Search Results for: Norwegian

British and Swiss banks have been fined a total of EUR344 million for operating a cartel coordinating their foreign exchange (forex) spot trades of the world’s 11 most important currencies – USD, EUR, GBP, Japanese Yen, Swiss francs; Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars; Danish and Norwegian krone and Swedish Kroner.…

INTRODUCTION

The concept of bespoke tailoring and couture has long been regarded as the apex of clothing and textile making, given that it matches a garment closely to its wearer and intended use. Until now, such personal apparel has inevitably been expensive, given runs are individualised – indeed, bespoke has been the antithesis of mass-produced fast fashion.…

While the estimation of sources of laundered money is made imprecise by its inherent covert nature, the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC) has estimated that the amount of criminal proceeds processed annually is 2%-5% of global GDP, or USD800 billion to USD2 trillion.…

European and US interest in carbon capture and storage/sequestration (CCS) and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) is continuing to surge as governments make ever more ambitious climate change commitments.

In tandem with improvements in technology mean capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted from industrial processes, power generation or directly from the air, and either storing or using it, CCS/CCUS is no longer viewed as a marginal solution with limited applications. …

THE TRANSPORT of edible oils and fats by sea is not just big business – it has become increasingly regulated under international convention and controlled by industry standards, with a view to improving efficiencies and reducing the risk of pollution and contamination.…

Last July (2020), Infracapital, the infrastructure team at UK-based investment managers M&G plc, invested EUR 110 million (USD130 million) in EnergyNest, a small Norwegian company that has developed a novel thermal battery technology. Its ThermalBattery (a trademark) batteries, consisting of a concrete-like storage material made from abundant, recyclable and non-hazardous geomaterials, store excess industrial heat until needed, enabling the transfer of industrial waste heat into electricity and renewable power in industrial heat processes.…

When a terminal extension at Norway’s Oslo Gardermoen Airport was opened in 2017, it became the first airport terminal in the world to achieve a rating of excellent under the international sustainability standard BREEAM.

It has subsequently achieved owner’s Avinor’s design objective of doubling floorspace and passenger capacity while reducing energy consumption by 50% compared with the existing terminal – which already had one of the best energy efficiency records in the world.…

Two cargo vessels in Norway are being built to pioneer the use of hydrogen fuel cells to power engines as the international shipping industry starts to take measures to reduce its carbon footprint.

A consortium in southwest Norway is tapping a combination of European Union (EU) and government funds to design and build two vessels in what has been given the concept name of the Topeka project.…

The paint and coatings industry in Indonesia still has ample room for growth amid booming infrastructure development, although it has had to struggle with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, say officials and industry experts. 

With the property sector being the primary growth driver Indonesian paint and coating sales, the high demand for new housing and the repainting cycle assures the steady demand for paint and coating products, said Mahendra Chahar, senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan.…

The paint and coatings industry in Indonesia still has ample room for growth amid booming infrastructure development, although it has had to struggle with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, say officials and industry experts. 

With the property sector being the primary growth driver Indonesian paint and coating sales, the high demand for new housing and the repainting cycle assures the steady demand for paint and coating products, said Mahendra Chahar, senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan.…

THE NORWEGIAN government has announced plans to ban ships from using or carrying heavy fuel oil (HFO) around the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, over concerns a spill could devastate the region’s fragile environment. Norway’s minister for the climate and environment Sveinung Rotevatn added that a disaster could damage the remote island group’s growing tourism industry.…

International efforts are stepping up to scope and map what it will take to wean chemical manufacturing off its high dependence on oil and gas feedstock for chemicals that are then used to make plastics, fertilisers and other important products.

Options include using building-block raw materials from biomass instead of fossil-fuel feedstock; boosting the yield of chemicals for a given quantity of feedstock; and, applying advanced recovery and recycling technologies in circular economy approaches.…

Offshore oilfield development options enabled by new technologies can boost safety and efficiency even before The possibility off processing moving subsea becomes reality. Indeed, the idea of reducing the number of personnel on board (POB) to conduct operations, maintenance and intervention in the offshore oil and gas industry has been attracting renewed interest since the 2014–2016 oil price slump, and again in the industry fallout from the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.…

AS governments worldwide loosen lockdowns imposed to impede the spread of Covid-19, energy companies are assessing their health and safety policies to ensure workplaces are not new infection hotspots, protecting workers and hence production.

These changes come as energy industries downscale workloads to reflect a collapse in demand for their output.…

In principle, the technology of osmotic power, known widely as ‘blue energy’, has a lot going for it: unlike wind or sunlight, its electricity generating technique of mixing freshwater and saltwater at the mouths of estuaries is constant, with electrically charged salt ions moving from salty seawater to fresh river water.…

Europe’s first large-scale green hydrogen plant moved closer to reality in January (2020) when a proposed electrolysis project in the Netherlands won EUR11 million funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH-JU), a European Commission/industry partnership supporting hydrogen technology innovation.…

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend EUR19 million to Norwegian hydrogen specialist Nel ASA to fund the development in Denmark of large-scale production and distribution of green hydrogen to a Danish fleet of at least 200 hydrogen fuel-cell electric buses.…

A series of reports published in recent weeks have highlighted the need for increased collaboration across the shipping industry to develop and share best practice to significantly reduce the sector’s carbon footprint. Between 2000 and 2017, the CO2 emissions associated with the shipping sector grew at an average annual rate of 1.87% between 2000 and 2017, according to a report published in September by the Bonn-based International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), ‘Navigating the way to a renewable future: solutions to decarbonise shipping’, resulting in emissions of  677 megatonnes (Mt) of CO2 in 2017.…

Estonia, long known for developing its high-tech sector, innovation, and environment-friendly businesses, has seen its plastics sector gaining momentum. It has been expanding export sales, not only to neighbouring Nordic and Baltic countries, but as far east as China.

As regards volumes, regarding primary resins and plastics, 11,807.7 tonnes were produced by Estonian manufacturers this January-August (2019), an increase of 132.8% for the same period in the previous year.…

Described by environmental campaigners as “the elephant in the COP21 negotiations room” when climate change proposals were agreed in Paris during 2015, today – the electrification of shipping is moving ahead apace.

From inland ferries to cargo barges and cruise ships, vessels are being built or retrofitted with renewable power propulsion sources, curbing the shipping industry’s major emissions.…

A WAVE of oil and gas structure decommissioning in the North Sea, a steady continuing flow in the USA’s Gulf of Mexico fields, and a similar longer-term challenge in south-east Asia are concentrating minds on the infrastructure needed to dismantle such equipment safely.…

THE EGYPTIAN economy is still struggling to overcome the problem of low hard currency reserves, a challenge that has negatively affected the local paints and coatings industry due its high dependence on imports.

“There has been a crisis in terms of availability of US dollars to purchase raw materials and most of the raw materials are imported,” said Himanshu Vasisht, project lead for energy and chemicals at India-based market researcher Mordor Intelligence.…

BIG data and its manipulation are not just a boon for the IT sector, the growing sophistication of seismic data collection can give oil and gas companies a real competitive edge.

2019 will be the first full year of operation for Magseis Fairfield (Norway), created through combining two complementary players in marine seismic survey, with big ambitions in ocean-bottom systems for acquiring seismic data.…

THE EUROPEAN Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is preparing to consult on adding perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS) to its list of chemicals of very serious concern and hence potentially subject to special authorisation under the European Union’s (EU) REACH chemical control system. The proposed restriction on this key ingredient of ScotchGard’s carpet and upholstery protective has been developed by the Norwegian government, which has claimed that the chemical may have “probable serious effects to human health” and to the environment.…

REGULATORY and other pressures are behind a recent international surge in construction of electric vessels.

Using battery-electric power instead of traditional fuels such as marine diesel to drive a ship’s propulsion and/or operate its equipment can reduce greenhouse gases and lessen health, safety and environmental risks, particularly when vessels are in or near port.…

SUPPORTERS of the European Union (EU) as a political concept stress how it has the vision, and the money, to promote energy projects of common interest (PCIs) between its (for now) 28 member states. Their goal is to promote an effective continent-wide energy market that offers European citizens more security in their supply of gas, electricity and to a lesser extent oil.…

CONSUMERS in Nordic countries commonly prefer quality environment-friendly products and the paint and coatings sector is no exception.

