Search Results for: european union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has published an online directory of dangerous substances in construction products. The database includes country guides for each Member State, outlining the relevant national regulations controlling what kind of substances are banned or permitted and in what circumstances.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has approved a new EU-wide temporary protection system to cope with an influx of refugees, such as that created by the conflicts in former Yugoslavia.

Ministers can now order that the European Refugee Fund assists Member States prepared to accept displaced persons; they would be granted certain rights to residence and work permits, appropriate information, accommodation, social assistance, health care, and education.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BELGIAN government has committed its July-December presidency of the European Union to securing formal approval for the creation of a new research fund that will pump millions of Euro’s into coal industry research, replacing the work carried out via the budgets of the soon-to-be-defunct European Coal and Steel Community.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to agree the final details of the powers and responsibilities of a European Data Protection Supervisor, who would control the release of the vast amounts of personal data held by the institutions of the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank has called on eastern European and central Asian governments to improve their woeful record of judicial reform, in a region where independent justice is still struggling to emerge from the region’s communist legacy.

Speaking at a regional conference in St Petersburg, Russia, Johannes Linn, bank vice president said: “It is quite clear…that the countries of the region need to focus much more effort, not only on ensuring the development of clear and comprehensive legislation, but also on strengthening the capacity, independence, and accountability of the judicial system necessary to interpret and enforce the law.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank has announced that it is lending US$80 million to Philips Semiconductors Philippines Inc., (PSPI), a subsidiary of the Dutch electronics giant Philips, which will guarantee the loan. The money will help the Asian operation construct a second integrated circuits assembly and test facility in Calamba, Philippines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally proposed its anticipated list of maximum dioxin contamination limits for food products. The levels for fish are as predicted last week in Environmental Health News. For dairy products, beef and sheep-meat it is three nanograms per kilogram of fat, for example.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CALL has been made at a meeting of the parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, for developing countries to be given less time to phase out the CFC substitute HCFC’s, which also damages patches of the gas in the high atmosphere.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has decided to expand its list of chemicals formally labelled as hazardous wastes, by including waste containing dangerous chlorophylls and dangerous silicon. These will now be subject to tight controls on their disposal.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN has been sent a second warning by the European Commission over its failure to comply with the EU’s Waste Framework Directive which sets out obligations over the treatment of waste. Brussels is objecting to the scope of exemptions permitted in the UK and to inadequate transport controls for Gibraltar and Northern Ireland.…