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Tommy Sotomayor, I #39;ve Got A Message For You!
A lot of people have been lambasting Tommy, and he needs to know that there are those who want him to stay strong.
By: Harry Woodcock
Secret Accounts and Tax Evasion
What are the consequences of the tremendous pressure exercised by the European Union and the USA with FATCA on Switzerland because of his banking secrecy? Has this pressure an impact on the...
By: Swiss Banking Lawyers
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Secret Accounts and Tax Evasion - Video
ESC President calls on EU to reduce health inequality in Europe
The European Union should reduce health gaps between eastern and western countries, according to Professor Panos Vardas, president of the European Society of Cardiology. Speaking at a health...
By: EurActiv
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ESC President calls on EU to reduce health inequality in Europe - Video
LONDON: The European Union is preparing to take action to secure gas supplies this winter if its biggest supplier, Russia, cuts exports due to the crisis in Ukraine, a draft document seen by Reuters showed.
The measures could include making use of existing powers to ban companies from selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker cargoes outside Europe, keep more gas in reserve, and order industry to stop using gas.
The draft document, which confirms information from a European Commission source, said the EU could take emergency action to ensure that more coordinated use is made of facilities for converting LNG back into natural gas and of gas storage capacity.
This could be done "when the normal functioning of the market does not lead to the optimal use of those facilities," the document said.
Tankers from countries like Qatar and Algeria bring LNG to European via Atlantic and Mediterranean ports, but European buyers often re-sell those cargoes abroad for higher prices rather than supplying their domestic market.
Despite the proposed EU measures, southeast Europe will struggle to find enough gas to meet demand this winter as its infrastructure is not well enough developed to bring non-Russian gas into the region.
Russia is Europe's biggest supplier of oil, coal and natural gas, and its gas pipelines through Ukraine are currently the subject of political manoeuvring as Europe and Moscow clash over the latter's military action in Ukraine.
Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom meets around a third of Europe's gas demand, and it sends almost half of these supplies via Ukraine.
While western Europe needs relatively little Russian gas, the dependency rises steadily towards the East, with some EU countries such as Bulgaria and the Baltic states relying entirely on Gazprom, triggering fears of freezing households this winter should Russian supplies be cut.
In order to prepare for such a disruption, the EU has drafted a list of short-term measures.
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European Union prepares powers to deal with Russian winter gas cut
LONDON: European Union countries struggling to meet their 2020 renewable targets are likely to buy renewable energy from their neighbours to cut costs, an EU official said on Thursday.
Only Norway and Sweden have so far signed such an agreement but Joachim Balke, policy officer at the European Commission's energy unit said he expects more to strike similar pacts.
"We do have some member states ... approaching us, which are looking for partners to cooperate," he said at an industry event in London.
As a part of an EU goal to generate 20 per cent of its final energy consumption from renewable sources, each member state has its own renewable energy target.
In the latest interim report, published by the Commission in 2013, Britain, the Netherlands, Malta, Luxembourg, Latvia and France have so far failed to meet their indicative trajectories for reaching their 2020 targets.
Balke said as 2020 approaches, countries are more likely to turn to so-called renewable energy trading to meet their goals.
"Some member states are now reaching the point where it becomes relatively expensive to continue on their national trajectory only using national resources (to meet renewable targets), so in a sense the urgency to use these mechanisms is starting to become bigger," he said.
Under the EU rules, if a country cannot source enough renewable energy domestically to meet its target, it can buy renewable energy from a country which is exceeding its goals to make up the shortfall.
Britain and Ireland started discussions about entering a renewable power pact but fell short of agreeing a deal earlier this year after deciding more work needed to be done.
The Commission wants to develop a EU-wide renewables market but faced a setback in July when the EU's Court of Justice ruled that EU member states can continue to limit renewables support schemes to within their national borders.
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More European Union countries seen buying renewable power from neighbours