Janusz Wojciechowski, the EU’s agriculture commissioner, wants to crack down on the environmental impact of intensive animal farming, but apart from animal welfare groups, his calls have so far met with mixed reactions. In France, Italy and Poland, there are less than 80 pigs farmed per per 100 hectares of utilised agricultural land – a figure which rises to 452, 473 and 690 in Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, the Polish commissioner said on Twitter. “As part of the Green Deal, it will be necessary to address the problem of…
Read MoreMonth: February 2020
One out, one more to go: with Fosun departed only Kenes Rakishev and Roman Trotsenko are competing for GV Gold
The major Chinese investment fund Fosun steps down from the competition for one of the few gold mining companies available for sale. It has been reported that Fosun no longer pursuits the acquisition of Russian GV Gold mining company. RBK, a reputable source in business information, said that only Kenes Rakishev from Kazakhstan and Roman Trotsenko from Russia left competing for the Yakutia and Irkutsk mines. Fosun official representative, Mayskiy List Ltd, will likely to recall the previously requested permission from the Russian Competition Authority. The request was filed in…
Read MoreThe oil giant BP seeks to rethink itself with the goal of achieving zero carbon emissions in 2050
BP set one of the oil sector’s most ambitious targets for curbing carbon emissions on Wednesday (12 February) as new chief executive Bernard Looney launched the biggest revamp in the company’s 111-year history. “We have got to change and change profoundly because the world is changing fast and so are society’s expectations of us,” Looney said in his first major speech as CEO, after earlier highlighting a need to “reinvent BP”. “It is aiming to reduce and neutralise the carbon in the oil and gas that we dig out of…
Read MoreTrade war cuts US whiskey sales in EU
Europeans have developed a taste for American whiskey over the past decade but trade disputes have slashed US exports of the booze, an American trade group said Wednesday (12 February). Washington and Brussels are in the midst of a multifaceted trade feud that included punitive US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and the EU retaliating in June 2018 by slapping a 25% tax on some US goods, notably bourbon. That took a chunk out of US whiskey exports to Europe last year, which fell by 27 percent, the Distilled…
Read MorePalestinian leader warns UN on Trump’s ‘Swiss cheese’ peace
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday (11 February) urged the UN Security Council to reject President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan, saying it would splinter Palestinian lands and never bring lasting peace. Brandishing a large map of a future Palestine as laid out by Trump, Abbas denounced it as a “Swiss cheese” deal that would give the Palestinians only a “fragmented state” without control of their airspace, territorial waters or East Jerusalem. “Who among you would accept such a state?” Abbas asked, as he warned that Israel would create an…
Read MoreItaly is facing a real threat due to low birth rates, the president warns
Italy’s future is threatened by its diminishing birthrate, President Sergio Mattarella said on Tuesday (11 February), as new data showed the population had shrunk once again in 2019. Italy’s growing demographic crisis, with births falling and life expectancy rising, is one reason for its chronically stagnant economy, and the situation is getting worse. National statistics agency ISTAT said there were 435,000 births last year, down 5,000 on 2018 and the lowest level ever recorded in Italy. Deaths totalled 647,000 in 2019, some 14,000 more than the year earlier. “This is…
Read MoreEurope must resist attempts to ease disposable plastic laws
The EU’s recently agreed laws to tackle the most polluting single-use plastics are in danger of being watered down by industry players, writes Delphine Lévi Alvarès. Delphine Lévi Alvarès is coordinator of the Rethink Plastic alliance and European coordinator of the Break Free From Plastic movement. Plastics are one of the fastest-growing pollutants in the world and their damaging impacts on the environment and human health are well known. EU citizens have been calling for politicians to tackle the problem – EU lawmakers responded in 2019 with ambitious new rules…
Read MoreChina to France: do not allow Huawei discrimination in 5G networks
The Chinese embassy in Paris on Sunday (9 February) urged the French government not to discriminate against Huawei as it selects suppliers for its 5G mobile network, saying it feared the company would face more constraints than rivals. China’s Huawei, a global giant in telecoms network equipment, is the centre of an international political storm as the United States seeks to convince countries to ban the company from their mobile networks. Washington says its technology could allow “back doors” for Chinese spying – an allegation denied by Huawei and Beijing….
Read MoreMember States “in the Dark” on Commission Talks with US
A group of EU member states are unhappy about the lack of information from the European Commission on the trade talks with the US and have expressed their “nervousness” about what could be in the deal, various diplomats and European officials told EURACTIV. When Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with US President Donald Trump in Davos (Switzerland) in late January, she said she would travel to Washington soon and both sides would reach an agreement to settle the trade dispute “in a few weeks”. Von der Leyen was…
Read MoreShelter in Greece for refugees “only for a fixed period” and reversible – Minister
Greece will only grant refugee protection for three years as it struggles to integrate foreigners, the conservative government’s migration minister Notis Mitarachi said in remarks published Sunday (9 February). Greece last year was the first EU port of entry for migrants and has struggled to manage the influx, with many kept in overcrowded camps on the Aegean Greek islands near the Turkish coast. “The asylum we grant has a duration of three years, it is not indefinite,” Mitarachi told To Vima weekly. “If conditions change in a country (of origin),…
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