No image available
/ 20 December 2005
British Prime Minister Tony Blair pressed European Union lawmakers on Tuesday to back a hard-won budget deal to unlock money for poor EU newcomers, while stressing the need for a reform of the whole funding process. But party group leaders bluntly warned that the EU legislature will fight for more money.
No image available
/ 14 December 2005
Jean-Marc Bosman five-year court battle ended victoriously in 1995, allowing players to move without transfer fees and effectively ending European leagues from limiting players from other European countries. But now, he’s asking himself whether he really won anything.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
The corruption scandal at Volkswagen this year robbed Europe’s largest car-maker of at least â,¬5-million (about R40-million) in illegal kickbacks and theft, an independent report by auditors KPMG disclosed recently. The report brought closer criminal charges against Peter Hartz, the former personnel director and close adviser to Germany’s outgoing German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder.
No image available
/ 28 October 2005
The European Union offered on Friday to reduce average agricultural tariffs by 47%, its steepest farm tariff cuts to date, in a proposal aimed at breaking a deadlock in world trade talks. ”The EU’s offer is substantial, offering new market access in agriculture,” EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said.
No image available
/ 28 October 2005
Ukranian TV viewers watched agog as representatives of the world’s two biggest steel groups, Mittal and Arcelor, drove up the price for their country’s largest metals producer, Kryvorizhstal, in a frenzied auction carried out before the cameras. The auction saw Mittal Steel, the world’s biggest steel producer secure control of the Ukrainian steel mill with a killer bid of £2,7-billion.
No image available
/ 25 October 2005
The European Union prepared on Tuesday to slap a global ban on imports of pet birds into Europe, amid rising alarm over the growing avian influenza threat from Asia. EU veterinary experts in Brussels were studying proposals for an initial one-month ban on imports of pet birds such as parrots and other exotic species from the rest of the world.
No image available
/ 24 October 2005
On Tuesday, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson saw off French manoeuvres aimed at tying his hands in critical talks to liberalise world trade, winning strong backing from most European governments for his negotiating tactics. The French government summoned a meeting to discuss complaints that the former Mandelsonhad exceeded his mandate in tabling concessions on farm subsidies.
No image available
/ 16 October 2005
The growing threat of lethal bird flu spreading across Europe will soar to the top of European Union leaders’ menu this week, after the deadly Asian strain of the virus landed on the continent for the first time. The H5N1 virus was confirmed in Romania at the weekend, only two days after its presence was identified in Turkey.
No image available
/ 15 October 2005
The European Union was awaiting test results on Saturday that should show whether a lethal strain of bird flu that has killed more than 60 people in Asia has reached Europe. Bird flu has been detected in two Romanian villages and the tests will prove whether this is the fatal H5N1 strain. The deadly strain has been detected in Turkey.
European countries responded swiftly to Saturday’s massive earthquake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, offering aid and funds as well as condolences. The European Union’s executive arm, said up to â,¬3-million could be approved within a day if requested by agencies working on the ground.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer will meet with the European Union’s antitrust chief next week, her spokesperson said on Friday, as the company appeals a March 2004 ruling by EU regulators. Neelie Kroes planned to meet Ballmer over breakfast on Wednesday to discuss general antitrust issues, EU spokesperson Jonathan Todd said.
No image available
/ 29 September 2005
European Union foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg on October 2 in an eleventh-hour bid to finalise guidelines for membership talks with Turkey, scheduled to start a day later. Diplomats said ministers will focus on overcoming Austrian demands that Ankara be offered a watered-down partnership instead of full membership of the 25-nation bloc
No image available
/ 21 September 2005
European Union diplomats hammered out a new accord on Turkey on Wednesday, overcoming last-minute objections from Cyprus, but the bloc is still battling to clear the way for membership talks with Ankara next month. While progress was made, clear strains remained over whether the vast Muslim state can ever join the bloc, with Austria notably demanding that Turkey be offered an alternative to EU entry.
No image available
/ 8 September 2005
The European Union urged President Viktor Yushchenko Thursday to act fast to restore stability after sacking Ukraine’s government, while saying it is sure he remains committed to western values. The European Commission said it was watching developments closely after Yushchenko — who was elected in December after the country’s ”Orange revolution” — appointed a senior regional official as acting prime minister.
No image available
/ 7 September 2005
United States software giant Microsoft has made a new appeal against an European Union competition ruling against it in March 2004 for abusing its dominant market position, the company said on Wednesday. The European Commission last year fined the software group a record €497-million.
