Search Results for: Netherlands

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WATER privatisation has certainly had its critics, but it has a new supporter in the shape of the European Commission. It has publicly backed the growing privatisation of Europe’s water utilities, with its internal market commissioner praising British government moves to inject competition into its national sector.…

BY DENMARK FINCH AND FRITZ BRETT
INTRO

REDUCING stress amongst employees at work can make a major improvement to the bottom line of companies; indeed, so expensive is the problem, says the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, it is thought to cost the EU at least Euro 20 billion a year in lost time and health costs and affect more than 40 million of its employees.…

BY MARK ROWE
WARS are usually fought over coveted resources, such as oil, diamonds or fertile land. Now water, the most indispensable of mankind’s needs, is seen as the resource which may spark the armed conflicts of the 21st century.

Indeed, United Nations (UN) cultural and scientific organisation UNESCO is stepping up efforts to calm tension in some of the world’s most water-stressed areas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) commissioner has called on EU governments to reconsider the phasing out of nuclear energy, which he says has been approved on the basis of “the moral high ground and….of often unjustified emotions.”

Internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein (CORRECT SPELLING) said that technological advances were tackling the environmental difficulties surrounding nuclear energy and although problems still exist, “they do not justify the total phasing out of nuclear energy now carried out by a number of Member States.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AWARDS have been made to 20 companies across Europe by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for groundbreaking schemes that have effectively reduced workplace stress, reducing the risk of psychological problems developing in employees. Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, the agency’s director, said the schemes were examples of good practice that should be followed across the European Union.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has sued RJ Reynolds in New York, seeking damages against allegations that it illegally laundered the proceeds of cigarette smuggling. The case – which also involves Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg – also seeks an injunction stopping future alleged laundering.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has – somewhat grudgingly it appears – called off its investigation into alleged market sharing agreements between the large international brewers Carlsberg of Denmark and Heineken of the Netherlands. Brussels said it found no evidence that the suspected infringement continued after May 1995 and noted that under EU rules it had no power to fine companies where abuses could not be proved in the five years preceding the start of an investigation – in this case 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission wants to extend for 12 months an experiment allowing shoe and leather repairers in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to charge lower rates to their customers. The idea is to promote labour intensive industries such as shoe repairing and the Commission is considering making the scheme permanent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has publicly backed the growing privatisation of Europe’s water utilities, with its internal market commissioner backing British government moves to inject competition into its national sector.

Indeed, Frits Bolkestein defended the much-maligned record of privatised water services in the UK, blaming the price rises in the 1990’s on a failure to ensure private water companies could compete and previous government neglect.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE’S Suez and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have launched a joint drinking water improvements programme that will provide around Euro 300,000 in its first three years and will initially concentrate on the Volga-Caspian region.…