European Commission

Czech interim PM among candidates to join European Commission

The Irish Times (Free subscription) | yesterday

PRAGUE – Czech interim prime minister Jan Fischer is among candidates to join the European Commission, Czech media reported yesterday.

Staveley Head: European Commission Law Sets Unrealistic Co2 Emission Target for Vans

Market Wire (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

FLINT, UNITED KINGDOM (MARKET WIRE) One of the country's leading van insurance providers, Staveley Head, has openly supported the opinion of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) that the tough new law from the European Commission setting a target for van emissions at 175g CO2/km or 42.8 mpg by 2014 is too much too soon. The SMMT states that the industry is committed to a programme...

Tax the Traders! Make Wall Street Pay its Share With a "Tobin Tax"

I cite (Free subscription) | yesterday

Various proposals for a Tobin tax have received renewed media attention in recent months. President Obama gave indirect support for the tax in a Press briefing on July 22, when he recommended that the government consider new fees on financial companies pursuing "far out transactions". Leaders from France, Germany, and the European Commission endorsed putting a speculation tax on the agenda...

international bioterrorism tabletop exercise

subrealism (Free subscription) | yesterday

Interpol | In September 2009, senior law enforcement officials, health care professionals and experts from international organizations joined their forces to confront a chilling crisis – the plague had just been unleashed on their countries by unknown evildoers. A fictional scenario with a serious aim Fortunately, this terrifying situation was a scenario under control, and the civilian authorities...

Czech premier turns down nomination for EU executive

The Earth Times Online Newspaper (Free subscription) | yesterday

Prague - Caretaker Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Saturday indirectly turned down an offer by two major Czech political parties to become the Czech Republic's nominee for the European Commission. The premier confirmed that the two largest partie...

Banking Barclays and HSBC to give results

News-Insurances (Free subscription) | yesterday

Banking giants Barclays and HSBC should confirm a widening gap in performance with their part-nationalised counterparts when they report third quarter figures on Tuesday. The duo have avoided Government support and the subsequent onerous European Commission penalties that have caused seismic changes at Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. However, recent half year figures from [...]

• Barclays and HSBC to give results - Independent.ie - European RSS Feed

European Regulators Target Another American Tech Company

OpenMarket (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

The European Commission is once again targeting an American tech company with an antitrust investigation. This time the EC has its sights set on Oracle and it’s $7.4 billion bid for Sun Microsystems. In short, the worry is that if Oracle…

Sun Microsystems narrows first-quarter loss

Market Watch (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Sun Microsystems Inc. said late Friday that its fiscal first-quarter loss narrowed to $120 million, or 16 cents a share, from $1.68 billion, or $2.24 a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $2.24 billion from $2.99 billion last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research estimated a quarterly loss of 25 cents a share on revenue of $2.31 billion. In April, Oracle...

Former CEO: MySQL's Installed Base Will Keep it Independent

eWeek (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

In an interview with eWEEK, former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos says there is there's no rational argument for preventing Oracle from acquiring all of Sun, including MySQL with its open source relational database software. The competitive pressure that MySQL exerts on the market will preserve the independence of the database no matter who owns the product, Mickos asserted. - While Oracle tussles with the...

Europe and U.S: “A Global Approach to Global Issues”

AAAS News (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

Leshner: U.S., Europe Share “an Obligation to Help Build Scientific Capacity in the Developing World” In a Brussels address, AAAS CEO Alan I. Leshner says AAAS and European Commission partners must work together to address “the most important problems facing global society.”

Europe: Commission consultation on access to company registers

Corporate Law and Governance (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

The European Commission has published a green paper to launch a consultation on improving access to company registers across the EU. It has also published a progress report concerning the interconnection of European company registers in which it describes the current legal and factual position regarding access to information and co-operation between business registries. The Commission provides this...

Microsoft Will Be Challenged By Google, Opera, Mozilla on EU Settlement

eWeek (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

Microsoft and the European Commission may be close to a deal on packaging Internet Explorer 8 with Windows 7, with Redmond agreeing to offer users an automatic ballot screen from which they can choose a rival browser. Such an agreement would alleviate the Commissions antitrust concerns, but Google, Opera and Mozilla plan on asking the regulatory body for as-yet-unannounced changes to the agreement....

EUROPE: EC logs conclusions on shoe duties investigation

Just Style (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

The European Commission has been accused of ignoring feedback about anti-dumping duties on imports of leather shoes from China and Vietnam, after sending Member States its final conclusions into the investigation the day after industry concerns were filed.

EU agrees on rules to reform telecommunications markets

JURIST (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

[JURIST] The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers on Thursday unanimously reached an agreement on rules to increase competition between telecommunications providers and protect the consumer rights of Internet and mobile phone users. The agreement on the European Union (EU) Telecoms Reform package was reached after intense negotiations by the conciliation committee, which was arranged by...

EU Could Issue Legal Objection Against Oracle-Sun Deal

ITProPortal (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009

Oracle could face legal objection from the European Commission for its proposed $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, the Financial Times reported.

Open Source tools for the Grid community

gredia | 03/09/2009

The GREDIA research project partly funded by the European Commission has just completed, making available to the Grid community tools that can be used for building and improving Grid applications. Mentioning just a few we have released: - APPEA: A user-friendly Grid application development platform - DRLS: A Distributed Replica Location Service for searching multimedia content, based on P2P overlay...

Rural France Resists Change

ifp | 04/08/2009

A new report on land use in France shows just why many international buyers view France as an attractive place to buy a rural retreat. The report* from the European Commission classifies only 5% of the surface area of the country as ‘urban land’. The vast majority of the country is composed of either agricultural land (60%), or forest and other natural space (34%). The balance is made up of semi-humid

La Baule- World Investment Conference 2009: a global vision for the future of Europe

xtoff | 16/03/2009

A delegation of Europe + Foundation, led by former French Prime Minister, and French Senator Jean-Pierre Raffarin presented to Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, its working papers on how to strengthen the European market’s attractiveness for investments, technologies and skills. The Europe + Foundation organises the 7th annual edition of the World Investment Conference. Europe