Transport Europe back issues from Tuesday, February 20:
ABB/DAIMLER BENZ TRANSPORTATION GETS RAILWAY ORDER FROM GREECE
Feb 20, 1996 ... ADTRANZ, the rail venture between ABB, the Swedish-Swiss electrical engineering group, and DAIMLER BENZ TRANSPORTATION, part of Germany's biggest manufacturing company, has received an order valued at DM70 million ...
AEROSPATIALE TAKES CHARGE OF TECHNICOPOLIS PROGRAMME
Feb 20, 1996 ... The French aerospace company Aerospatiale has been entrusted with control of the Technicopolis programme, designed to explore the industrial potential of polymerisation by ionisation in the manufacture of composite components for railways, aviation and shipping. Part of the BRITE-EURAM ...
AI(R) EMERGES AS EUROPEAN ALTERNATIVE
Feb 20, 1996 ... Following the disappointments over Fokker, the Aero International Regional consortium AI(R), a joint venture launched by Aerospatiale (France), Alenia (Italy) and British Aerospace (United Kingdom), declared on January 29, that it plans to offer a European alternative to the North American ...
AID TO BELGIAN SHIPYARD WORKFORCE CLEARED
Feb 20, 1996 ... A BF 115 million social aid package in favour of the previous workforce of the Boelwerf shipyard in Belgium got the European Commission green light on January 24. The yard went bankrupt at the end of 1994 and ...
AIR LITTORAL BUYS 15 ATR REGIONAL AIRCRAFT
Feb 20, 1996 ... AIR LITTORAL, the French regional airline based in Montpellier, has ordered fifteen ATR 42-500 regional aircraft from the Franco-Italian consortium of AEROSPATIALE and ALENIA. The acquisition, which ...
AIR POLLUTION: EUROPEAN CITIES SUFFERING BADLY FROM VEHICLE EMISSIONS
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: The long-awaited stricter standards for polluting motor vehicle emissions that the European Commission is developing within the framework of the Auto-Oil programme "will not be unveiled before April or May", an official from the Environment Directorate-General commented on February ...
ANSALDO WINS CHINESE RAILWAY SIGNAL CONTRACT
Feb 20, 1996 ... ANSALDO TRASPORTI, part of the large Italian engineering group, said it has been awarded a signal contract worth USD 15.8 million by the Chinese railway Ministry. The contract covers signal ...
BOMBARDIER SELLS 5 PLANES TO BRYMON
Feb 20, 1996 ... BOMBARDIER, the Canadian defence procurement group, said BRYMON AIRWAYS, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways, acquired five used de Havilland Dash 8(x) series 300 aircraft through Bombardier's aircraft trading unit. Brymon, the UK-based regional airline operating the ...
BRITISH WORLD AIRLINES BUYS TWO ATR 72-210S
Feb 20, 1996 ... BRITISH WORLD AIRLINES says it is paying a total of around GBP 20 million for two new ATR 72-210s it ordered from French manufacturer Aero International (Regional). The aircraft will be used to ferry oil workers between Aberdeen and Sumburgh in the Shetland Islands under the terms of a ...
CALIFORNIA AS A MODEL FOR COMBATING CAR POLLUTION
Feb 20, 1996 ... "California has some practical answers to the air- pollution problems we have to address in Europe", says Ritt Bjerregaard, European Commissioner for the Environment. On a trip she made to the United States, mainly in the hope of getting a better idea of what follow-up to give to the ...
CARS: COURT DECLARES PARALLEL TRADERS' ACTIVITIES LEGAL
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: Independent car dealers (unrecognised traders in new vehicles) have the right to carry out their normal business and may not be considered as competing unfairly with dealers within official distribution networks. In a ruling handed down on February 15, the European Court of Justice ...
CARS: PRICE DIFFERENCES ON THE WANE IN THE EU
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: The European Commission's sixth study on car price differentials shows that just over a quarter (27%) of all models surveyed have price differentials of more than 20% from one EU country to another. This percentage has dropped considerably since the last report in May 1995 when ...
CEEP FINDS FAULT WITH EU RAIL POLICY
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation (CEEP) has highlighted "serious delays" in bringing in the planned separation between rail infrastructure and rail transport operations, one of the main provisions contained in Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of Community ...
