Search Results for: Switzerland

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) funded research project has developed a system for integrating tiny stainless-steel wires within fabrics, which are designed to ferry information about the wearer’s vital signs to electronic monitors. The aim of the Euro 4 million WEALTHY project has been to create a "groundbreaking woven sensing interface to be worn without any discomfort" that can be plugged into monitors at home or work, downloading important medical data to doctors at remote locations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been authorised by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to negotiate a comprehensive energy agreement with Switzerland, which would see the landlocked country participating in liberalised EU electricity markets. A memorandum from the council confirmed that the Swiss would have to sign onto EU electricity market rules, including those on trading power and allowing the purchase by EU operators of Switzerland generators.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

KOSOVO differs from all other countries that the Money Laundering Bulletin has surveyed so far in the context of money laundering in that it has no defined and internationally recognised final shape – neither in respect of its borders nor in the composition of its government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADA, in alliance with Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, has successfully scuppered plans to place chrysotile asbestos on the ‘watch list’ of the United Nations’ Rotterdam Convention, a move that would have allowed importing countries to insist on prior consent before admitting any cargoes of this mineral.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) national food regulators have today (Friday 29 Sept) signed a ‘declaration of intent’ committing them to developing a detailed cooperation system with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). At a meeting of the EFSA Advisory Forum in Berne, Switzerland, Europe’s food health gatekeepers agreed to draft an agreement by the New Year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle became the executive director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) earlier this year, she said a key priority would be improving cooperation between her agency and national food safety organisations across Europe.

The Frenchwoman has had a strong start to her job, moving ahead with a number of projects and making sure EFSA dovetails with national agencies has been one.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London

A CAR that can think for its driver is a step nearer reality, thanks to a new European Union (EU)-funded project now underway in Switzerland. The 10-partner BACS (Bayesian Approach to Cognitive Systems) project, co-ordinated by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is creating thinking robots that can react in the right way to incomplete information, in the same way that humans and animals do.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHILE personal care product sales for the 15 countries that made up the European Union (EU) before 2003, plus Switzerland and Norway, increased by just 1% in 2005/2006 on the previous year – eastern Europe is a more enticing prospect for the industry, and has been singled out by major organisations and companies as a shining light for sales, investment and production.…

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

SWITZERLAND, Andorra, the Cook Islands and Samoa have been singled out in an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report (OECD) for still applying a restrictive ‘dual criminality’ principle in swapping sensitive tax administration with other governments. In a comprehensive report on tax havens, the OECD notes that Switzerland, a member government, has also not adopted a common definition of tax fraud, which was drawn up for members to deal with these problems: under dual criminality rules, governments refuse to hand over data, where they think a foreign customer of a bank in its jurisdiction would be behaving legally in its own domestic system, even if their home country considers them guilt of tax fraud.…