Search Results for: Italian

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission has granted clearance under the Merger Regulation to the acquisition by the Italian energy company Enel Produzione S.p.A of a stake in Spanish electricity producer Unión Fenosa Energías Especiales S.A., which is currently wholly controlled by Unión Fenosa Generación S.A.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Commission proposals to boost nuclear energy safety in Europe have come under fire from the British and German governments as well as the European Parliament, making it highly unlikely that they will be approved unscathed. In an unusual joint letter to the Commission, UK prime minister Tony Blair and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder criticised Brussels’ proposed directive, claiming that it would not deal tangible benefits in nuclear security.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union competition Commissioner Mario Monti has called for close cooperation between international business regulators such as the European Commission and their opposite numbers in national governments and in north America. Speaking to the World Forum on Energy Regulation, in Rome, Monti said that by combining their efforts, competition authorities would “achieve more than each would be able to achieve on its own.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commissioner has broken a Brussels taboo akin to the Pope calling for quickie divorces and free contraception, he has called on the European Commission to propose fewer regulations. Frits Bolkestein, the Dutch internal market Commissioner told a Netherlands newspaper NRC Handelsblad that tougher safeguards should be written into the new European Union (EU) constitution to curb his own institution’s “tendency to over regulate”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has clarified national government powers over the authorisation of novel foods containing GM material. In a case involving Monsanto Italia and the Italian government, the ECJ ruled that the presence of GM protein residues in novel foods does not prevent them being cleared for sale under a “simplified procedure,” but only where there is no risk to human health.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OFFICE International des Épizooties, the world animal health organisation, has warned of an outbreak of bluetongue disease in sheep in Sardinia. Authorities on the Italian island have slapped a movement ban on farms in Cagliari province to prevent it spreading.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A FIERCE row over the blame for the electricity blackout which affected virtually the whole of Italy on September 28 has broken out between the Italian, Swiss and French governments, which may delay Rome’s moves towards liberalisation of its energy markets.…

BY MARK ROWE
GOVERNMENTS across Europe face revising the way in which they charge telecommunications companies for licences, following a ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The court decided that European Union (EU) rules in the telecommunications sector prohibit EU Member States from imposing financial charges on licence holders calculated on the basis of their turnover.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRECISE guidance about the legality under European law of government intervention to make good damage caused by natural disasters is likely to emerge from a new European Commission state aid inquiry in Italy. Brussels fears that an Italian law, giving benefits to private investors pumping money into disaster zones, may fall foul of EU state aid legislation designed to prevent national governments giving their local businesses unfair advantages over those from other Member States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL in Paris, ALAN OSBORN in London, MARK ROWE in Singapore, ED PETERS and DON GASPER in Hong Kong, RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane and ALEX SMAILES in Port of Spain.…