CEN WORKING ON STANDARDS FOR ELECTRONIC HIGHWAYS
Feb 20, 1996 ... Electronic cards such as bank cards, telematics as applied to transport and multimedia for preserving the cultural heritage are the European Commission's three main priorities for standardisation. The Commission has accordingly awarded three briefs to the European Committee for ...
CER: EUROPEAN RAILWAYS CALL FOR ACTION ON SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: The Community of European Railways (CER) hopes that Community-level political rhetoric to the effect that rail transport can make an appreciable contribution to "sustainable" mobility, will translate into action. Heinz Durr, Chairman of Deutsche Bahn and also President of the CER ...
COHESION FUND CONDITIONALITY ACTION PROMISED BY SPRING 1997
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Commission will decide in the Spring of 1997 whether to apply the principles behind the so-called conditionality clauses of the European Union's Cohesion Fund and suspend the funds for Spain, Portugal and Greece, a top Commission official said on January 25. Eneko Landaburu, the ...
COMMISSION APPROVES STRUCTURAL FUND AID FOR ITALIAN PORT
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Commission announced on January 29 that it was granting regional aid worth ECU 40 million for the Italian port of Gioia Tauro. The EU will contribute to an ECU 120 million overall package which the Commission expects to generate up to 1,500 jobs in the area around the Calabrian ...
COMMISSION CHECKING ON CAR INSURANCE IMPLEMENTATION
Feb 20, 1996 ... In principle, under the Single Market insurance Directives, every European citizen has been entitled since July 1994 to take out car insurance with any EU insurance company which offers it under the provisions on the freedom to provide services, confirmed EU Financial Services Commissioner ...
COMMISSION CLEARS SIEMENS/LAGARDERE RAIL JOINT VENTURE
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Commission has given the green light to the proposed Franco-German joint venture between Siemens and Lagardere in the field of AGT (Automated Guideway Transit) and ATC (Automatic Train Control) systems. The 50/50 joint venture, called Matra Transport International, will mainly ...
COMMISSION CLEARS SWEDISH/FINNISH AUTOMOTIVE VENTURE
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Commission gave the green light on February 6 to Nokia Audio & Electronics AB (NAE) - a subsidiary of the Finnish Nokia Group, and the Swedish company, Autoliv AB to create a joint venture called Autoliv Nokia AB. NAE manufactures electronic systems for the automotive industry, ...
COMMISSION FORMALLY CLEARS IBERIA RESCUE PACKAGE
Feb 20, 1996 ... In what has been described as a "very depressing" decision by the British Transport Secretary, Sir George Young, the European Commission on January 31 formally rubber-stamped Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock's plan to clear the 87 billion Peseta rescue plan for the struggling Spanish ...
COMMISSION IN TALKS WITH DENMARK ON COMPETITION AT ELSINOR PORT
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Competition Commissioner, Karel Van Miert, has been holding talks with the Danish Transport Minister, Yan Trsjb rg, in an effort to find a solution to a competition complaint regarding the Danish port of Elsinor. The Danish shipping company, Mercandia, first lodged a complaint ...
COMMISSION OPENS DETAILED INVESTIGATION INTO SAAB-SCANIA AID
Feb 20, 1996 ... As announced in the previous issue of European Report, the European Commission, on February 7, opened a detailed inquiry into French state aid to Saab-Scania to finance investment in bus and chassis production lines in Angers in West France. The inquiry concerns aid of FF 190 million ...
COMMISSION SIMPLIFIES RULES FOR DE MINIMIS AID
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Commission decided on January 24 to widen the scope of the rules on de minimis state aid and raise the limit below which aid need not be notified to the Commission to ECU 100,000. In 1982, the competition watchdog decided that any aid Member States intended to grant which was ...
COMMISSION URGES SMALL AIRCRAFT MARKET RESTRUCTURING
Feb 20, 1996 ... The state of the European market for aircraft with fewer than 100 seats requires a major restructuring effort, according to Martin Bangemann, European Commissioner for Industry, and the representatives of the Industry Ministries of seven Member States (Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, the ...
COMMUNITY LAW: GERMANY REMINDED OF ITS EU OBLIGATIONS
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: Germany's leadership in the European integration process tends to conflict with its poor record on grafting EU Internal Market legislation onto national lawbooks and applying it in a proper manner. Speaking on February 7 in Bonn, EU Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti delivered ...