Denmark is a case in point, being home to major Hempel A/S, which launched its advanced water-based technology range of decorative paints under the Crown Trades brand in January 2017, group president and CEO Henrik Andersen told PPCJ.…

ENVIRONMENTAL enforcement and product safety improvements were top priorities for China National Coatings Industrial Association, president Sun Lian Ying, when addressing her organisation’s annual summit, held in March (2018) in Jiangsu province. The meeting launched a ‘Green Development – Six Actions of China’s Coatings Industry Plan’ for the industry, which included pledges to pledges to reduce pollution in production plants while increasing the industry’s range of environmentally-friendly, highly innovative products.…

THE NORDIC region is associated with cleanliness, environmentalism and healthy living, so maybe it is no big surprise that sales of natural organic personal care products are strengthening in these markets. So engrained is this trend, say experts, colour cosmetics lines are increasingly being developed as natural organic products.…

DEMAND from two key generations is driving resurging sales in the global wallpaper market: Millennials and their quest for a sustainable lifestyle coupled with embracing all things technological, together with the baby-boomer generation’s affection for heritage preservation.

Sales for the past five years have been growing steadily amidst a wealth of promotional material boasting wallpaper’s environment-friendly credentials, a connection to traditional cultural influences or how technological advances can transform a simple wall covering into a dynamic home or workspace.…

When Apple Inc released its iPhone X in November 2017, it took about a week until news broke that Vietnamese security firm Bkav cracked the phone’s revolutionary facial recognition security lock, Face ID, with a composite mask of 3D-printed plastic, silicone, makeup and simple paper cut-outs.…

NORWAY’s key transport hub, Oslo Airport, has almost doubled in size between 2012 and the completion of an expansion project last April (2017), delivering an impressive 43% fewer CO2 emissions despite the growth in facilities.

Taking a holistic approach and reviewing every stage of the now Norwegian Krone NOK14 billion (USD1.4 billion) project for eco-wins, Oslo was the first airport to be awarded an ‘excellent’ rating under the BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) sustainability assessment in 2017, under a scheme administered by the UK-based Building Research Establishment.   …

IF evidence was needed to show that consistent government support for sales of electric cars can create a sustainable market, look no further than Norway, the world’s number one country for sales of e-vehicles in 2016. With a market share of 29% for new cars, the Scandinavian country is a leading light in its transition to zero emission cars, noted the Norwegian Electric Vehicles Association (Norsk elbilforening).…

A new industry roadmap to advance the development of power-to-gas in Europe is just one reason advocates of hydrogen production and storage are optimistic about the next decade. The laying of foundations for larger-scale developments of power-to-gas (P2G) in Europe have gathered momentum throughout 2017, with the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) and the Joint Programme on Energy Storage under the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) laying plans.…

New and updated best practice and guidance are among the tools being deployed to identify and reduce risk amid the rising fatality rate in the global oil and gas industry. Indeed, international oil and gas operators are stepping up their focus on health and safety amidst concern over the rate of fatal accidents rising since 2014.…

With an ever-increasing reliance on technology and global shift towards renewable energy to protect the planet’s resources, the Nordic industrial minerals sector finds itself at something of a crossroads in terms of sustainability.

Home to some of the world’s largest reserves of minerals used in critical technologies, with a profitable future predicted, the industry is being closely monitored by Nordic regulatory authorities to ensure mining is conducted as ethically and sustainably as possible.…

With its rich dairy heritage and reliance on milk-based products in its diet, Norway is slowly opening up trade in its dairy sector, looking to capitalise on demand for dairy-based health and wellness products, both domestically and abroad. The country has traditionally protected its food sector, but the Norwegian dairy sector has a lot of innovative strengths.…

A NEW food trade agreement has been struck between the European Union (EU) and Norway, especially helping EU exporters of meat and dairy products. Norway will open a new 1,600-tonnes quota for EU-made bovine meat and smaller quotas for EU exports of chicken and duck meat, pork, hams and sausages.…

Italian state-controlled oil and gas producer ENI has cemented its role as a major gas player in Mozambique, after further defining in 2017 the scope of its Coral FLNG (floating liquified natural gas) project in this southern African country. However, doubts are emerging that ENI will actually deliver significant volumes of Mozambique’s huge gas reserves to Italy, and consequentially the rest of Europe, as an alternative and more secure source of natural gas.…

The oil and gas industry is reshaping its strategies, practices and values as it responds to global agreements on climate change and sustainable development. The 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – which came into effect in January 2016 – are prominent among global governance challenges driving change in the oil and gas industry, but pressure just keeps building.…

THE PAINT and coatings sector in Egypt is growing, but its progress has been unsteady, reflecting its bumpy political progress since its 2011 revolution that brought down long-standing President Hosni Mubarak. While a construction boom dominated by huge public private partnerships (PPPs) is driving up sales of decorative paint, according to industry analysts, a weak automotive sector is holding back overall growth with slow sales of refinishing paint.…

A new food trade agreement has been struck between the European Union (EU) and Norway. The deal will deliver particularly useful openings for the meat and dairy sectors. Norway will open a new 1,600-tonnes quota for EU-made bovine meat and smaller quotas for EU exports of chicken and duck meat, pork, hams and sausages.…

IMPROVING airport management is often a matter of examining good practice overseas and for airports wanting to improve the time taken to move transfer passengers from one flight to another, their executives might learn from Helsinki Airport.

Finland’s key international airport has the fastest passenger flow in Europe for transfer passengers going on to other European destinations, with a minimum connecting time between flights of just 35 minutes, according to Finavia, the state company that operates Finland’s 21 commercial civilian airports.…

Enhancing the percentage of oil recovered from existing assets is a no-brainer for countries that want to maximise economic gains from their oil reserves.

In an era of apparently ‘lower for longer’ oil prices, it is high up the agenda for oil companies and governments.…

THE NORWEGIAN government has been told to improve its labelling controls for meat products, foodstuffs containing meat and additives used within such products. The European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority has told Norway to tighten its monitoring and traceability systems following an inspection of the country’s meat labelling systems late last year (2016).…

THE MODERATION of growth across sub-Saharan Africa last year to 1.5%, (according to the World Bank), from an average 5-7% per annum in the previous 10 years, may signal that the region needs to firm up its financial professions and institutions to help preserve its recent economic gains.…

THE EUROPEAN chemical industry association Cefic has criticised the European Commission’s criteria for defining endocrine disrupting (hormone affecting) chemicals, saying resulting guidance could over-regulate harmless chemicals. “For the industry to ensure that people and the environment are properly protected, it is essential that the criteria enable the identification of harmful substances.…

THE PAINT mixing segment is a competitive world with companies constantly seeking a technological edge to generate additional sales. Of course, the segment is diverse – spanning the development of mixers helping paint and coating companies make their products, and aiding users to apply these lines.…

THE PARIS conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last December, of COP21, made a commitment to create a carbon-neutral world between 2050 and 2100. This means that governments and international organisations must devise policies to ensure the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity equals the amount that that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally preventing the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere.…

Branded food manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result.…

Scandinavia’s colour cosmetic sector is poised to grow between 2016 and 2019 after two years of slumping sales, with Sweden being the stronger national market, according to UK-based market intelligence firm Mintel.

Even Sweden has had a bumpy ride, however: in 2013, Sweden’s SEK41.12 million (USD4.78 million – at current exchange rates) colour cosmetics market up from SEK35.9 million (USD4.18 million).…

Russia’s decision to extend its import ban on a wide range of European Union (EU), US, Canadian, Australian and Norwegian food exports until December 31, 2017 has met with widespread disapproval from the EU meat industry. “Overall I can say we are very disappointed,” EU farm body Copa & Cogeca spokesperson Amanda Cheesley told GlobalMeatNews.…

NORWAY could face pressure to lower its meat import tariffs should it seek a trade agreement with the US to compete with the planned European Union (EU)-USA Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), experts say. Norway remains outside the 28-country EU and hence is not part of TTIP negotiations, but the deal could impact Norway’s trade in many ways, Hege Medin, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) senior research fellow told GlobalMeatNews.…

THE ARAB Spring has certainly been a mixed blessing for North Africa, with political instability as common as progress towards democratisation, and the region’s paint sector has not been insulated from these changes. Sales have swung up and down, with North Africa’s economies performing unevenly as the Arab Spring’s political changes shake out.…

The plastics industry has declared itself to be overwhelmingly against the idea of the UK leaving the European Union (EU), with the importance of the regulatory frameworks seen as the most important reason to preserve British membership.

