Search Results for: Russia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RUSSIAN mobile crane and slewing rig production company will be lent US$40 million by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to help it acquire rivals, boost investment and improve corporate governance. OJSC Autocrane will receive the loan, US$10 million of which will be syndicated via commercial banks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN AMERICAN anti-piracy group has warned that the Czech Republic and Costa Rica have joined the well-known major sources of counterfeit clothing such as China and Brazil. And in a report, the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition adds that the “vast majority” of pirated clothing exported from the Czech Republic was actually made in China.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMERICAN and European Union (EU) officials say an anti-counterfeiting concord struck last June is already yielding results, with US and EU customs officials and diplomats conducting joint offensives against the problem, rife in the tobacco sector. Senior figures, including US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and EU industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen met in Geneva to review the US-EU Intellectual Property Rights Action Strategy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have given a cool reception to the European Commission’s January energy package on forging a tough EU-wide programme of boosting energy capacity in Europe. At a special EU Council of Ministers meeting, a majority of governments, including the UK, opposed a proposed binding 2020 target of sourcing 20% of all energy consumption from renewable sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank and the Russian government are financing a joint project to strengthen Russia’s judicial system, widely perceived as incompetent and corrupt. The bank is lending US$50 million to a Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP), which will receive US$122.41 from the Russian government.…

BY MARK ROWE
EASTERN Europe, thanks mainly to the preponderance of Soviet-era facilities and Soviet-era standards of maintenance, has long been seen as a potential weak link for the nuclear power industry in safety terms. A vast group of international experts devotes time and resources to maintaining the industry’s record and the nuclear power industry has various arrangements for cooperation among utilities and internationally, among government and United Nations nuclear agencies.…

BY DINAH GARDNER, in Beijing
IT was already two years late, but China’s newest and biggest nuclear reactor has just been judged ready for full operation. The Russian-built 1060 MWe Tianwan nuclear power reactor in the eastern port city of Lianyungang in Jiangsu province came on line in January.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) will hasten its emergency oil stocks review after the recent Belarus-Russia energy dispute. An EU Oil Supply Group meeting considered releasing EU 120 day stocks, and EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said the European Commission would “accelerate” the EU strategic energy review’s consideration of member state oil supply security and cooperation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) fishermen will be able to harvest 10,000 tonnes of tuna and related species from Mozambique Indian Ocean waters from this year to 2012, under a new agreement negotiated by the European Commission. This new fisheries partnership agreement, replaces an agreement spanning 2004-6, assuming it is rubber stamped by EU ministers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
The long-awaited energy policy package unveiled by the European Commission on January 10th will, as the EU’s competition commissioner Neelie Kroes says, “make uncomfortable reading for many energy companies.” This is not surprising. For the past year it’s been widely expected that, among other things, Brussels would be coming up with a plan for the enforced separation of power networks from suppliers.…