COMMUNITY TRANSIT SYSTEM: PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE OF ENQUIRY TO TACKLE FRAUD
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: Duties go unpaid on a third of all the cigarettes smoked in the European Union, according to experts. This is just one very small example of an apparently boundless racket. Concerned to quantify such fraud and attempt to reform a Community transit system based for too long on the ...
COMPETITION: INDUSTRY HERALDS VICTORY IN BATTLE OVER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: Exactly one year to the day after the European Commission held a public hearing on how EU competition rules on R&D agreements should be modified, the competition authority on January 31 finally approved a new Regulation granting a block exemption from EU competition rules to certain ...
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS: ITALIAN PRESIDENCY CALLS FOR DECISION ON NETWORKS
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: "The Council, having rejected the European Parliament's key amendments on trans-European networks relating to priority projects and environmental concerns, has decide to resume dialogue and to find a solution jointly with the Parliament on this crucial issue." As the start of the ...
DUTCH EMERGENCY AID FOR FOKKER TO BE VETTED AT COMMISSION
Feb 20, 1996 ... The Dutch Government's plan to grant 255 million Guilders, as well as 110 million Guilders in "pre-financing" for planes already ordered for the Dutch military, to the troubled aircraft manufacturer, Fokker, is to be vetted under state aid rules at the European Commission. Daimler-Benz AG, ...
ECONOMIC & SOCIAL COMMITTEE BACKS SHORT-SEA SHIPPING
Feb 20, 1996 ... Meeting in plenary session in Brussels on January 31 and February 1, the European Union's Economic and Social Committee adopted an Opinion lending its support to the recent European Commission Communication on the development of short-sea shipping. However, the EU's socio-economic advisory ...
ECU TWO MILLION EU GRANT TO COMBAT AIR POLLUTION
Feb 20, 1996 ... More than ECU two million is being awarded to an atmospheric pollution study and research programme, thanks to a decision by the European Commission. Using three planes specially adapted for this purpose (French, UK and German), the project will be carried out by the Institut National des ...
EIB COMMITMENT FOR TRANS-EUROPEAN NETWORKS IN SCANDINAVIA
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Investment Bank is continuing its support for trans-European network (TEN) projects in Scandinavia. Three loan agreements totalling ECU 370 million for major rail and road projects were recently signed: - A loan of ECU 160 million has been advanced for the construction of the ...
EIB: GOOD LENDING SCORE FOR TRANS-EUROPEAN NETWORK PROJECTS
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: All the top priority trans-European network projects have been examined by the European Investment Bank or are on appraisal with working groups in which the Bank is involved, according to the EIB's annual report. Not all the initiatives are enjoying its largesse, but the EIB is ...
EIB LOAN FOR TENS INFRASTRUCTURE IN SPAIN
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to lend ECU 61.5 million (10 billion Pesetas) to the Credit Local de France - Espana S.A. to finance small and medium-sized public infrastructure projects in Spain. While focusing principally on supporting infrastructure in assisted areas, loans will ...
ENERGY: BUSINESS FORMS SUSTAINABLE ENERGY COUNCIL
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: Over 40 businesses, non-governmental organisations, scientific institutes and prominent individuals launched a "European Business Council for a Sustainable Energy Future"* to the press on February 8 in Brussels. Dubbing itself "E5", the Council has emulated a sister project in the ...
EP COMMITTEE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL INQUIRY INTO LOCKERBIE DISASTER
Feb 20, 1996 ... In response to a petition presented by the families of the victims of the December 1988 Lockerbie air disaster (in South West Scotland) that claimed 276 lives as a result of a terrorist attack, the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions has urged the EU Member States to set up an ...
EU ASKS JAPAN FOR MORE LANDING SLOTS AT NARITA AIRPORT
Feb 20, 1996 ... Japan's moves to deregulate its economy have faltered and tough measures are needed to ensure that reform continues, the European Commission has warned. A high-level Commission delegation, led by Gianluigi Giola, the Deputy Director-General for External Economic Relations, visited Tokyo for ...
EU COUNCIL ENDORSES COMMON POSITION ON INLAND WATERWAYS
Feb 20, 1996 ... The EU's Council of Ministers has acted by a qualified majority to adopt a common position on a draft Regulation seeking to ensure freedom to provide services in the inland waters transport sector. The German delegation was alone in voting against the common position. The new rules apply to ...