With the UK referendum looming on June 23, discussion about regulatory issues – particularly the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) rules – has come to the fore.…

Rising affluence, together with growth across feeder industries are translating into solid results for the Indonesian coatings sector. The paints and varnishes market in the country generated sales of Indonesian Rupiah IDR24,733 billion (USD1.9 billion) in 2014 according to the latest data available from market researcher Euromonitor International.…

Uncertainty is growing within industry associations influencing the non-ferrous metals industry over the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union (EU) after a scheduled in-out referendum on June 23.

René van Sloten, executive director of industrial policy at The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), representing key suppliers to metal manufacturers, said: “If the result…is indeed that Britain would leave the EU, this would significantly impact on the way it trades with other European countries.…

The opening of newly elected Myanmar parliament on February 1 will herald a month of great change for the country, leading to a new government being installed, probably in March, with potentially major consequences for the country’s textile sector.

This change of regime could inspire a set of major new investments across many industries, potentially transforming Myanmar’s textile production sector from a homegrown relic into a competitive industrial player.…

The European Union’s (EU) Energy Roadmap 2050 project is certainly ambitious – looking to decarbonise Europe’s energy sector – and it anticipates that carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will play an important role. Yet, it is clear that this technology is far from ubiquitous and significant efforts will be required to enable CCS to play a key part in Europe’s CCS future.…

NORWAY’S position as a leading market for electric vehicles (EV) has almost certainly been solidified by the European regulatory approval given to its government for removing 25% sales tax from sales of EVs.
This green light has come from the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Surveillance Authority – which acts as a watchdog ensuring some EFTA countries, such as Norway, comply with European Union (EU) law.…

The Norwegian government’s Healthier Food Choices campaign has shifted focus to reducing the saturated fat content in meat and dairy products. The new drive is connected to an anti-obesity project run by the ministry of health (MoH), and will involve round-table talks in the third quarter of 2015 with core industry players operating in the production, processing and product sale segments of the food market in Norway.…

Norway meat processing major Nortura has secured a special licence to use an alternative slaughtering method in the supply of halal meat to the Norwegian marketplace. The former method involved cutting an animal’s throat following a Muslim blessing, while under the new method, animals at Nortura’s halal factories will be anesthetised before slaughter.…

EXPORTERS of liquid milk and associated products to the European Union (EU) will have to work harder to secure sales in future from April 1, with the EU finally scrapping its production quotas from that date. They may also have to fend off new tough competition from EU exporters in their domestic markets.…

Increased demand for fire-retardant paints and coatings, and tighter regulations around the use of certain flame-retardant chemicals, is leading to a growing range of innovations in this sector. A wide range of such developments is emerging in the USA in particular, although European research is also ongoing.…

Negative media publicity surrounding infections in poultry flocks and farming practices in Norway has sparked resulted in a 15% to 20% drop in domestic chicken meat sales in the last six months, to mid-February.
The decline is now a major source of concern for the country’s poultry industry, which has countered the fall in sales by launching new multi-channel marketing campaigns.…

Cross-contamination of meats has become a major problem in Norway as more producers and slaughterhouses add halal production lines to their operations to satisfy growing demand for halal meat among the country’s increasing Muslim population.
The meat industry is assessing the problem following high profile cases where pork was detected in halal beef products sold in supermarkets and specialised meat outlets in Norway since mid- January.…

The challenge of maintaining the integrity and efficient operation of remote oil and gas pipelines under deep water will become more taxing in future. And their potential failure will cost companies more in commercial losses and in regulatory penalties, according to industry experts.…

THE NORWEGIAN Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) has issued a notice of censure regarding deficient hygiene standards at a meat plant run by major Norway meat processor Nortura.

Its Gilde plant facilities, in Steinkjer, were spotlighted following a site visit by health and safety inspectors.…

NORWAY’S ministry of agriculture and food has established a working group that will examine the advantages for both producers and consumers of replacing the traditional method of surgical castration system for pigs with a vaccine based alternative.

Preliminary research conducted in Norway for the ministry and the national meat industry association Kjøttbransjens Landsforening (KLF) contends that the vaccine method offers a comparative, if not superior solution to combating boar taint and delivering high quality meat.…

AROUND 140 billion cubic metres of associated natural gas from oil production is still burned off annually, according to World Bank analysis of satellite images from the United States’ (US) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Flares light up the night sky in regions such as the Arabian Desert and America’s Bakken formation in North Dakota, where shale oil production is booming.…

Norway’s ministry of agriculture and food has included poultry products in its investigation of meat production and retail prices following fresh data indicating a sharp 7.1% price rise, despite an over-supply situation, in retail chicken prices between March and August.

The report by the from the country’s directorate of agriculture, which advises the ministry on industry competition and agricultural policy matters, takes place while consumer organisations lobby government to introduce stricter fair trade practices and rules to stimulate retail price competition.…

The Norwegian government will decide in October whether or not to adopt new measures to require meat manufacturers and retailers to be more transparent regarding their base production costs and pricing systems. In late August, the government called in meat and other grocery sector organisations to explain the sharp rise in the retail cost of red and white meat products.…

DENMARK’S Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries (MFAF) has ordered food authorities, including the country’s food product agency Fødevarestyrelsen and Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA) to deliver a joint report by September 1 that details the root causes and implications of the outbreak of listeria in Denmark which has claimed 12 lives since August 2013.  …

MATTILSYNET, Norway’s food safety authority, has ordered the destruction of a pig-herd in Vestre Toten, in western Norway, following the discovery of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) in the herd. The farm owner, Simen Kolstad, was instructed to destroy all 600 pigs by July 20.…

A detailed memorandum of understanding has been signed by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the Bangladesh government, aimed at improving safety standards in the south Asian country’s shipbreaking sector.

While scrapping 8.8 million tonnes of materials – mostly steel – annually for re-use, this Bangladeshi industry has been criticised to failing to impose effective safety and environmental standards, with chemicals spilling onto beaches, sometimes harming workers.…

The Nordic paints and coating market is competitive and growing, being dominated by a handful of strong players headed by Tikkurila and Teknos in Finland and Jotun in Norway. In Dyrup, the region could boast a fourth major local player, although American corporation PPG Industries paid the Danish firm’s parent, Monberg & Thorsen, EUR115 million for the company in 2011.…

NORWAY may have suspended military cooperation with its neighbour Russia over the Ukraine crisis, but it seems less keen to mothball its coordination on energy policy, notably in the high Arctic.

Norwegian and Russian energy companies have long been eyeing the potential hydrocarbon resources in the Barents Sea to the north of the Russo-Norwegian border, and both sides want to exploit them without causing major environmental problems.…

NORWAY’S meat and poultry industry federation meat (KLF – Kjøtt- og fjørfebransjens Landsforbund) has requested urgent talks with the country’s ministry of agriculture amid fears that the government’s present policy to charge full duty on imported meat may provoke a beef shortage in Norway.…

LONG-TERM support for the wave and tidal energy industries has been announced by the European Commission, which this spring said it intended to support “the rapid development of key ocean energy technologies at the European level”.

European Union (EU) energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said: “Ocean energy has a significant potential to enhance the security of supply”, adding that “a wide portfolio of renewable energy sources -including ocean energy” was necessary if non fossil fuels were to become “mainstream and integrated into the European energy system.”…

AUSTRIA

The location of ECC Austria in central Vienna means many consumers drop by to receive advice or lodge complaints in person with the ECC’s five staff members. A top priority in 2013 was increasing public awareness about e-commerce fraud; a brochure aimed at combatting the problem was published and more than 600,000 were distributed throughout Austria.…

SHALE gas has been inadvertently discovered by Norwegian researchers on the remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The discovery, in the northernmost part of Norway, has prompted a debate over whether this could be an important addition to the world’s ever-increasing supplies of shale.…

WITH the deadline for the UNESCO Education for All goals now just two years away, a consensus is emerging that post-2015 global efforts to expand education should focus on the tertiary sector. That was the outcome of an Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda seminar staged on Wednesday (January 5) in Brussels that brought together educational experts and policy makers, hosted by the Norwegian government.…

THE SIGHT of wind turbines in an offshore oilfield is nothing new. Operators in the Gulf of Mexico have for years used small wind turbines on oil and gas installations to power SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) computerised systems to keep fields operating.…

THE NEWLY installed centre-right Norwegian government has stressed its determination to reduce or abolish controversial tariffs on meat imports from the European Union (EU), despite vocal opposition.

Having replaced the protectionist former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s socialist administration last month (October), the new Høyre (the Conservative Party of Norway) and Fremskrittspartiet (the Progress Party) government has said it wants to improve trade relations with the EU.…

NORWEGIAN researchers have told Industrial Minerals how they welcome a Euro 6 million grant has been approved by the European Commission to help them develop new technology to recover rare earth elements from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and iron ore tailings.…

International and major domestic food companies who want a share of India’s fast growing branded food consumer markets have one major difficulty especially – dealing with the country’s underdeveloped and fragmented distribution networks.

