Regulators search for safety in numbers
There are those who believe that opening up the Union’s skies to cut-price airlines is a recipe for disaster, with the risk that some might take shortcuts in vital areas of safety. The issue shot to...
View ArticlePlea for the means to ‘earn our own way’
This is the stark warning from Edwin Laurent, ambassador to the Union for the group of island states. “Our banana trade is the basis of our continuation in the international trading system. This is an...
View ArticleAircraft safety takes over top slot
Now, although the public is constantly reminded that flying remains statistically the safest form of transport, it is the turn of the airline industry to come under the spotlight. Concern over air...
View ArticleLiberalisation holds key to new era for transport
Those at the centre of the drive to improve the links between Europe’s urban centres and the underdeveloped regions on its periphery also insist it stands little chance of inspiring the industrial...
View Article11 March Transport Council
FRANCE lost its campaignto abandon the summer-time regime, when ministers rejected its arguments for ditching European rules synchronising the biannual change. The decision, which must be cleared by...
View ArticleBrok’s cigar diplomacy
The second option is favoured by German Christian Democrat MEP Elmar Brok, a man keen to foster transatlantic relations. At a recent meeting of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue attended by US...
View ArticleNetworks with a community spirit
NGOs are often the experts in dealing with social problems and while their use of voluntary workers sometimes makes participating in EU projects difficult, their involvement is crucial if information...
View ArticleTHE WEEK AHEAD
BIRMINGHAM: Commission President Jacques Santer and Economics Commissioner Yves-Thibault de Silguy attend the G8 (Group of Seven plus Russia) summit (to 17 May). PARIS: Financial Affairs Commissioner...
View ArticleLomé states struggle for a united front
In its recent call for inter-regional free trade arrangements (FTAs) with its 71 partner countries in Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean (ACP) by the year 2005, the EU runs the risk of trying to...
View ArticleThey must be bananas
Amid all the talk of trade wars, it is easy to forget that the whole spat is about a mere h450-million worth of sanctions out of an annual commercial flow between the world’s two dominant trading...
View ArticleUS losing ground in banana row
After a heated four-hour meeting earlier this week, representatives of the 133 member countries of the WTO agreed to postpone discussions of US sanctions for at least two days. The talks had reached...
View ArticleGovernments strive for early end to banana war
EU officials say the Portuguese presidency is not pushing hard for an early deal because of concerns about the impact of any reforms on its own producers. Lisbon has set up a special working group to...
View ArticleDe Palacio to revive plans to bolster air safety checks
The plan, which was first unveiled three years ago by De Palacio’s predecessor Neil Kinnock, had been shelved because of the continuing dispute between the UK and Spain over the status of Gibraltar....
View ArticleOfficials pin hopes on Caribbean island joining EU in next wave
Undaunted by the mockery this has prompted from other Caribbean leaders, the newly-elected prime minister of the tiny island-state took his case for accession to French President Jacques Chirac during...
View ArticleCommission to open office in Cuba
The inauguration ceremony will be conducted by Poul Nielson, the European development commissioner, during a four-day visit to the Caribbean island (10-14 March). The office is being run by the...
View ArticleHavana snubs Union envoy to Cuba, reveals Nielson
Miguel Amado, head of the Commission’s delegation to the Dominican Republic, had been tasked with also representing the EU executive in Havana about a year ago. But the Cuban authorities have not yet...
View ArticleTree-lined Guadalajara can’t hide Latin America’s troubles
According to local press reports, the idea behind the frantic mass-planting is to shield the 50 heads of state and government due to descend on Guadalajara for the 27-28 May event from the sight of...
View ArticleBacking for GM crops still a political hot potato
As yet, no consensus has emerged on the merits of developing gene technologies in poor countries. In the absence of such an agreement, regardless of the technical merits of genetic engineering, giving...
View ArticleTime for Mandelson to face the global AIDS epidemic
Just lately the debate on access to affordable, life-saving AIDS medication flared up again when the European Parliament issued its main report on a proposed regulation to help poor countries overcome...
View ArticleWTO prepares banana verdict
Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras are contesting a 2004 European Commission proposal for a tariff of €230 per tonne on banana imports. Their case is being assessed by an...
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