Search Results for: Latvia

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed proposals to increase the current EU minimum excise tax rate on diesel to match that for unleaded petrol. However, MEPs want to phase the increase from Euro 302/1,000 litres to Euro 359 by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016 – Spain, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Greece acting immediately.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHILE tuberculosis rates remain low in western and central Europe, an increase in drug resistant TB in eastern Europe is raising concern amongst European Union (EU) experts. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has released figures showing that 18.6% of Lithuania’s 2,228 TB cases in 2006 were multiple-drug resistant; 15% of Estonia’s 399 cases were of this deadly strain; as were 14.7% of Latvia’s 1,109 cases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s economics committee has called for the European Union’s (EU) minimum rate of excise duty on diesel to be raised to that for unleaded petrol: from the current Euro 302/1,000 litres to Euro 359/1,000 litres by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s economics committee wants the European Union’s (EU) minimum rate of excise duty on diesel raised to the level for unleaded petrol: from the current Euro 302/1,000 litres to the petrol level of Euro 359/1,000 litres by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) seven-year-old Doha Development Round maybe drawing towards a close, the pharmaceutical industry might start to consider that a final deal could lead to the elimination of most import duties on drugs and medicines, traded worldwide.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the UK government that it intends to build a new generation of nuclear power plants stands out, not just because of the scale of the proposals, but because it is the first such comprehensive initiative in Europe for some years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has highlighted eight member states as having failed to submit national energy efficiency action plans as required by the European Union’s (EU) energy services directive. Legal action has already been launched against 10 member states – but two of these (Belgium and Slovakia) submitted action plans in December.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

SOMETHING must be in the water these days in Brussels. The European Commission seems determined to press ahead with its plans to reshape the European Union’s (EU) energy market, no matter how vociferous or powerful the opposition. In December, the Commission was bullish about unbundling, now it is being equally aggressive over renewable energy.…

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 and ALAN OSBORN

GEOGRAPHICALLY Russia is part of Europe. Moscow is 1,557 miles from London, but 3,456 miles from New York. The Russian capital is also just 760 miles from Stockholm, as the crow flies. These figures are worth considering when trying understanding the often fraught energy diplomacy between Russia and the European Union (EU).…