These are especially complex given India’s cultural diversity.…

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has declared that Norway’s anti-BSE controls are sufficiently robust to be considered as effective as those in the European Union (EU).

Norway remains outside the EU, and although it implements many EU rules as part of the European Economic Area (EEA), it has complete independence over food production matters, and difference in regulation can restrict its access to EU meat markets.…

EASTERN European textile and clothing companies used to have a cost advantage in serving wealthy western European markets, but that has long been eclipsed by Asian competition – added value technical textiles may offer them a sustainable future.

In Poland’s hard-pressed textile industry, its fast-growing technical branch may constitute the future of the national industry, experts in the country’s industry say.…

AT a time when the world seems increasingly led by lifelong politicians, it is perhaps refreshing to hear from a political leader who has a solid background in business, and such is former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Speaking to Accountancy Futures, he showed how more than half-a-century of business and public life can be brought to bear in financial and commercial mentorship.…

NORWAY is on course to become the latest European country to roll-out full body scanners at its airports, following a ministry of transport and communications decision, authorising the country’s airports to purchase and employ 360 degree full body scan technologies and equipment.…

IT is a long way to the UK from the German terminus of the Russian-dominated Nord Stream gas pipeline – but major energy companies are seriously considering building a fixed link to Britain. BP has been in talks with Gazprom, the UK and the Russian government.…

THE BRITISH government is creating a unique regime of energy price incentives to spur commercialisation of carbon capture and storage systems, yet significant barriers remain to unlocking the billions of Pounds Sterling needed to build a CCS industry of sufficient mass in the UK able to create economies of scale for investors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission, once a keen promoter of biofuels, has now reined in its enthusiasm, admitting that biofuels can emit as much carbon as fossil fuels, proposing reforms encouraging the production of secondary biofuels based on waste matter and algae.…

BY KITTY SO

MEMBERS of the European Parliament have accused Norway of illicitly protecting its meat sector under the guise of reforming its tariffs system. Members of the EP’s committee on international trade said Oslo was increasing tariffs when shifting them from set values per amount of meat to percentage value ‘ad valorem’ tariffs.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

A PILOT project of the World Bank’s private sector agency the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has kindled hope that Bangladesh’s burgeoning knitwear and garments industry could overcome its notorious environmental pollution problems at an affordable price. However, replicating the pilot’s innovative strategies across the industry in the country will not be easy: struggling with the challenges of sourcing environment friendly finance; securing power availability amidst irregular supplies; operating effective effluent treatment plants; and dealing with a lack of awareness amongst entrepreneurs.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE the global recession, and volatility in the dairy market as a whole, the international butter industry is anticipating long-term growth. Used as a spread, a condiment, or as an important ingredient in baking and cooking, demand for butter has been a significant constant in the global food industry.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

A PILOT project of the World Bank’s private sector agency the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has kindled hope that Bangladesh’s burgeoning knitwear and garments industry could overcome its notorious environmental pollution problems at an affordable price. However, replicating the pilot’s innovative strategies across the industry in the country will not be easy: struggling with the challenges of sourcing environment friendly finance; securing power availability amidst irregular supplies; operating effective effluent treatment plants; and dealing with a lack of awareness amongst entrepreneurs.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN RIO DE JANEIRO

AGRICULTURE ministers worldwide are digesting the details of the agreement struck at the United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which stressed the need for livestock production systems to be more sustainable.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

AS global demand continues to grow for oil and gas, and energy prices increase – with companies drilling deeper; sending oil rigs out further out to sea; and exploring new regions with extreme climates – industry coatings are undergoing much development and innovation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend Norwegian airport operator Avinor up to Euro EUR300 million to help finance the first phase of a planned extension of Oslo Airport. This involves expanding the existing terminal with a new pier, building additional departure and arrival areas, plus new baggage handling facilities.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the European Commission’s recent flurry of recalibrated environmental targets aiming to cut emissions in the European Union (EU) transport system by 50% by 2050 (34% in the aviation industry) – airports along with air navigation services will have a significant role to play.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POTENTIALLY valuable natural gas market of Norway has been opened partly for non-Norwegian utilities by legal pressure from the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority. It had threatened to take oil and gas-rich Norway to the EFTA Court over rules that not only prevented foreign gas companies operating in the country, but blocked their third party access to existing pipelines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EU food producers organisation COPA-COGECA has welcomed the likely accession of Russia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), following a weekend deal over membership struck with Georgia over the weekend. This was the last key obstacle preventing Russia joining the WTO, hopefully at a Geneva ministerial meeting, December 15-17.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

NATIONALISM and the energy industry have made uneasy bedfellows throughout history, yet Scotland is attracting substantial international investment in renewables despite having, since May and for the first time, a majority government committed to winning independence from the UK.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

DESPITE the political unrest that has plagued Thailand this year and in 2009, and 2010; the country’s economy has stayed reasonably strong. Key players in the paint and coatings market have responded, expanding their product range.

According to Chroong Kanjchanapoomi, managing director of Netherlands-based paint and coatings giant AkzoNobel Thailand, the growth of the Thai paint industry has closely tracked that of the country’s GDP, increasing as the economy grows – indicating the importance of the domestic market in this middle-income south east Asian country.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, LEE ADENDORFF, MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN, MINDY RAN, GERARD O’DWYER and MARTINA MARECKOVA

FOR an industry that generates energy, heat and maybe cooling, the European cogeneration sector has been operating on a decidedly low output in recent years.…

BY MARGUERITE-JEANNE DESCHAMPS, MINI PANT ZACHARIAH and WANG FANGQING

All over the world, when, where and what kind of alcohol consumers can purchase varies between each country’s national – and, occasionally, regional – laws. One would understand if alcoholic beverage manufacturers would prefer operating in markets where retailers are free to sell alcohol, versus those were a limited number of agents can make sales.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONSULTANTS report for the European Commission on the impact of biofuel expansion has warned that a reliance on bioethanol could damage the European Union’s (EU) fossil fuels security of supply.

Written by experts from Wood Mackenzie, Ricardo and Celeres, the paper – just released by Brussels – says that with bioethanol sources focused on Brazil and a few other countries, "there is a risk of a high degree of reliance on few sources of ethanol supply."…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

ENVIRONMENTAL concerns and the health hazards faced by the workers engaged in the ship and tanker breaking industry of Bangladesh have forced its government to reform controls of this most dangerous service. Dhaka has made administrative changes and proposed a new law that could force the international oil companies to share the costs of cleaning up the chemical and other waste left by this beach-based industry.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA’S multi-billion dollar ‘2G’ scam is a startling example of extreme arbitrariness and blatant disregard to rules during a tendering process to make illicit money. Raghavendra Verma in New Delhi explains how the manipulation in the government’s distribution of mobile telephony frequency became the country’s biggest ever financial scandal.…

BY ZLATKO ?ONKA?

IF one European country exists that demonstrates the need for the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD), it is surely Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH), whose political and economic recovery from war has been halting. The EBRD has worked with the Bosnian government and its Serb and Bosniak/Croat sub-national entities for 15 years and its latest project could be the jewel in the crown of this cooperation – the revamping of Sarajevo International Airport.…

BY MARK GODFREY

CHINA’S shipbuilders are clearly on a roll, the nation having surpassed South Korea and Japan to become the world’s top builder of vessels – and specialist maritime coating manufacturers are taking notice. Data from maritime consultancy UK-based Clarkson Research Services Ltd shows spending on new vessels in 2010 saw a year-on-year increase of 106%.…

BY SAMI HALABI

BEFORE the county’s 1975-90 civil war Lebanon was an oil transit nation, with pipelines running through its territory from Saudi Arabia, and export terminals on its shores. Today, the country cannot even produce the electricity it needs to power its cities and is completely dependent on imports of oil and gas for energy.…

BY MARK ROWE

NANOTECHNOLOGY is playing an increasing part in the European Union’s (EU) ambitious binding EU-wide target to source 20% of energy needs from renewables, including biomass, hydro, wind and solar power, by 2020. The principle applied in other industries – that materials, elements and components exhibit different, often highly energy-efficient properties at the nanoscale – has sparked widespread interest within the energy field.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE ALUMINIUM industry is gearing up for a tough road ahead just as the European Union (EU) has raised an emissions cap from 1.9 billion tonnes to just over 2 billion to make way for aluminium sectors and other industries which will come under Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2013.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has hailed as a success an initiative to use global expertise to clean up Bangladesh’s notoriously dirty wet textile processing units. The IFC claims it has helped install new cleaner and efficient production equipment in 12 factories thus far, reducing water consumption by annual 75 million litres and saving US dollars USD1million in operating costs.…

