Search Results for: Portugal

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission consumer alert service has reported a ban in Portugal of a novelty cigarette lighter set, designed like other household objects (such as a telephone) or animals, some producing sound and light effects. Portuguese retail authorities ruled the lighters a fire risk to children, who would regard them as toys.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SIX year fishing agreement struck between the European Commission and the Seychelles has reduced access for European Union (EU) tuna boats to answer criticism that similar past deals have been emptying developing world waters of fish. The new agreement with the Seychelles – lasting from January 2005 to 2011 – cuts fishing opportunities for tuna long-liners by 15% by 2006.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ECSTASY has become Britain’s number two illicit drug, overtaking amphetamines, warns a new European Union (EU) narcotics report alerting public health professional across Europe to increasing abuse of most recreational drugs. The best news highlighted by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is that heroin use and new HIV infections are falling in western Europe, although they are increasing in many eastern European countries, such as the Baltic States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has confirmed that countries in its eastern Europe and central Asia area of focus are booming because of high oil prices. Its annual 2004 Transition Report says Russia and the Ukraine are experiencing “skyrocketing annual growth”, making the former Warsaw Pact the world’s second-fastest-growing region (up 6.1%), next to China and its southern neighbours.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action against France, Germany, Luxembourg and Denmark, for failing to implement key European Union (EU) road safety rules. The Commission claims that France and Denmark have failed to introduce directive 2003/26/EC on technical roadside spot checks of commercial vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIESEL vehicle owners are undermining the efforts of manufacturers to reduce road transport pollution in Europe, a European Environment Agency (EEA) report has claimed, by tuning engines to boost their power. The EEA thinks up to 50% of new diesel vehicles are being modified and that such changes can increase emissions, especially of harmful particles, by as much as three times.…

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
THE EMBARGO on Portugal exporting beef and cattle to the rest of the EU has been lifted, after Brussels officials agreed the country had sufficiently improved its anti-BSE controls.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend Euro 855,000 promoting Portuguese wine in USA, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, China and Japan. The Portuguese government and private sources will also contribute to a total promotional budget of Euro 1.7 million over three years.…