Search Results for: Switzerland

By Alan Osborn

The failure of business to invest significantly in innovation projects remains the major weakness in the European Union’s (EU) research picture, says the European Commission. While there is "substantial progress" in some aspects of the EU’s innovation performance, investments by business in R&D and IT projects "are still relatively weak, especially if compared to the US and Japan," claims Brussels.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A RELATIVE newcomer has joined the ranks of the world’s professionals in the financial services sphere – the anti-money laundering practitioner. True, not everybody would agree that he or she warrants a place up there with accountants, lawyers and the other traditional professionals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ANOTHER fine-tuned blueprint for an agreement at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round has been released in Geneva and despite clear progress, a final deal before Christmas is still a long-shot. Trade ministers now must decide whether to meet in Switzerland this month, or wait until Barack Obama has been installed as US president in January.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ACQUISITION of sole control of German meat and sausage company Zimbo Fleisch- und Wurstwaren by Switzerland’s Bell Holding has been approved by the European Commission on competition grounds, despite the Swiss company also selling these products.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SWITZERLAND will participate in the European Union’s (EU) rapid alert system for contaminated and unhealthy food products RASFF. This means warnings about food identified in Switzerland as potentially dangerous will be circulated around the EU – important given the volumes of Swiss-sourced food exported to member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DESPITE widespread 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 moved into its headquarters, in Cadarache, southern France, which is where the first nuclear fusion reactor will be built on a 180 hectare site.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project has been launched to prevent allergic reactions to wine, by finding alternatives to sulphur dioxide – widely used by the industry to prevent micro-biological damage to taste and colour.

Organised under the umbrella of EU research network Eureka, wine industry specialists are testing a variety of alternative substances and treatments to reduce the amount of sulphites in wines, which are regarded as an allergen.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) researchers are investigating why the citizens of poorer European countries are less likely to contract food allergies by those in richer states. The EU’s EuroPrevall project has noted that between 2% to 4% of EU adults suffer from food allergies, with 6% of children younger than three-years-old suffering from the problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN nuclear regulators have been alerted about a release of Iodine-131 gas from the Institut National de Radio-éléments (IRE) in Fleurus, Belgium. As a result of environmental sampling of grass, the Belgian Federal Agency for Nuclear Control restricted the consumption of vegetables and milk produced within 5 km of the plant, near the south Belgium city Charleroi.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONFERENCE on aviation environmental issues has been told by senior European transport figures to expect further action to fight climate change, beyond including the sector in the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme. Staged in Geneva by the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and the European Commission, the conference was told by Switzerland transport and environment minister Moritz Leuenberger the sector must act or face more regulation: "If aviation is not ready to take the appropriate steps now…states will force the industry to act…" Furthermore, EU transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani agreed said the emissions trading scheme was just a "first step", with a final objective being "global measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aviation".…