BBC News-New EU energy rules for TVs and other household gadgets
New EU energy rules for TVs and other household gadgets European Union rules will oblige new networked devices such as modems and internet-connected televisions to switch themselves off when.
By: Bong songha
See the original post here:
BBC News-New EU energy rules for TVs and other household gadgets - Video
Aynsley China in Longton.
THE decision by Aynsley China to cut its historic ties with the Potteries and decamp to Eastern Europe should come as no surprise.
It will be just another manufacturer taking advantage of Britains membership of the European Union, which was formed to ease the movement of both capital and Labour within its borders.
Whether its a migrant worker employed locally or one working for the likes of Aynsley China in Poland, you can bet the wages will be cut-throat, bottom dollar.
The answer is to leave the European Union and revert to the days when we were independent and belonged to a family of nations called the Commonwealth.
We had privileged access to some of the potentially richest developing markets In the world, and Commonwealth Preference provided the nation with low cost food.
This is in contrast to the fiasco that followed with the European Union and its mountains of food.
This policy was to placate the continental farmer at the cost of increasing the average British households food bill by 20 per week.
This begs the question who is going to extricate us from this unholy mess?
One would expect it to be the Labour Party, once the traditional defender of working peoples rights.
Read the original here:
The Sentinel published 'Quitting the European Union would stop firms like Aynsley...
Migrants on the Ezadeen arrive at Corigliano harbour in Italy. Photo: AFP
Brussels: The European Union has vowed to fight people smugglers' new tactic of abandoning "ghost ships" full of migrants off European coasts.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it was following closely the events surrounding the crewless Ezadeen merchant ship, which was drifting toward Italy's southern shores carrying 450 migrants when Italian sailors took control of it on Friday.
It was the second time in three days Italian authorities found themselves racing to rescue hundreds of migrants from an ageing freighter that traffickers had pointed towards Italy and abandoned, leaving the ship to plow through wintry seas at top speed with no one at the helm, heading for the coastline.
The ship, which traffickers pointed towards Italy, then abandoned, was carrying 450 people. Photo: AFP
Rescuers were able to board the ship only after it ran out of fuel and stopped, and by afternoon they were towing it to shore. But the episode was confirmation traffickers had hit on a new tactic to extract ever greater profits from human misery while eluding apprehension.
Advertisement
"When we called the ship to ask about its status, a migrant woman responded, saying, 'We are alone, and we have no one to help us'," said Commander Filippo Marini, an Italian Coast Guard spokesman.
Ezadeen, a 49-year-old livestock carrier sailing under the flag of Sierra Leone, which departed from a Turkish port, had been left on autopilot, Marini said. Paramedics reported that the migrants, most of whom were believed to be Syrian, were in good health, he added.
Until recently, migrants going to Italy by sea arrived primarily in smaller boats that sailed north from North Africa. The shift to steel-hulled cargo ships approaching from the east denoted a new strategy, an Italian naval official said, and traffickers were secure in the knowledge that no one was going to allow a boat to crash on Italian or Greek shores.
See more here:
EU to fight new people smuggler tactic of 'ghost ships'
Buying and selling of European Union carbon allowances on ICE Futures Europe declined for the first time last year after the bloc began withholding supply to reduce a surplus thats built up since 2008.
Trading slipped 5.2 percent, according to data from the exchange compiled by Bloomberg. Benchmark prices rose 48 percent in 2014 and averaged 6.01 euros ($7.24) a metric ton.
Lawmakers took more than three years to install the first measure aimed at reducing the surplus, beginning last March to retain the equivalent of six months permit supply temporarily. They are now discussing a permanent remedy. Activity also slowed as banks exited trading of commodities including carbon, according to Andrei Marcu, head of the carbon-market forum at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.
The delayed decision on the markets future is not helping, Marcu said by phone Dec. 31. Companies from cement makers to utilities to car manufacturers still need a strong signal that the political will goes beyond declarations.
Volume across all EU carbon futures contracts fell to 6.88 billion tons on ICE last year from 7.26 billion tons in 2013. The 2014 figure is still the second-highest ever for a market that started in 2005 as the main policy to help Europe meet commitments made under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The price of emission rights will rise another 62 percent by June 30, according to the median of 16 trader and analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg last month. UBS Group AG said Oct. 2 carbon permits might climb as high as 15 euros in 2015.
James Dunseath, ICE spokesman in London, declined to comment when contacted by e-mail.
Benchmark allowances fell as much as 3.5 percent today to 7.08 euros a ton on ICE as German power for delivery in 2016 dropped to a record 32.35 euros a megawatt-hour, according to broker data compiled by Bloomberg. Lower electricity prices can discourage utilities from selling power forward, curbing demand for carbon contracts typically used as a hedge.
To reduce the accumulated excess of more than a years carbon supply, the EU proposed introducing a market stability reserve in 2021 that would adjust the amount of allowances auctioned. Contracts would be removed from the market and put in the reserve if supply exceeded a fixed limit and returned in the event of a shortage.
The bloc already began withholding 900 million tons of permits last year under the interim measure, called backloading because supply is to return to the market at the decades end.
Read the original post:
EU Carbon Market Has First Volume Decline After Brake on Supply
The Future of Europe Episodee 3 "European Union"
A new threat has come, is it good or evil?
By: Parker #39;N David Mapping
See more here:
The Future of Europe Episodee 3 "European Union" - Video