Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SURVEY has been released by the European Commission which shows how a decline in confidence regarding genetically modified food could be deterring investment in medical biotechnology, potentially leaving the European Union at a competitive disadvantage. This Eurobarometer poll says that overall support for GM food is only found in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Finland; with most Europeans considering them “of little value and dangerous for society.”…

BY PHILIP FINE

AN AREA of northern Bolivia is to be the focus of an innovative Canadian aid mission designed to offer advice on preventing landslides in communities pock-marked with small mines, notably those for gold prospecting.

Canada will fund a team of scientists to help the community of Chima, a remote gold-mining village that was hit by a deadly landslide last month; the specialists want to ensure that they do not suffer from a repeat the tragedy and to help such communities better deal with such disasters, if they do occur.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A JOINT letter signed by more than 100 environmental groups – including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, WWF and the European Environmental Bureau – has called for a “radical overhaul” of the European Union’s Euratom treaty in an ongoing review of EU institutions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SUCCESSFUL trial of electronic tags for livestock has been announced by the European Commission, which has inspired a proposed regulation that would create a unified system for accurately monitoring farm animals across the European Union.

Brussels officials have unveiled in Italy the results of the IDEA project (Electronic IDentification of Animals), a one million animal trial spanning France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.…

BY PHILIP FINE

TEAMS of microbiologists have concluded that it is not just unsafe to swim in sewage infiltrated waters, but that the amount of sickness caused by such pollution is actually far more predictable than previously thought. The findings have prompted them to call for global health-based legislation on the quality of the world’s bathing waters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SUCCESSFUL trial of electronic tags for livestock has been announced by the European Commission, which has inspired a proposed regulation that would create a unified system for accurately monitoring farm animals across the European Union (EU).

Brussels officials have unveiled in Italy the results of the IDEA project (Electronic IDentification of Animals), a one million animal trial spanning France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
*The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending Euro 150 million to a special fund to counter the damage caused by the Prestige disaster in Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria. It will be operated by local savings banks and cover recovery project costs.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
LIFE isn’t going to get any easier for hill and mountain farmers if Dr Franz Fischler, EU farm commissioner, has his way. He wants to “de-couple” payments from production for farmers generally and introduce direct fixed supports based on farm size, past output and acceptance of environmental and other standards.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, ALAN OSBORN, PHILIP FINE and KEITH NUTHALL

IF there had been feelings bubbling under the surface of the British civil nuclear industry that the regulations governing its security were due for an overhaul, the events of September 11, 2001 – becoming universally known by its American shorthand 9/11 – certainly brought everybody to the table.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) funded report has called on the European Commission to push the idea of a compulsory patent litigation insurance scheme for companies seeking legal protection for their inventions.

The paper, written for the Commission by Britain’s CJA Consultants Ltd, following interviews with innovative companies and insurers, says: “Provision of readily available and cost-effective patent litigation insurance is highly likely to improve the value of patents to users.”…