Search Results for: Spain

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) food safety alert service RASFF has reported another spate of aflatoxin contamination of nuts being imported into Europe. It says there were seizures in Austria of Turkish roasted hazelnut paste; in the Netherlands of Paraguayan groundnut kernels; and in Spain of Chinese groundnut kernels, all through aflatoxin contamination.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PRINCIPLE of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is of course well established amongst energy suppliers: polluting industries, such as coal, would be able to continue to burn fossil fuels, but carbon dioxide, rather than being expelled into the atmosphere, would be harvested in the energy production cycle and securely locked away.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE THUMBSCREWS are being turned on the world’s tax havens, preventing their banks hiding assets from tax investigators worldwide. A comprehensive communiqué from April 1 and 2s’ G20 meeting in London committed member governments "to take agreed action against those jurisdictions which do not meet international standards in relation to tax transparency."…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

ITALIAN agricultural associations and olive oil producers have greeted new compulsory European Union (EU) olive oil origin labelling regulations with mixed reactions. This is maybe no surprise. Olive oil forms the basis of the Italian diet and so is a touchy subject.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE STRENGTH of Britain’s recycling sector is becoming a force to reckon with across Europe, according to the latest available comparative figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat. The proportion of municipal waste recycled in the UK equalled the EU average in 2007, it says – 22%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SENIOR Brussels diplomats have been told to revise the proposed Euro 5 billion energy infrastructure building plan drafted by the European Commission to help kickstart Europe’s economy from its current slump.

The EU Council of Ministers (general affairs) released a communiqué saying "adjustments of certain aspects will still be necessary."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have approved Euro 3.9 billion in EU spending on energy investment projects, after they finally finished wrangling over the detail of this keystone of their economic stimulus package.

As expected, the final programme has more projects in southern and eastern Europe than in previous drafts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A U-TURN by the French government on key conditions of bail-out loans for its auto manufacturers averted a possible crisis at Sunday’s European Union (EU) recession summit in Brussels. One day before, the EU’s executive the European Commission announced Paris had abandoned plans to tie Euro 6.5 billion in loans for its car makers to a pledge not to close plants in France during the current slump and use French suppliers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY recession has a silver lining: inefficient competitors are unmasked and forced out of business; and governments usually spend freely to pump prime an ailing economy. And for major essential industries such as the power sector, economic slumps can be good times.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

DESPITE widespread initial scepticism about its viability, the ITER project to build the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion reactor is now under way. It is employing specialists (nearly 300 staff and rising at the end of 2008); releasing Euro millions in research and procurement funding; and in November of last year moved into its headquarters, in Cadarache, southern France, which is where the first nuclear fusion reactor will be built on a 180 hectare site.…