No image available
/ 4 September 2005
United Nations relief coordinator Jan Egeland on Saturday urged the world to help the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as it experiences one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in recent years, comparing the loss of life to that in the December 2004 tsunami crisis.
A third-division provincial girls’ football team entered the annals of Belgian soccer on Saturday after suffering a crushing 50-1 defeat because of the absence of a single but crucial player: their music-loving goalkeeper. SK Berlaar’s goal was left unguarded after their goalie opted instead to go to a rock festival
The European Union’s executive commission said on Thursday that it has decided to provide €7,9-million to support preparations for planned elections in Côte d’Ivoire. ”These elections represent a crucial stage for reconciliation in the country,” EU development commissioner Louis Michel said in a statement.
Car manufacturers BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen; the country’s fourth-largest financial institution, Commerzbank; Europe’s largest chip-producer, Infineon — five of Germany’s leading firms, all members of its Dax-30 blue-chip index, have become embroiled in corruption scandals in recent months.
Preparations for next week’s Group of Eight meeting of leading industrial nations in Gleneagles, Scotland, are still plagued by transatlantic discord on key trade, aid and climate change issues, European Union (EU) officials warned on Thursday.
Plans to slash European Union sugar prices will drive hundreds of thousands of farmers in the developing world into poverty and make a mockery of Europe’s commitment to millennium development goals, ministers and NGOs warned recently. On Wednesday the European Commission announced proposals to cut the support price for white sugar by 39%.
The European Union battled on Monday to maintain some semblance of unity despite poisonous rifts opened by its Constitution crisis, as the bloc’s new fault lines came under the spotlight at a summit with the United States. Now one French minister has accused Britain — widely blamed for the collapse of a summit last week — of not sharing Europe’s ”vision”.
The two men locked each other in a stare across the courtroom. It lasted a second, but it felt as though they had been staring at each other ever since they last met 10 years ago at Srebrenica, the site of Europe’s worst massacre since the World War II.
Nato defence ministers were finalising plans on Thursday for the alliance’s first mission in Africa — helping to fly an extra 5 000 African peacekeepers to the troubled Darfur region of Sudan. They also considered boosting the alliance’s presence in Afghanistan ahead of September parliamentary elections there.
European Union ministers on Tuesday night surprised and delighted aid agencies around the world when they agreed a dramatic increase in help to countries in Africa and the rest of the developing world that will see the EU’s richest states reach the United Nations’ historic goal of giving 0,7% of national income in aid by 2015.
Nato on Tuesday moved closer to approving non-combat aid for the African Union’s beleaguered peacekeeping force in the Sudanese region of Darfur. The North Atlantic Council of alliance ambassadors said they approved the ”initial military options” for possible Nato support for the peacekeeping mission and said their efforts would centre on military transport, training and planning.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday pressed Iran to stick by commitments to freeze its nuclear activities, ahead of what he said will be ”tough” talks with the European Union this week. Arriving for regular ministerial talks in Brussels, he confirmed that the talks with Iran will take place in Geneva on Wednesday.
What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, Europe’s leaders celebrated the European Union’s ”big bang” expansion from 15 to 25 states, the continent’s historic reunification half a century after it was ripped apart by war. A year later they are staring into a black hole, and at its centre is a French vote threatening to rip apart their grand plans.
Companies, institutions and citizens will be able to use .eu in internet addresses starting at the beginning of 2006, the European Union executive arm said on Thursday. ”The final countdown to the advent of Europes own ‘.eu’ internet identity, by the end of 2005, has begun,” the commission said in a statement.
United Kingdom Finance Minister Gordon Brown’s stewardship of the British economy last week won glowing tributes from the European Commission. The commission’s upbeat assessment came in a week when Prime Minister Tony Blair called a May 5 general election that will be dominated by Conservative opposition charges that the government’s spending policies are out of control.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, banned from entering the European Union, was able to go to Rome for the pope’s funeral because of waivers in EU rules on sanctions for such countries as Zimbabwe, Belarus and Myanmar, an EU diplomat said on Thursday.
Belgium’s interior minister was left red-faced on Thursday after it emerged that photos comparing United States President George Bush to a chimpanzee had been used in a police training manual. The pictures in question show a series of the US leader’s facial expressions next to shots of a chimpanzee making apparently similar faces.