The UN climate conferences are the kind on international tribunes, where the European Union can present its opinions with pride. It’s not only that the EU has unilaterally set a target to cut down green-house emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, but also because this programme is on track to achieve targets. On […]EU sets ambitious targets for the Warsaw climate conference
November 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The UN climate conferences are the kind on international tribunes, where the European Union can present its opinions with pride. It’s not only that the EU has unilaterally set a target to cut down green-house emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, but also because this programme is on track to achieve targets. On […]EU plans to exploit the Mediterranean Sea and the wealth beneath it
July 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At a time when the Mediterranean Sea is not at its most peaceful times the European Commission presented a study which finds that the “establishment of maritime zones, including Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), in the Mediterranean would benefit the EU’s Blue Growth and wider sustainability agendas”. The study is entitled “Costs and benefits arising from […]Merkel, Mercedes and Volkswagen to abolish European democracy
July 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
That the German automotive industry is one of the strongest in the world is not news. Most Europeans are rather content in the idea that Europe is well represented in the fierce global automotive arena, not because we are or will ever be shareholders of Mercedes or Volkswagen, but rather because when we see an […]EU Council: The US airlines may freely pollute the European air
April 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Union dignitaries could at least have waited for the American Secretary of State, John Kerry, to leave Brussels before offering him yesterday our European dignity as a gift, for his first official visit to the EU capital city. The day that Kerry set his foot on Brussels, the European Council revoked the obligation […]European Commission: the LED lights of your Audi A6 shall save our planet
April 15, 2013 by 3 Comments
How many of you took your stunning black Audi A6 3.0 liter for a ride on the evening of the 11th of April? Do you remember the moment you switched on the LED driving lights and you felt an unprecedented bliss thinking that you are not only rich but you are also protecting the environment? […]Commissioner sings “Volar-e” but the European driver no “Cantar-e”
March 7, 2013 by 2 Comments
It was the last day of February when the European Commission decided to organize a pompous event to test the “amazing” performance of a new electric race car in the Formula 1 Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Its name is Volar-e and I am sure Antonio Tajani, the Commissioner responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship that […]Ship Recycling is the Commission’s Titanic
February 20, 2013 by 1 Comment
It was the symbolic date of 12/12/12 that the international NGO, Center for International Environmental Law, decided to publish a legal opinion denouncing as 100% illegal the European Commission’s proposal for a new regulation on ship recycling. This coincided with the legal analysis by the former chief counsel of the European Commission , Dr. Ludwig […]The EU pollution rights trading system frozen
February 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The recent collapse of the European Union emissions trading system (EU-ETS) revealed the flimsy grounds on which the EU has built its policy against the climate change. The idea was to make polluting expensive but not much so. How thin were the foundations of this system started to clearly emerge, when the economic crisis knocked […]EU Commission spends billions without achieving targets
February 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
One after the other all the major EU Commission programmes widely advertised for their efficiency are being judged by the Court of Auditors as ill implemented and falling short of targets. Today it’s the municipal waste management, yesterday was the humanitarian aid to Africa and tomorrow God knows what. Mind you that the kind of […]European car industry: The Germans want it all
December 21, 2012 by 1 Comment
That the German cars are gas guzzlers is a fact beyond reasonable doubt, not because they are badly engineered, that they are not, but simply because they are usually powered by engines of many thousands of cm2 cylinders. Those powerful Mercedes, BMWs, Porsches, Audis and even Volkswagens produce hundreds of PSIs, but at the same time they […]Who really cares for the environment?
November 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The European Commission is famous for its practice to generously subsidise a large number of NGOs, which have been created almost exclusively for this purpose. That is, to swallow money from the European taxpayer and in return offer their tribune to Commissioners and other EU dignitaries to be exposed to media. This is a well-known […]Is a uniform CO2 emission linked car taxation possible in the EU?
November 25, 2012 by 1 Comment
Motor vehicles have being for decades the easy target of many forms of taxation, especially in post WWII Western Europe. Taxes on acquisition, on ownership, on motoring, on licences are but a few. The initial idea behind, in the minds of politicians who supported the imposition of taxes on cars, was that private ownership of […]
