Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked the vehicle leasing and management sectors whether it would like the existing patchwork of national passenger car taxation laws to be reformed and replaced with a more harmonised system.

Brussels is particularly keen to discover in wide consultation whether there would be support for replacing registration taxes with charges based on CO2 emissions, which would help the European Union (EU) meet its Kyoto Protocol global warming commitments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UN Food and Agricultural Organisation has launched a Global Date Palm Network to promote research and exchange of information on production and resources. The FAO says trade restrictions, pests and lack of know-how are causing low date palm yields.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has called for detailed studies into whether farmed and wild deer used for venison carry scrapie or an unknown TSE strain, similar to BSE. In the meantime, it has suggested it “might be prudent” to ban the sale of deer “tissues such as central nervous system (CNS) and lymphoid tissues” from sale to food processors or consumers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCIENTISTS at the European Union’s (EU) Joint Research Centre are helping the EU’s 10 new member countries comply with the union’s waste legislation. The centre claims several new members “continue to rely on uncontrolled waste dumps”, which can have “a detrimental impact on the environment and human health.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN EU research project designed to examine human health damage caused by endocrine-disrupting trace chemicals in food, is now operational. The CASCADE (chemicals as contaminants in the food chain) network hopes to increase public awareness and promote better decision.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
STAND-IN European Union (EU) information society Commissioner Olli Rehn will review EU telecom policies in the dying months of the current Commission. Speaking to the European Parliament industry, research and energy committee, the Finn said he would “soon submit some reflections on the future policies for the information society to (appointed Commission) president Barroso”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW research is “urgently” needed to inform better guidelines on stunning methods minimising distress to livestock at slaughterhouses, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has said. In an assessment of stunning, EFSA said detailed investigations should focus on the “mechanisms and effects of the different stunning methods, their technical and organisational performance in practice and improved and continuing education of the staff to ensure good animal welfare”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCIENTISTS from 17 European countries and Australia are cooperating in a research project using the latest genetic knowledge to improve the quality of vegetable-based animal feed. The Grain Legumes project will focus on peas, beans, lentils and others to create protein-rich alternatives to meat-based feed, which carries health risks, such as BSE.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN research network has developed a quality offset press that it claims is flexible enough to thrive in the plastic films, paper or aluminium packaging sectors. The independent EUREKA network’s ‘variable sleeve offset printing’ project had to reduce the cost of machine parts printing variable sizes “as there are no standard sizes in packaging applications”, said a project memorandum.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a database that will contain environmental data from across the European Union (EU), as it proposed a directive harmonising the way that national governments record such information. The idea of the INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in the European Union) initiative is to enable environmental policy makers to draw on data culled from across the EU, rather than being limited to national information.…