Bellona nuclear digest. May 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
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Publish date: December 22, 2008
Written by: Eivind Hoff
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The European Union (EU) has a seven-year budget that sets an overall cap on total expenditures over the period, with ‘sub-caps’ for the main budget chapters. Because food prices have been higher than expected in 2008, the payment of EU agricultural subsidies has been much lower than budgeted. “Underspent,” this money would normally return to the member states’ budgets, but European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has recently proposed that in 2008 and 2009, a total of €5bn would be reallocated from agriculture to energy projects in the following proportion:
The proposals have been framed as part of the effort to boost public spending in the EU to revive the economy, but member states that are net contributors to the EU budget first want a greater reassurance about the specifics of these projects in order to guarantee an added value of the money being spent by the EU instead of returning to national treasuries. For 2008 “underspending” to be reallocated, a deal must be reached by the end of the year.
The proposals testify to the increasing momentum for a general redirection of EU funds to projects of truly common European interests with future benefits, instead of backward-looking subsidies for big farms. For more details about this system, see the main European affairs newsweekly, the European Voice.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
But it’s unlikely to impact emissions from shipping along the Northern Sea Route.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
The following op-ed, written by Bellona’s Charles Digges, originally appeared in The Moscow Times. In recent months, the Russian nuclear in...