EU FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME: IRDAC TIPS FOR VTH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: The European Union's 5th Framework Programme of Research and Technological Development should cater more for the needs of industry. This change in direction does not necessarily mean more applied research, though. Basic research is still a vital component but it has to be less ...
EU/UNITED STATES: GERMAN OPEN SKY PACT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO EU STRATEGY
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: The announcement made on February 2 that a preliminary "open sky" Agreement had been secured between the United States and Germany (the first one of its kind with one of the main EU Member States) has not gone down too well at the European Commission. During a meeting of EU ...
EUROCONTROL'S RESPONSIBILITIES FURTHER INCREASED
Feb 20, 1996 ... Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based air traffic control organisation, has further broadened its scope by taking responsibility for tactical operations in British (including Irish) and Italian airspace. Madrid is due to transfer responsibility ...
EUROPEAN AIRLINES INCREASE PASSENGER TRAFFIC IN 1995
Feb 20, 1996 ... Passenger traffic on the 25 leading European airlines increased by 7.6% in 1995, according to figures published on January 25, by the Association of European Airlines (AEA). The number of international passengers boarded last year grew by 10 million to a total of 140 million. Passenger ...
EUROPEAN BIODIESEL BOARD SET UP
Feb 20, 1996 ... A group of companies accounting for about 90% of European production of biodiesel (worth more than USUSD 300 million in 1995), has decided to form an international group for biodiesel under the name "European Biodiesel Board" with the aim of providing a platform for the discussion of ...
FIAT RAIL WINS PORTUGUESE CONTRACT
Feb 20, 1996 ... FIAT FERROVIARIA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fiat SpA, won a contract to provide technology and trains for a high-speed rail link in Portugal. The deal is worth some 20 billion escudos (USD 130 million). ...
GEC ALSTHOM GETS SPANISH TRAIN ORDER
Feb 20, 1996 ... Franco-British venture GEC ALSTHOM said a consortium which it led had won an order worth about FF370 million to supply Spanish national railway company RENFE with 10 three-car train sets. GEC-Alsthom is a joint venture between Britain's ...
GEC-ALSTHOM TO SUPPLY TRAINSETS TO ISRAEL
Feb 20, 1996 ... GEC-ALSTHOM TRANSPORTE, the Spanish unit of the French-UK train maker, has been awarded a contract worth ECU30 million to supply 17 trainsets to the Ports and Railways Authority of Israel. The equipment will ...
GEC ALSTHOM WINS MEXICO CITY METRO CONTRACT
Feb 20, 1996 ... GEC ALSTHOM said it had won an order worth 20 million Ecus to supply BOMBARDIER CONCARRIL and CAF with traction systems for 13 six-car train sets for the Mexico City underground metro train system. The ...
GERMAN CAR MAKERS PREPARED TO RECYCLE VEHICLES "AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE"
Feb 20, 1996 ... Car manufacturers in Germany are willing to recover old vehicles and meet the costs of recycling the materials, according to an article that appeared in the Germany daily Focus, on February 5. The Automobile Industry Federation (VDA) sees this as way of avoiding the more coercive measures ...
GERMAN-FRENCH EXPRESS MAIL ALLIANCE
Feb 20, 1996 ... SERNAM, an autonomous express parcel and mail service of SNCF, the French state-owned railways, said it has concluded a five-year agreement with KUHNE & NAGEL, the German international movers and express mail group. Initially the alliance will cover Germany, Switzerland and ...
GERMAN SUBSIDIARY OF GEC-ALSTHOM WINS DB ORDER
Feb 20, 1996 ... The German railways DEUTSCHE BAHN (DB) has just ordered 58 trains with three carriages each, to be used on Hamburg suburban lines, from LINKE-HOFMANN-BUSCH, the German subsidiary of the Franco-British group GEC ALSTHOM. The order, ...
HIGH-SPEED TRAIN: GERMAN COURT OF AUDITORS CRITICISES TRANSRAPID
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: The highly controversial Transrapid magnetic levitation train, designed to cover the 300 kilometres between Hamburg and Berlin in less than one hour, is proving to be more expensive than expected. This warning was made on February 1 by the German Court of Auditors in a report it ...
INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH: EXTRA FUNDING FOR TRANSPORT SYSTESMS, AIRCRAFT AND CAR OF THE FUTURE
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: A new generation of aircraft (more competitive as regards production, performance and use), energy-saving and clean-air vehicles, the intermodality and interoperability of the transport systems, multimedia educational software and environmental technologies - these are the five ...
INLAND WATERWAYS: MEPS PRESS FOR EARLY, BUT AIDED, LIBERALISATION
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: In adopting a report by Leen van der Waal (EN, NL) on February 13, the European Parliament has demanded the early deregulation of the inland waterways sector, while at the same time calling for the liberalisation process to be backed up by additional measures to preserve the ...
INSURANCE: FRAUD, LIABILITY, CAR SPARES AND ENVIRONMENT CHALLENGE INSURERS
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: Insurers face a wide range of challenges in Europe, in addition to the obvious concerns of making the Single Market work. The fight against insurance fraud, the insurance implications of environmental damage, liability insurance, and the cost of car spares are among the list of ...
IRU RESISTS HIGHER CHARGES ON BRENNER MOTORWAY
Feb 20, 1996 ... The idea of increasing toll charges on the Brenner motorway, providing a link via the Alps between Austria and Italy, has come under fire from the International Road Transport Union (IRU) for being environmentally unfriendly and hardly calculated to make savings. What is more, it ...
JAGUAR LIKELY TO GET MOST OF REQUESTED STATE AID DURING FEBRUARY
Feb 20, 1996 ... The European Commission is due to decide, in the very near future, to give the UK authorities clearance to grant most of the GBP 80 million requested state aid package to luxury car manufacturer, Jaguar, according to Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert. This case has been under ...
JAMES CURRIE APPOINTED DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF EUROPEAN COMMISSION DG XXI
Feb 20, 1996 ... James Currie of Scotland will be appointed Director-General of the European Commission's DG XXI (Taxation and Customs). This appointment, which is due to be made official at the Commission's weekly meeting on February 7, comes three months after Peter Wilmott was dismissed from the same ...
KLM FINALISES DEAL TO BUY QUARTER OF KENYA AIRWAYS
Feb 20, 1996 ... The Kenyan authority said that Dutch airline KLM had paid USD 26 million for a 26% stake in national carrier Kenya Airways. Finance Minister Musalia Mudavadi said the Government planned to retain a 23% stake in the airline while 51% would be sold though public flotation, to institutions and ...
LUFTHANSA-HINDUJAS IN ASIAN CARGO DEAL
Feb 20, 1996 ... Germany's LUFTHANSA plans to tie up with the HINDUJA GROUP's Indian flagship, ASHOK LEYLAND, within the next month to tap India's growing export market to South-East Asia. Lufthansa will have a 40% share of the new company, LUFTHANSA CARGO INDIA, scheduled to start operations in mid-1996 ....
MERGER CONTROL: COMMISSION WANTS MORE POWER ON MERGER REGULATION
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: In a move intended to initiate a wide-ranging debate on EU merger control, the European Commission approved, on January 31, a Green Paper on reforming the 1989 Merger Regulation. The competition authority is proposing that the current turnover thresholds which determine whether a ...
NEW INJURIOUS PRICING INSTRUMENT FOR SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY
Feb 20, 1996 ... A brand new trade policy instrument to stop ships being sold at knock-down prices will come into force on July 1, 1996. EU Foreign Ministers gathered in Brussels on January 29/30 adopted a Regulation to determine factors that might help decide whether a vessel is being sold below its "normal ...
ONE EUROPEAN FLIGHT IN SIX DELAYED IN 1995
Feb 20, 1996 ... No less than 18.4% of inter-European flights were delayed by more than fifteen minutes in 1995, compared with 13.3% the previous year, according to figures published on February 12 by the Association of European Airlines (AEA). As the AEA Secretary-General acknowledged, not since 1990 have ...
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT: PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ACCUSES COMMISSION OF GOING TOO FAR
Feb 20, 1996 ... Summary: In adopting a report tabled by Werner Langen (EPP, Germany) on January 25, the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy came out against the amendments put forward by the European Commission to adapt public procurement Directives to the ...
ROAD TRANSPORT PERFORMANCE INDEX
Feb 20, 1996 ... The International Road Transport Union (IRU) has developed an economic indicator designed to provide a quarterly and yearly forecast of variations in GDP (gross domestic product), volumes of goods transported, and sales of utility vehicles in the 17 European members of the Organisation for ...