BY ALEX PESHKOV

A SPECIAL tanker built to haul radioactive waste from Andreyeva Bay, Russia’s Northern Fleet largest storage facility, will be launched at an Italian shipyard this month (November), Russian officials have told World Nuclear News. Russia hopes to completely clean up Andreyeva Bay, on the Kola Peninsular, near the Norwegian border, Europe’s largest radioactive waste burial ground, by 2020.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NORWEGIAN company dominating European markets for high-end automatic can and bottle recovery machines for recycling programmes has failed to persuade European judges to reduce or annul a Euro 24 million fine. The Tomra group was penalised by the European Commission in 2006 for illegally pushing competitors out of the market for its equipment in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Norway from 1998 to 2002.…

BY MINI ZACHARIAH

MTR Foods, one of the top five processed foods manufacturers in India, owned by Norwegian conglomerate Orkla, aims to double turnover to Indian Rupees INR5 billion (US dollars USD106 million) by 2012 by focusing on its core business of spices and masalas, instant mixes and vermicelli.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE KINGDOM of Saudi Arabia’s USD$1 billion paint sector market is projected to return to double-digit growth this year on the back of massive government spending, following static growth in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis.…

BY MARK ROWE and GERARD O’DWYER

CONCERNS over climate change often refer to the potential thawing of the Arctic permafrost, where large-scale releases of methane could significantly accelerate global warming. Yet at the same time, governments and energy companies are weighing up the potentially lucrative reserves of methane lying below the permafrost that covers the Siberian continental shelf, and extends up to 1,000 kilometres into the Arctic Ocean.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

IF there is one region where high standards in fighting money laundering and terrorist finance are expected, it is surely the five Nordic states: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Notwithstanding the criticism leveled at Iceland’s financial regulators during the credit crunch, all five countries have admirable traditions of public openness, government efficiency and international cooperation, especially amongst themselves.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

RIGA International Airport, located 13 km from the bustling Latvian capital is on the brink of undergoing major infrastructure changes. Its profile is high given it won the best airport in Scandinavia and the Baltic region at the prestigious 2009 OAG [Official Airline Guide] -Routes Airport Marketing Awards, beating the competition in richer countries such as Sweden and Denmark.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

KASTRUP airport (KKA) in Copenhagen is a Nordic airport with ambition: not only is it strengthening its position as the Scandinavian hub for regional and international traffic, it is also focusing on capital projects to become the leading Nordic destination for European low fares airlines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH a new European Commission in office, major decisions can now be made on pushing ahead with European Union (EU) energy policy priorities: Brussels has released a Euro 4 billion package of 31 gas infrastructure (and 12 electricity) projects.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

NORDIC governments are pushing ahead with energy-centered reforms to build a significantly larger regional market for the production and sale of biofuels. All these neighbouring countres are expected to follow Sweden’s lead and implement policies to eliminate fossil fuel dependence by 2030, Sigbjørn Johnsen (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT), Norway’s finance minister, said in an address to the country’s Storting (parliament) on December 14.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

FOR those seduced by the idea that Nordic countries are full of healthy statuesque blond super-beings eating perfect diets and exercising regularly, it may come as something of a surprise to learn that obesity is on the rise in the region.…

BY MARK GODFREY

COMMUNIST Party cadres from around China are being bussed out to Asuwei landfill in Beijing’s Changping suburb to view a showcase for how China wants to manage waste in the future. As China urbanises, its solid waste output has been climbing by 9% a year, said Rasmus Reinvag, co-author of a recent China environmental sector report by the WWF conservation group and Norwegian-government owned development group Innovation Norway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has asked to approve new revised fishing quotas affecting British fleets following talks on the management of north Atlantic stocks. These have involved officials from the EU, Norway, Russia, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has now approved revised fishing quotas affecting British fleets, include the right to catch 181,694 tonnes of mackerel from the Atlantic off the UK, Ireland, Norway, the Faroes, Greenland and international mid-Atlantic waters; 16,276 tonnes of horse mackerel from the same zones (except Norwegian seas); and 9,410 tonnes of cod off Norway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) RASFF food safety alert system has warned of two separate seizures by Norwegian customs of American almond exports because they contained an unauthorised food additive propylene oxide. Meanwhile French authorities have seized aflatoxin-tainted dried figs from Turkey.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY is ramping up car safety inspections as part of its bid to join the European Union (EU). Last year, Turkey hired a consortium made up of a German inspection firm TUV-Sud; Turkish car importer and distributor Dogus Automotive; and Akfen, a Turkish construction company, to independently inspect motor vehicles.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE AIRPORTS of Norway and Iceland are well suited to dealing with the impact of border-free travel with each other and many member states of the European Union (EU), having joined the EU’s frontierless Schengen-zone in 1999, abolished all border checks for travel to member countries in December 2001.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PRINCIPLE of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is of course well established amongst energy suppliers: polluting industries, such as coal, would be able to continue to burn fossil fuels, but carbon dioxide, rather than being expelled into the atmosphere, would be harvested in the energy production cycle and securely locked away.…

BY MARK ROWE and SUZANNE KOELEGA

THE ISSUE of decommissioning rigs is an increasingly pressing one. According to consultants Wood Mackenzie up to half of the North Sea’s 600 installations – first installed nearly 40 years ago – are scheduled for decommissioning by 2021, while more than 4,000 are scheduled for removal worldwide.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE COSMETICS markets in Scandinavia, as elsewhere in the developed world, face an uncertain 2009. Iceland’s economic crisis is well documented but the few surviving local producers are presenting a determined face to the challenges they face. On the other hand, the markets of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark look likely to slow after healthy growth in 2008 (this growth almost universally excluded sunscreens, on account of the wet summer of 2008), but also to escape the worst of the problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FIRST major effort to limit the overexploitation of western and central Pacific yellowfin and bigeye tuna stocks has been made. The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) has approved a 30% reduction over three years of bigeye tuna catches and also a two month ban on floating platforms used to attract both species, which will be extended to three months in 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONTROLLED opening of Arctic fisheries made more accessible because of the steady retreat of polar ice through climate change has been called for in a European Commission policy paper.

It wants "a regulatory framework for [those] Arctic high seas not yet covered by an international conservation and management regime before new fishing opportunities arise," saying no fisheries should be opened for any country until such controls are established.…

BY IRINA PRENTICE

WHILE finding accurate statistics about the Libya industry is as easy as finding your way around the country’s vast deserts without a map, it is undeniable that this is a growing paint and coating market: the country is in full economic development which includes construction, boosting demand for coatings of all kinds.…

BY MUNZA MUSHTAQ

DOING business in a country wracked by civil war is never easy, and involves extra cost, but with care and good management, oil and gas companies can still turn profits in such circumstances. Sri Lanka is a good case in point: multinationals Shell, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Chevron Lubricants are trading successfully in this country, even as its government’s armed conflict with Tamil Tiger separatists reaches an expected military climax.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE RUSSIAN fishing fleet is to undergo the greatest restructuring of the industry since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Under the plans, which were approved by the Russian parliament – or Duma – this summer, a new, unifying state fishery corporation will have centralised control for all activities related to the industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A FUND managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) has agreed to grant aid Euro 70 million four projects cleaning up nuclear contamination in north-west Russia.

As manager of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) Support Fund, the EBRD signed the funding agreements with Rosatom, the Russian State Corporation for Atomic Energy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NORWAY is being threatened with legal action at the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court over alleged discriminatory taxation of imported non-refillable beverage packaging. Under Norway’s membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), it cannot tax products made in other EEA states [the European Union and EFTA, minus Switzerland] differently from Norwegian products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has sought to head off possible fuel price rises across Scandinavia by opening a detailed inquiry into a planned takeover in the region’s petrol station sector. Brussels fears the planned takeover of the Jet chain from America’s ConocoPhillips by Norwegian oil giant StatoilHydro, could limit petrol and diesel retail competition in Norway and Sweden.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH hauliers are still at risk when driving though long road tunnels on the continent, with European governments failing to introduce officially recommended safety designs and equipment.

