Search Results for: Netherlands

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ROAD transport has been booming in the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) in 2004. Between 1995 and 2005, traffic volumes increased by 400%, compared to 16% in longer established EU member states such as Britain, a consultants report written for the European Commission has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has banned imports of sunflower oil from Ukraine, because of concerns it could be contaminated with mineral oil. Brussels has been pressing for guarantees that Ukraine sunflower oil is safe since a 40,000 ton batch exported to France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands was found contaminated in April.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN governments have backed reforms to fight tax evasion and fraud. Importantly, the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has informally supported changes to the EU savings tax directive, to close a loophole where private citizens could protect bank account information by transferring money to accounts held by companies established to boost their privacy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DEAL has been struck at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over unbundling of gas (and electricity) networks, which will allow formal ownership of production and distribution operations.

However, this compromise option will insist on transmission systems being managed by an independent operator.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EXPERT scientific report from the European Commission has suddenly made it respectable to talk once again about lifting the European Union (EU) ban on snus, the smokeless tobacco product from Sweden whose sale in other member states has been prohibited by an EU directive since 1992.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the takeover over Denmark baby clothes retailer BabySam by Netherlands-based AAC Capital Partners, and a Danish arm of the Polaris equity fund – Polaris Private Equity.

Regulatory approval will kickstart AAC-Polaris plans to turn BabySam into "the Nordic region’s leading integrated baby retail chain", by transforming "the chain of independent shops by merging 12 existing legal entities," said AAC.…

BY MARK ROWE

NANOMATERIALS, made of miniscule particles much smaller than those generally found in nature, are being developed by many industries as a means of dramatically improving every day products. Yet, as with any scientific development, caution abounds the possible health effects.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

INHALING diesel exhaust impairs the brain’s processing of information according to a study from Zuyd University, the Netherlands. Participants inhaled diesel exhaust similar to that breathed by roadside or garage workers during 30 minutes. Their minds displayed stress responses recorded on an electroencephalograph (EEG) whilst controls breathing clean air registered normal brain activity.…

By Keith Nuthall and Monica Dobie

Universities and colleges are constantly working with business and industry to undertake commercially valuable research. University World News here again features a selection of these cutting edge developments in its business pages.

*The University of Latvia’s Institute of Polymer Mechanics Eureka has helped create construction bricks with domestic waste polymers usually considered too varied or dirty to be recycled.…

By Mark Rowe

NANOMATERIALS, made of miniscule particles much smaller than those generally found in nature, are being developed by many industries as a means of dramatically improving every day products. Yet, as with any scientific development, caution abounds the possible health effects.…