Search Results for: Latvia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has called on EU national governments to increase their spending on radioactive waste management research. Speaking to a Brussels workshop on the topic, he said spending “in many – but not all – member states is not sufficient to make real progress in the short to medium term”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH security of energy supplies being a key concern of the European Union (EU), and the subject of legislation under discussion in Brussels, it is no surprise that the EU devotes millions of Euros to developing the oil and gas sector of the former USSR.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has moved to extend its control of fishing in the Baltic Sea, following the accession of four Baltic eastern European states to the EU last year. With Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania becoming member states, the Baltic is largely an EU zone, excluding small stretches of Russian territorial waters – off Kaliningrad and St Petersburg.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THREE Belgian brothers – who launched Lithuania’s second largest supermarket chain after the country quitted the ex-USSR – have secured Euro 40 million equity investment by a major US finance house. The European Commission has approved America’s Citigroup Inc taking a minority share in the Ortiz brother’s UAB Palink group.…

KEITH NUTHALL
On the basis of existing policies and measures alone, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Sweden and the United Kingdom should reach their individual targets. The Netherlands and Luxembourg will achieve their targets with the help of credits from the project-based mechanisms.…

Keith Nuthall
BRITISH taxation inched up from 2002 to 2003, but according to the latest comparative European Union (EU)-wide figures, the UK still has one of the lowest European tax burdens. As a proportion of GDP, Britain’s total taxes were 37.1% in 2003, compared with 37% in 2002, up from 36.7% in 1995, before the accession to power of the Labour government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATIONAL governments are often jealous of attempts by the European Union (EU) to increase its power into policy areas that they consider none of its business. Defence and foreign affairs are obvious examples, but health is another. EU member states have long resisted Brussels’ calls for influence over their health policies, but their resolve has weakened of late.…

BY MARK ROWE
THERE is no doubt that water quality in eastern Europe has improved immeasurably since the break up of the Soviet Union and its related satellite states, a process reinforced by the wholesale privatisation now taking place. But while standards have improved, concerns about pollution, old pipes and outdated treatment works are likely to continue.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is largely on track for a timely start to its emissions trading system on January 1, with the unconditional approval in late October of six more CO2 emission allocation plans, from Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Portugal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE REVAMPED European Commission of president José Manuel Barroso has been confirmed by the European Parliament, which approved moving Hungary’s Lázló Kovács to the tax Commissioner portfolio. He had been proposed as energy Commissioner, but was transferred after MEPs complained about his “incompetence” in this subject.…