So concludes the latest European Union (EU)-supported European Tunnel Assessment Programme (EuroTAP) safety probe.…

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA’S new-found belligerence and confidence is not confined to the political and military sphere: in recent years Russia has adopted an aggressive, take-it-or-leave it stance when it comes to fish, seafood and other food products.

The country has imposed a number of bans on fish products from its European neighbours, including salmon and other fresh fish from Norway, fishmeal, frozen fish and canned smoked sprats from Poland and a range of fish products from Latvia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NORWEGIAN authorities are seeking to contain two outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus that has been reported amongst farmed rainbow trout in western coastal Fjordland by the Aquatic Animals Commission – (of the Office International des Épizooties – OIE).…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A FREEZING cave in the Arctic town of Longyearbyen on the Norwegian island of Svalbard has been converted into a high-tech bunker containing millions of seed samples, collected and stored to preserve biodiversity.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will house 4.5 million samples of the 7,000 plant species used in human diets throughout history, including important crops such as wheat, barley and beans.…

BY LARS RUGAARD, in Copenhagen

REPUTEDLY immense riches looming below the glaciated surface of the Arctic Ocean have come within human reach because climate change is gradually thawing the world’s previously frozen-stiff polar regions. But this consequence of a milder physical climate has provoked tension between the countries with an Arctic Ocean, creating echoes of the long defunct cold war, and indicating a long and tough legal and political fight for what could be an important addition to the Earth’s undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UNANIMOUS agreement has been secured at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over a recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Amidst widespread concern about overfishing and low stock levels, ministers have written into EU law, stock management policies for eastern bluefin tuna recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has tabled a string of revised quotas impacting on British fisherman, to bring European Union (EU) catch limits in line with political deals agreed earlier this year. These include agreements with Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands and a deal struck at the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC).…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa, and KEITH NUTHALL

IT would almost be hard for Canada not to be one of the seafood industry’s largest global players. After all, surrounded by the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Great Lakes as well, Canada has the world’s longest coastline (244,000 km).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IDEA that lipsuctioned fat can be processed and turned into useful adult stem cells, able to mutate and regenerate damaged skin, muscle and sinew, is gathering support, with a Norwegian team claiming chemical markers present in cells can identify those with healing properties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to swiftly approve a range of amended quotas affecting UK fishing fleets, covering haddock and herring in the north east Atlantic, as well as some smaller deep sea catches. Following a deal negotiated in January between the EU, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway and Russia on fishing Atlanto-Scandian (Norwegian spring-spawning) herring stock in the north-east Atlantic, European Commission officials have drawn up fresh quotas, to replace those agreed late last year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have ordered a freeze on catches of round-nose grenadier in the North Sea, including in Norwegian waters, saying catches in 2005-6 should match average annual catches in 1996-2003. It is one of a number of conservation-minded measures recently ordered by the EU Council of Ministers, one being a ban on catching and landing white sharks and basking sharks in any EU waters, the ban applying to non-EU and EU-flagged fleets.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels, and KEITH NUTHALL

1. The Commission is a keen supporter of creating increased gas storage capacities. But who should pay for developing these facilities?

The Commission believes that investment in storage should be left to the market, and the costs allocated through market forces.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FISH farmers in southern Chile are being offered space technology to protect themselves from Harmful Algal Blooms that swarm off the country’s southern coasts, costing the region’s 360 fish farms millions of dollars in lost stocks. The blooms not only poison healthy seawater, they suck in oxygen, asphyxiating caged fish that cannot escape.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

WITH the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the midst of an unprecedented construction boom, the paint sector is flourishing with contracts of up to half a million dollars underway, 200% growth in fire-resistance paints, and over 16% growth predicted for the sector as a whole this year.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

FISH farmers in southern Chile are being offered space technology to protect themselves from Harmful Algal Blooms that swarm off the country’s southern coasts, costing the region’s 360 fish farms millions of dollars in lost stocks. The blooms not only poison healthy seawater, they suck in oxygen, asphyxiating caged fish that cannot escape.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA has sent another threat to Europe over gas supplies, undermining its reputation as a potential reliable energy partner for its western neighbours. Semyon Vainshtok, the president of Russia pipeline monopoly Transneft has told the daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Russia has "overfed Europe with crude".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NORWAY has unveiled the arguments it will use at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) when claiming that the European Union’s (EU) new anti-dumping regime on farmed Norwegian salmon breaks the WTO’s Anti-Dumping Agreement. Oslo is claiming that Brussels has broken four of this WTO agreement’s articles by imposing duties on farmed salmon as a single product, "whether or not the farmed salmon consists of whole fish or filleted portions of varying sizes and form".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NORWAY has unveiled the arguments it will use at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) when claiming that the European Union’s (EU) new anti-dumping regime on farmed Norwegian salmon breaks the WTO’s Anti-Dumping Agreement. Oslo is claiming that Brussels has broken four of this WTO agreement’s articles by imposing duties on farmed salmon as a single product, "whether or not the farmed salmon consists of whole fish or filleted portions of varying sizes and form".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA has sent another threat to Europe over gas supplies, undermining its reputation as a potential reliable energy partner for its western neighbours. Semyon Vainshtok, the president of Russia pipeline monopoly Transneft has told the daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Russia has "overfed Europe with crude".…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition by Australia-based explosives and detonators business Orica Ltd of non-North American and Australian business owned by Norwegian competitor Dyno Nobel ASA. The positive ruling under Brussels’ competition regulation powers follows Orica’s pledge to sell subsidiary Orica Scandinavia Mining Services, which runs explosives services in Norway and Sweden.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

FROM the scorching heat of Kenya’s northern border with the Sudan to the unforgiving conditions of Afghanistan, International Red Cross nurse Jenny Hayward-Karlsson has seen it all during a varied and challenging 20-year career working in the world’s war zones.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

AFRICA’S tobacco leaf producers are facing troubled times.

Instead of capitalising on crop and currency woes in rival Brazil, too many producers across the world’s poorest continent are battling drought and low selling prices.

Brazil’s problems should have opened a door of opportunity for leading African producers to claim back at least part of the world leaf market lost to south American and other producers when Zimbabwe’s crop collapsed amid the violent seizure of white-owned farm land.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NORWAY government is to launch a disputes case at the WTO over the EU’s decision to impose a minimum price of Euro 2.8 per kilogram of fresh and frozen Norwegian salmon exported to EU member states.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NORWAY government is to launch a disputes case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over the European Union’s (EU) decision to impose a minimum price of Euro 2.8 per kilogram of fresh and frozen Norwegian salmon exported to the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW EFSA BOSS BUDGET ROW – LATEST ADVICE

THE FRENCHWOMAN appointed to take the vacant top executive director job at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will need all her political skills to solve a potential budget crisis facing the agency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has made permanent the temporary minimum import price imposed last July on imports into the EU of Norwegian farmed salmon, albeit reducing the price from Euro 2.81/kilo to Euro 2.80. The move, which replaces an often complicated anti-dumping regime, is "to stabilise the EU market and preserve the interests of all parties concerned," said a council note, adding it "also aimed at maintaining and creating employment in the EU’s salmon industry".…

BY KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

A YEAR after the Boxing Day tsunami, the four badly affected universities in Sri Lanka’s north, south and east are boxing on, with a bare minimum of repairs and reconstruction for want of funds. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had estimated the damage to the buildings and hostels at Ruhunu, South Eastern, Jaffna and Eastern universities to be SL Rupees 72 million (Pounds 387,000 at local prices), but its Chairman Professor Ranjith Mendis regretted that "the government and foreign donors had not been able" to find these sums.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THAT criminals abuse the insurance industry is nothing new for a sector routinely screening claims for hints of fraud. However, its managers have proved far less alert to the risk of it being exploited by money launderers and terrorist financers, a new detailed report has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORWAY and the European Commission have struck a deal preventing the selling of Norwegian salmon at dumped cheap prices on EU markets. Norway has agreed a minimum import price, sparking the lifting of protective safeguard duties by Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NORWAY has unveiled the arguments it will use at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) when claiming that the European Union’s (EU) new anti-dumping regime on farmed Norwegian salmon breaks the WTO’s Anti-Dumping Agreement. Oslo is claiming that Brussels has broken four of this WTO agreement’s articles by imposing duties on farmed salmon as a single product, “whether or not the farmed salmon consists of whole fish or filleted portions of varying sizes and form”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORWAY’S alcohol advertising ban has been undermined by a European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court ruling, which says that the Norwegian Alcohol Act illegally breaks trade freedom rules of the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement. The act could be justified only, said the ruling, “where the protection of public health against the harmful effects of alcohol can be secured by measures having less effect on intra-EEA trade”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORWEGIAN company car fleets wanting to import second-hand cars should not have to pay a special tax not applied when buying used cars within Norway, the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority has claimed. It is threatening Norway with legal action on grounds of illegal discrimination if it does not scrap the tax.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORWAY’S alcohol advertising ban has been undermined by a European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court ruling, which says that the Norwegian Alcohol Act breaks trade freedom rules of the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement. The act could be justified only, said the ruling, “where the protection of public health against the harmful effects of alcohol can be secured by measures having less effect on intra-EEA trade”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHILE discussions continue over how to ensure the security of energy supplies to the European Union (EU), Brussels institutions are sinking money into one sure bet, eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), for instance, is lending US$170 million to SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, to fund two Caspian gas projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA has sent another threat to Europe over gas supplies, undermining its reputation as a potential reliable energy partner for its western neighbours. Semyon Vainshtok, the president of Russia pipeline monopoly Transneft has told the daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Russia has "overfed Europe with crude".…

