Search Results for: Latvia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN a political hair-and-tortoise move, a European Commissioner from a country where the Lada once reigned supreme has told speed-loving German motorists he will press for European Union (EU) speed limits of 90kmh (55.9 mph). Latvia’s Andris Piebalgs, energy Commissioner since last November, told the Die Welt newspaper “I personally support the idea”, which was originally proposed by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament and the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers have compromised on the final shape of a directive reducing sulphur content in marine fuels. The result is legislation that permits higher sulphur usage than the parliament wanted, cutting its marine fuels content to 1.5% by 2007, for all vessels in the Baltic, the North Sea, and the English Channel, and passenger ships in all EU seas and oceans.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has allowed Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia until November 2005 to eliminate surplus stocks of sugar, built up prior to their joining the European Union last May. Remaining excess sugar would spark EU fines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WORKING hours in Britain exceed those in most new European Union (EU) member states from eastern and southern Europe says a report showing how western Europe workers generally work fewer hours. Britain’s usual weekly work hours, said the European Industrial Relations Observatory are 43.1, only exceeded in the expanded EU by Latvia’s 43.3.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has called on EU national governments to increase their spending on radioactive waste management research. Speaking to a Brussels workshop on the topic, he said spending “in many – but not all – member states is not sufficient to make real progress in the short to medium term”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH security of energy supplies being a key concern of the European Union (EU), and the subject of legislation under discussion in Brussels, it is no surprise that the EU devotes millions of Euros to developing the oil and gas sector of the former USSR.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused nine European Union (EU) governments of dragging their feet over promoting biofuels in their countries. It has sent critical formal notices to Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovenia accusing them of failing to submit national reports framing 2005 targets for biofuel consumption, as required under the Biofuels Directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has moved to extend its control of fishing in the Baltic Sea, following the accession of four Baltic eastern European states to the EU last year. With Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania becoming member states, the Baltic is largely an EU zone, excluding small stretches of Russian territorial waters – off Kaliningrad and St Petersburg.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THREE Belgian brothers – who launched Lithuania’s second largest supermarket chain after the country quitted the ex-USSR – have secured Euro 40 million equity investment by a major US finance house. The European Commission has approved America’s Citigroup Inc taking a minority share in the Ortiz brother’s UAB Palink group.…

Keith Nuthall
BRITISH taxation inched up from 2002 to 2003, but according to the latest comparative European Union (EU)-wide figures, the UK still has one of the lowest European tax burdens. As a proportion of GDP, Britain’s total taxes were 37.1% in 2003, compared with 37% in 2002, up from 36.7% in 1995, before the accession to power of the Labour government.…