commercial fishing in Atlantic waters near cool water coral reefs off western Ireland has been tabled by the European Commission. It follows a request for action from the Irish government. If European Union (EU) ministers agree, the ban would cover around 2,500 km2 of Atlantic waters: the Belgica Mound; the Hovland Mound; Northwest and Southwest Porcupine.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

LISTENING to the war stories being swapped at the Thursday night corporate networking parties that regularly fill Beijing’s five star hotel bars leaves the impression that doing business in China is comparable to sticking your head into a bucket of piranhas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS that Brazilian beef producers are hoodwinking international animal and food health regulators by using superficial controls, have prompted European Union (EU) import ban calls. Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness told a European Parliament agriculture committee today (Mon 15-7): “It is important not only from a human health point of view but also from an ethical aspect.”…

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.…