BY KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

A YEAR after the Boxing Day tsunami, the four badly affected universities in Sri Lanka’s north, south and east are boxing on, with a bare minimum of repairs and reconstruction for want of funds. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had estimated the damage to the buildings and hostels at Ruhunu, South Eastern, Jaffna and Eastern universities to be SL Rupees 72 million (Pounds 387,000 at local prices), but its Chairman Professor Ranjith Mendis regretted that "the government and foreign donors had not been able" to find these sums.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORWEGIAN metal producer Tinfos Titan & Iron KS has appealed against an order that it and other manufacturers in Norway pay back savings gained from being exempt from a now abolished national electricity tax in 2003. It has joined Norsk Hydro and others in opposing the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority order in June that the exemptions amounted to illegal state aid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WANT to sell cigarettes? Go east, young man. That might be the advice that tobacco companies could glean from the latest set of World Health Organisation (WHO) smoking figures. Using 2003 or latest available data, the WHO has collated percentage rate proportions of smoking adults (18 and over), compared with total populations of all but 56 countries: the overwhelming majority of nations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission under incoming energy Commissioner Lázló Kovács could look to Russia and the Ukraine as the key guarantors of Europe’s future gas and oil supplies. Kovács, a Hungarian, has told the European Parliament that he intends to establish “real cooperation” with these countries as a first priority.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPE’S Nordic countries have agreed to forge a common front against alcohol liberalisation policies in the European Union (EU) and push anti-drinking campaigns worldwide. Meeting in Copenhagen, the health ministers of Finland, Sweden and Denmark agreed to act en bloc during discussions on alcohol at the EU Council of Ministers, being joined by Norway, Iceland at European Economic Area (EEA) meetings.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has formally approved the creation of a permanent duty free quota for Norwegian exports into the European Union (EU) of certain soft drinks. A compromise deal negotiated between Norway and the European Commission, the agreement will create a duty free quota of 13 million litres for “waters, including mineral waters and aerated waters, containing added sugar or other sweeteners and flavourings” and “other mineral waters containing sucrose and invert sugar”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NORWEGIAN government will open an annual duty free import quota of 2,360 tonnes for consignments of bonefat, bone oil and neat’s foot oil from the European Union (EU), as part of a limited trade deal negotiated with the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has agreed annual duty free import quotas for Norwegian tobacco manufacturers of 370 tonnes for “smoking tobacco, whether or not containing tobacco substitutes”. If ratified by the EU Council of Ministers, the deal would come into force next January.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU is to annually allow 2,470 tonnes of Norwegian margarine into its markets duty free, under a limited new trade deal with Norway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled details of its plans to impose temporary safeguard duties, especially on salmon imports from Norway and the Faroe Islands. It has told the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that it intends to levy Euro 522 on every tonne of unfilleted fish and Euro 722 per tonne of filleted salmon that enters the European Union (EU) over certain fixed quotas for the next six months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PERMANENT duty free quota is to be opened for Norwegian exports into the European Union (EU) of certain soft drinks, following trade talks between Norway and the European Commission. The EU Council of Ministers has been asked to approve the new arrangements, which would create a duty free quota of 13 million litres for “waters, including mineral waters and aerated waters, containing added sugar or other sweeteners and flavourings” and “other mineral waters containing sucrose and invert sugar”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PAST exemption enjoyed by the Norwegian manufacturing and mining industry to a tax on electricity consumption has been found to be illegal state aid by the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority, which has ordered the repayment of this de facto subsidy.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
SPANISH oil and gas giant Repsol YDF has begun drilling for oil in Cuban waters in a narrow sector of the Gulf of Mexico, using a Norwegian drilling platform for US$200,000 a day. The Spaniards are working with government oil company Cubapetróleo in a narrow sector of the Gulf of Mexico, off Cuba’s north-western coast.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EXEMPTION enjoyed by the Norwegian mining industry to a tax on electricity consumption has been found to be illegal state aid by the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority, which has ordered the repayment of this de facto subsidy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORWAY has followed Ireland’s example and become the world’s second country to ban smoking in restaurants and bars nationwide. Claiming support from opinion polls, the Norwegian government has justified its ban by the need to protect bar and restaurant staff from passive smoking.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MARATHON by name and nature, the European Commission has closed a gas network access case involving the Norwegian subsidiary of American gas producer Marathon, after negotiations stretching from the 1990’s. The deal, involving French and German gas companies Gaz de France (GdF) and Ruhrgas, allows the Commission to close a competition file that has also sparked pipeline access deals with German companies BEB and Thyssengas, plus Dutch company Gasunie.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is bankrolling the development of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas reserves, a key alternative supply for the European Union (EU). It wants to lend Tasbulat Ltd Euro 60 million to help develop three medium-sized oil and gas fields in Mangistau region, western Kazakhstan, producing up to 8,000 barrels/day in 2006; Tasbulat is owned by SNP Petrom, Romania’s national oil company.…

KEITH NUTHALL
TRADERS in fish flour cannot under European Union (EU) law deliver consignments containing mammal bone fragments, even if the contamination is slight and accidental, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. Public authorities have the right to destroy such consignments, if discovered by health inspectors, judges added.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A LAW insisting that at least half of crew members or sharesmen on Norwegian-owned vessels fishing within the 200 mile Norwegian Economic Exclusive Zone of the North Sea be Norway nationals or residents is being challenged by the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NORWEGIAN county has struck down a smoking ban in its municipal offices, ruling that it violates the European Human Rights Convention. The decision by the governor of North Trondelag county, central Norway, has annulled a rule preventing Levanger city local government employees from smoking during working hours, on or off municipal property.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve definitive anti-dumping duties on large rainbow trout from Norway and the Faeroe Islands, answering claims that cut-priced imports are damaging EU producers. The tariffs would be particularly tough for the Danish island dependency, ranging from 30 and 54.4 per cent, depending on the company concerned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has developed plans to lend Norway’s Statoil Euro 200 million to help it develop the North Sea Ormen Lange gas field as a key supplier of natural gas to Britain, which should become a net importer of natural gas from 2007.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCERNS have been raised in Norway about an increased risk of food poisoning from eastern European meat imports following the accession of former communist countries to the EU next May. Professor Eystein Skjerve, of the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, told the Norwegian press that these countries did not have adequate food safety systems.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
A SRI Lanka university is talking to foreign mining investors after its geologists discovered a dense iron ore deposit in the south of the island country. Peradeniya University claims that the deposit, in Wellawaya district, has a purity exceeding 90 per cent and is estimated to be about 90 million tonnes in size.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NORWEGIAN consumer legislation that bans the sale of life assurance contracts within Norway, unless policyholders are charged an upfront fee covering all completion costs, is being challenged as illegal under European law. Oslo has been sent a final warning letter from the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Surveillance Authority, threatening action at the EFTA Court, unless Norway promises to dismantle the system and replace it with something less draconian.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court has ruled that national judicial inquiries within the EU and EFTA may approve applications to ban parallel medicine importers from reusing a manufacturer’s trademark, while adding stripes to labelling to show the product is a re-export.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AN AMERICAN federal judge was within his right to temporarily shut down state government approved salmon farms, a US appeals court ruled on August 7. The appellate judge had assessed a May ruling, where a federal judge ordered two Norwegian-owned companies (Atlantic Salmon of Maine and Stolt Sea Farms) to fallow their 12 farms from six to 36 months, after being fined for damaging Maine’s coast with excess feed, faeces and medications.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court has thrown out a bid by two environmental groups to stop the Norwegian government offering tax privileges to natural gas exploration companies working in the inhospitable Snøhvit field, off the far north coast of Norway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AGREEMENT in principle over the proposed reforms to the European Union’s gas liberalisation directives has been secured at the European Parliament’s key industry committee, although it is proposing important changes. MEP’s called for amendments insisting upon close cooperation between the European Commission and national regulators regarding security of supply.…

