Search Results for: Spanish

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is offering a comprehensive European Union (EU) free-trade deal to Russia, to secure cheaper and more reliable gas and oil supplies. Commission president José Manuel Barroso said the EU will offer this to Russia once it has joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), maybe this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has unveiled plans to lend up to Euro 727.50 million to build up to 30 wind farms in Spain, with a combined capacity of around 900 MWe. These medium and large scale wind farms would be set up this year and next in economically hard pressed areas across Spain, classed by the European Union (EU) as ‘Objective 1’ and so eligible for various EU regional aid programmes.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has attacked another decision by the EU’s Wine Management Committee to fund vast amounts of crisis distillation for unsold European wine – this time in Spain and Greece. The committee has approved distilling up to 300,000 hectolitres of Spanish quality wine; 370,000 hl of Greek table wine; and 130,000 hl of Greek quality wine: total cost – Euro 22.2 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved seven new additives as safe to use in EU foodstuffs: erythritol, soybean hemicellulose, ethyl cellulose, hexylresorcinol, tertiary butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), pullulan, and starch aluminium octenyl succinate. It has also lowered the allowable levels of nitrates and nitrites added to meat products sold in the EU, boosting consumer health safety, except for certain traditional products, such as some cured Spanish and German meats, whose manufacture would have been prevented by the new rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FOOD, biotechnology and agriculture research projects will command budgets of Euro 1.9 billion from 2007-13 under a draft rewritten European Union (EU) seventh framework programme (FP7). Other targeted research budgets under the Euro 54.5 billion scheme proposed by the European Commission of potential relevance to the food sector include Euro 5.9 billion on health, Euro 1.8 million on environmental research, plus Euro 3.4 billion on nanotechnology, materials, and manufacturing.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

DRASTIC reform of the European Commission’s troubled wine sector has been proposed by the European Commission, whose officials are "reasonably confident" the plan will not be unduly delayed or watered down by European Union (EU) member governments. The heart of the reform announced June 22 by the EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel is grubbing up scheme costing Euro 2.4 billion over five years that would take 400,000 hectares of the present 3.4 million hectares out of wine production.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SPANISH-made body lightening lotion called NIUMA has been withdrawn from sale in Germany because its ingredients include the potentially harmful substance hydroquinone (at a proportion of 5.7 %; +/- 0.1 %). The European Commission’s RAPEX consumer-alert service reported there had been a "voluntary withdrawal from the market", with "information/warnings displayed" at retail stores.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POLITICAL struggle has broken out at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers between EU olive oil importing and exporting countries over the current level import tariffs for the product. On one side is a group led by Sweden, supported by Britain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania, complaining about what they call "high market prices of olive oil in the EU and low levels of stocks".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEGAL action launched by the European Commission against the French and Spanish governments could force them to slash motorway toll-reductions available to frequent users of these roads. The Commission has sent both administrations final warning letters saying it may take them to the European Court of Justice, because these reductions are so steep (up to 50% in Spain and 30% in France), they discriminate against occasional motorway users.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has lowered the allowable levels of nitrates and nitrites added to meat products sold in the EU, boosting consumer health safety. Certain traditional products, such as certain cured Spanish and German meats will have special exemptions however, because the new limits would have prevented their manufacture

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