Search Results for: Spain

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SLOVENIAN government has tabled compromise proposals to break the current political logjam at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over gas supply unbundling. As current EU president, Slovenia has suggested for instance that some joint ownership of energy producing and transmission utilities could occur if there were "additional safeguards" preventing conflicts of interest, and guaranteeing the "structural independence of decision making" by distribution operators.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s economics committee has called for the European Union’s (EU) minimum rate of excise duty on diesel to be raised to that for unleaded petrol: from the current Euro 302/1,000 litres to Euro 359/1,000 litres by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

WOMEN use cigarettes to relieve stress as an appetite suppressant and to facilitate social and sexual interaction with men, a study from the University of Granada, Spain, has concluded. Researchers examined the reasons for the increased rate of women smokers in the last 50 years in Spanish society.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared illegal under European Union (EU) law Spanish regulations that limit the voting rights of publicly-owned organisations on energy utilities in Spain. These rules have been criticised by the European Commission for preventing potential takeovers by foreign companies.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

THE FÉDÉRATION Internationale de l’Automobile has warned road accident fatalities in 2007 rose in some European countries compared with 2006. These included the Czech Republic (up 17 %), Denmark (+33 %), Finland (+13 %), Slovenia (+12 %) and Sweden (+6%).…

BY ALAN OSBORN

CUBA has always been crucial in the cigar industry, but with the prospect of political change being almost tangible, the island is now the key focus of this premium tobacco sector. For the first time in many years there’s a sense that events could be moving towards a thaw in the 45-year long freeze in relations between the USA and Cuba and an end to the embargo on sales of Cuban cigars into America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN oil and gas executives think of European Union (EU) funding for their projects or companies, they may consider the European Commission, with its high profile in energy spending and investment. But there is another EU institution with an important role as a financial fountainhead for European energy loans: the European Investment Bank (EIB).…

BY MARK ROWE

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the UK government that it intends to build a new generation of nuclear power plants stands out, not just because of the scale of the proposals, but because it is the first such comprehensive initiative in Europe for some years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Mauritania have agreed to renegotiate and downsize their fishing agreement granting EU fishing boats the right to exploit the north African country’s fishing stocks. These talks follow the embarrassing news that EU fishing fleets have failed to avail themselves of the rights made available to them in the existing agreement, which had been hailed as a groundbreaking deal.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE 21st century is seeing a rapid development in the packaging of oils, scents and fats, instigated in part by the increasing global demand for olive oil, along with the burgeoning industry in essential oils.

One of the key trends has been towards the use of packaging to offer fresh products, a development augmented by the increasing perception worldwide of olive oil as a health food product.…