Search Results for: Netherlands

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

IT could be an animal rights campaigner’s worst nightmare: not only is the testing of cosmetics China allowed, it is in fact compulsory for all products. And this is going to cause problems to the international cosmetics sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SINCE the September 11 attacks, the control of terrorist financing has been an international policing priority. But businesses also need to be aware of the risks. Keith Nuthall reports.

TERRORISM may be an exceptional crime, but the money required to stage violent attacks on the public is – ultimately – just money.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AGREEMENT has been secured on a new European Union (EU) directive reducing or banning 33 pollutants – mainly pesticides and heavy metals – found in EU rivers, lakes and coastal waters. By 2018, member states will have to reduce pollution from "priority substances", while blocking or phasing out emissions, discharges and losses of "priority hazardous substances".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers are debating an urgent rescue package for a European fishing sector that is being buffeted by high fuel prices. European Commission officials are drafting formal proposals, which would suspend certain European Fisheries Fund subsidy controls for two years.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London; LUCY JONES, in Dallas; JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo; and KEITH NUTHALL

GIVEN the spate of oil tanker accidents in recent years involving substantial pollution of seas and coastlines around the world, it is no surprise that international organisations have weighed in with regulatory controls and guidelines on shipping standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A REPORT from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has revealed that almost a half of OECD member countries (including many in Europe) have potentially dangerous nutrient and pesticide concentrations in drinking water sources.

Tests carried out in recent years (NOTE: CALLED MID-2000’S IN THE REPORT) on surface water and groundwater monitoring sites in agricultural areas show these pollutants often "exceed national drinking water recommended limits" said a new OECD report on the environmental impact of farming.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ITALIAN Carabinieri police force and European Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF have smashed a fraud ring involving the claiming of agricultural subsidies for more then 900,000 kilograms of non-existent tobacco. OLAF claims that at least Euro 3 million had been illegally siphoned from EU common agricultural policy budgets in this scam, which has led to 80 individuals being placed under formal judicial investigation by the Italian public prosecutor’s office (Procura della Repubblica) in Perugia, north of Rome.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN ALLIANCE of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden have effectively blocked moves to create a European Public Prosecutor position. The European Commission has dropped draft proposals establishing the post within Eurojust, the European Union’s (EU) network of prosecution agencies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR company able to create integrated digital navigation maps and portable navigation devices should be formed, following the approval of a Dutch merger deal by the European Commission. It has green-lighted the acquisition by the Netherlands’ device manufacturer Tom Tom of co-patriots Tele Atlas, which makes navigable digital maps covering Europe and north America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission yesterday (Tues 20 May) proposed ending a long-established link between paying fibre crop producers’ subsidies and the amount of flax and hemp that they grow. Brussels wants these grants rolled into the EU’s single payment system, where farming subsidies are not governed by harvest levels.…