BY SIGRÚN DAVÍDSDOTTIR
THE FOUR Scandinavian language-speaking countries, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, all pass with flying colours on Transparency International’s Corruption Index when considering their exposure to money laundering. Though the use criminal proceeds is not a serious issue in this friendly part of the world, their vicinity to countries in the former communist eastern bloc and the increasingly pervasive nature of international terrorism means that no one can afford to be caught sleeping on the post, especially not after 9/11.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SIGNIFICANT liberalisation of Denmark’s natural gas market has been agreed in a deal between the European Commission’s competition directorate and the key suppliers and producers in the Danish sector. Notably, Shell, AP Møller and ChevronTexaco, have agreed to stop jointly marketing their gas as part of the country’s dominant production group, called the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC).…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s competition directorate-general has decided to close its probe into the alleged refusal by Dutch gas company Gasunie to grant access to its pipeline network to the Norwegian subsidiary of US oil and gas producer Marathon in the 1990’s.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU Council of Ministers has exempted three Norwegian companies from the EU anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed on farmed Norway salmon, agreeing that they are new exporters untainted by dumping. They are Vestmar, Gaia Seafood and Polar Quality.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been laying preparations for possible fuel shortages associated with a possible war in the Middle East, summoning its special group on petroleum provisions to analyse existing European Union (EU) fuel stocks and supplies. The Commission wants every Member State to stockpile enough fuel to last for 40 days of standard consumption.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of Norwegian oil and gas company Fortum Petroleum by Italy’s energy company ENI, saying it would not damage the current competitive situation in the gas markets in Italy or in southern Germany, where ENI is present through GVS.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that three Norwegian companies be exempted from the European Union’s (EU) anti-dumping and countervailing duties on farmed Norway salmon, agreeing that they are new exporters untainted by past allegations of dumping. They are Vestmar AS, Gaia Seafood AS and Polar Quality AS.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MARK ROWE, in London, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane, and RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg

Introduction

Europe

Cuts to EU catch quotas

New sources of fish

Affect on fish producers

Wild alternatives to cod

Farmed cod

North America

USA – Healthier local stocks

USA – Demand up

USA – Fish imports

Canada – Farmed fish exports

Canada – GM issues

Australasia

Australia – New wild sources

Australia – Aquaculture

Australia – Wild fish innovation

Australia and New Zealand – sustainability

South Africa – Export increase and conservation

Japan – Local and regional supply

Japan – Maintaining quality

Japan – Non-Asian sources

Introduction

ONCE it was said, cod was so abundant that fishermen in some parts of the world boasted they could walk on the backs of the fish to find their catch.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties on 10 Norwegian farmed salmon exporters who were previously exempt from the tariffs by promising to keep prices above a minimum level, backed by documentary proof.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties on 10 Norwegian salmon exporters who had previously been exempt from the protective regime imposed in 1997. Ministers agreed that the companies had either broken promises to keep salmon prices at a minimum level or had failed to supply information proving that they had stuck to these pledges.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A LEGAL challenge launched by a Norwegian farmed salmon exporter against the imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties against its products sold in the European Union has failed at the European Court of Justice.

Dismissing Arne Mathisen AS’s claim and ordering it to pay its costs and those of the EU Council of Ministers, the ECJ backed the European Commission’s decision to ignore promises made by the company to keep is costs high enough to avoid the punishing protective duties.…

Keith Nuthall
THE NORWEGIAN government has moved to liberalise its alcohol retail system, following the order from the European Free Trade Area Court that it should scrap its discriminatory beer retail system, where the sale of brands of between 2.5% and 4.75% abv outside the state alcohol monopoly Vinmonopolet is generally limited to domestically-produced lines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRELAND’S dominant power supplier ESB and its Norwegian partner Statoil have agreed to sell 600MW of electricity on the open market, as the price of securing competition approval for their joint venture, setting up the Synergen gas-fuelled electricity plant in Dublin.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATIONAL regulations in Norway are being challenged for allowing state electricity operators to secure unlimited concessions to exploit waterfalls for hydro-electric projects, whilst time limiting those available to private generating companies to 60 years.

The Surveillance Authority of the European Free Trade Area, (EFTA), may try to overturn the law at the EFTA court, which has precedence over Norwegian law.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATURAL gas exploration companies working in the inhospitable Snøhvit field, off the far north coast of Norway, should be granted tax privileges, following acceptance of a scheme by the Surveillance Authority of the European Free Trade Area. Gas will be landed onshore via pipeline, cooled, then liquefied for ship transportation to international markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is common knowledge that deepening concern about terrorism following the September 11 attacks has led to tighter security in the civil aviation industry, but there have also been important implications for the shipping sector. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been given authority to negotiate a comprehensive “Governing International Fisheries Agreement” with the USA. EU ministers said Brussels officials should

Meanwhile, the EU Council of Ministers has agreed a regulation aiming at boosting cod stocks in the Irish Sea this year, protecting adult cod during the spawning season, notably enforcing an area closure from February.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been given authority by European Union Council of Ministers (finance) to negotiate a comprehensive “Governing International Fisheries Agreement” with the USA. A Brussels official in the Commission’s directorate general for fisheries told Fishing News International that a future deal could lead to EU fishing crews being given access to fish US waters and for European factory ships to be allowed to buy stocks from American fishermen at sea.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BACK in the last century, it was easy to find economists who liked a little corruption, saying it oiled the wheels of government and commerce. Today, this complacency has gone, with most development specialists saying bribes weaken governments and shrink private investment.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A NORWEGIAN salmon producer which had been hit with European Union anti-dumping and countervailing duties after failing to file compulsory performance reports with the European Commission, is expected to be freed from having to pay the tariffs.

Gje-Vi AS was ordered in 1998 to pay the duties, because Brussels claimed that it had broken promises not to dump salmon on European markets and to prove with its accounts that it was trading fairly.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NORWEIGAN government is to conduct a three-year review of its subsidised shipping service providing a lifeline for 34 ports from Bergen to Kirkenes, in the far north, near the Russian border. The move follows an agreement struck with the surveillance authority of the European Free Trade Area, (EFTA), which polices the European Economic Area rules by which Norway must abide.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH the insurance business being one of the most internationally sensitive of global economic sectors, it came as no surprise that the tragic events of September 11 had a dramatic effect on its fortunes, impacting seriously on the work of its regulators, especially in the European Union.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INCREASING political pressure is being applied on eastern European governments to raise fuel prices, so as to improve their environmental performance and promote investment in energy efficient industries.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe recently addressed the issue, with its Committee on Sustainable Energy and the Committee on Environmental Policy agreeing to produce guidelines on price reform.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the proposed take-over of Haindl, a German family-owned paper company, by Finland’s UPM-Kymmene and the subsequent sale of two of the Haindl mills to Norwegian paper manufacturer Norske Skog. Brussels concluded following an inquiry that the deal would not erode effective competition in European Union paper markets, notably in those for newsprint and wood-containing magazine paper.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations General Assembly will be asked to consider the plight of seafarers so poorly paid that they work in conditions amounting to “slavery,” when it considers relating to oceans and the Law of the Sea next month.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPETITION officials are examining a proposed German joint-venture merging the downstream and petrochemical operations of Deutsche Shell GmbH and its rival RWE-DEA. The German Competition Authority has been given the right to adjudicate on the downstream elements by the European Commission, which is itself handling the deal’s petrochemical implications.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
DEFINITIVE anti-dumping duties have been imposed by the EU on two

Norwegian salmon-exporting companies – Marstein Seafood AS and Westmarine AS – for failing to meet the conditions of an exemption granted in 1999 when duties were placed on other exporters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned Norwegian gas producers that the joint sale of Norwegian gas carried out through the national Gas Negotiation Committee is in breach of the European Union competition rules, because it fixes, among other things, the price and the quantities sold.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IMPORTANCE of European Union employment within the UK and other EU Member States is widely accepted and its authority is only going to grow over the next 10 years. This is because of the planned accession of eastern European countries to the European Union, meaning that EU employment directives will shape the law of their lands and that their national courts will become subject to the rulings and case law of the European Court of Justice, a key guardian of EU legislation.…