Britain's six million carers won a landmark victory today when the European Court of Justice upheld the right of a woman who was denied time off work to look after her disabled son.

Sharon Coleman, who was forced to resign her work as a legal secretary, claims that she suffered "discrimination by association" in breach of EU rules.

In a ground-breaking ruling the European Court judges held that an EU Directive which outlaws discrimination at work on grounds of disability is not limited to disabled people themselves but extends also to those caring for them.

The ruling also reinforces the previous law that any discrimination at work by association - whether on grounds of religion or belief, age or sexual orientation is also prohibited.

In a withering indictment to be released next week, the European Commission accuses Bulgaria of high-level corruption and maladministration in the handling of EU funds. The report outlines measures to freeze further aid.

New European Union member Bulgaria has already crossed the bloc's ruling powers just over eighteen months after joining the EU.

As a result of investigations into the management of EU funds in the bloc's most recent and poorest newcomer, the EU report will confirm that it has banned four Bulgarian agencies from handling EU funds because of corruption, freezing nearly 1 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in pre-accession aid and threatening future payments.

In leaked statements reprinted earlier this week, EU investigators said that, among other discrepancies, they had found that Bulgaria had misused money from EU farm aid projects worth some 32 million euros.

The EU report described a "criminal network" of more than 50 Bulgarian companies and foreign-based firms, centered on two businessmen with alleged ties to top Bulgarian politicians, the Focus news agency reported.

Belgian King Albert II sent his Prime Minister Yves Leterme back to the drawing board late Thursday, insisting he stay in power and seek a resolution of his coalition's stalemate, Belgian media reports said.

Albert turned down Leterme's resignation, which was first submitted late Monday, after the Flemish Christian Democrat prime minister realized that his five-party coalition government would fail to meet a self-imposed July 15 deadline for reaching a consensus on constitutional reform.

 

The king received Leterme for official discussions after days of talks with leading politicians about a solution. He also named three mediators with instructions to find a way out of the crisis: two French-speaking politicians, Francois-Xavier de Donnea and Raymond Langendries, as well as Karl-Heinz Lambertz from German-speaking Belgium.

 

Albert urged the government to give full support to the reconciliation efforts.

Leaders of the world's major religions need to focus more on the needs of women, theologians told a Saudi-organized conference this week.

Clerics need to "restore the dignity of women," Juan Jose Tamayo, director of theology at Madrid's Juan Carlos III university, told a roundtable on Thursday, July 17.

The roundtable was part of the Saudi-organized World Conference of Dialogue in Madrid, which aims at promoting religious unity. It brings together 200 participants, including leading Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish thinkers.

"Women have been forgotten and marginalized in religions," Tamayo said as reported by the AFP news agency. "They are organized hierarchically and patriarchically, excluding women in all fields of knowledge and religious matters."

Judges in Bochum on Friday handed a two-year suspended prison sentence to a 66-year-old real estate tycoon in the first case brought to justice in Germany in connection with a major Liechtenstein tax evasion scandal.

Judges in the western German city of Bochum told the first multi-millionaire up for trial he would probably receive a suspended term of two years' jail for evading 7.5 million euros ($11.8 million) in tax between 2001 and 2006.

Elmar Schulte, from the western city of Bad Homburg, was found guilty of six counts of tax evasion after depositing several million euros in the Alpine principality of Liechtenstein and failing to declare the interest made.

He had made a full confession and already paid 7.6 million euros in back taxes and fines to German tax authorities.

Germany's BND foreign intelligence service described in February how it bought data on trusts managed by the Liechtenstein Bank LTG on behalf of wealthy tax-shy Europeans. The BND reportedly paid about 4 million euros for one DVD with the data.

The European Commission has backed a plan to give 1bn euros (£800m) of unspent EU farm subsidies in aid to farmers in Africa.

The cash could help farmers boost output, helping tackle food shortages and soaring prices.

The money has been allocated to the EU agriculture budget, but not spent.

Some countries have queried the move's legality. But if EU ministers and the European Parliament agree, it could take effect in early 2009.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said: "The impact of high food prices is particularly severe for the world's poorest populations."

Without European help, United Nations goals to halve world poverty might fail, and tensions between countries in Africa over resources might intensify, he said.

With airlines struggling to maintain their businesses in an era of skyrocketing fuel prices, the aviation industry has attacked European plans to include its carbon pollution in the emissions trading scheme.

The head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Giovanni Bisignani, in a speech on Wednesday (16 July) to an international conference on sustainable aviation in the UK said: "The airline industry is in crisis. With a fuel bill of US$190 billion [€120 billion] - one third of its costs - saving fuel is a matter of survival. Still Europe is fixated on punitive measures supposedly designed to reduce emissions.

From January 2012, all flights taking off from Europe or landing there will be included in the ETS

"There is a rush to implement taxes, taxes and more taxes. They all have an environment label, but do nothing to reduce emissions," he continued.

Last week, MEPs voted overwhelmingly (640 to 30) for aviation to be included in the ETS from 2012. The plan, including both EU and non-EU airlines, must yet be ratified by the member states, who agreed to the idea in June.

"Taxes don't reduce emissions. Only better operations and technology can do that," said Mr Bisignani, lashing out at UK and Dutch passenger duties and associated taxes.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said he will not pressure the Government to hold a second vote on Lisbon Treaty, seeking to quell a controversy stoked by President Nicolas Sarkozy. 

Mr Kouchner will join Mr Sarkozy in Ireland on Monday after voters here last month rejected the Lisbon Treaty, which is aimed at streamlining decision-making across the 27-nation bloc.

" I don't plan to persuade them to vote again. The goal of this trip is to listen to the Irish people,'' Mr Kouchner told reporters in Paris today.

"The important thing is not to teach them lessons."

The Government should hold a new referendum on the treaty, Mr Sarkozy told French lawmakers, Agence France-Presse reported on Wednesday.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said last month there was "no quick fix'' to the impasse created by the rejection of the treaty, which must be ratified by all EU members before taking effect.

"You can't hide behind your little finger,'' said Mr Kouchner today.

"At some point, but not during this trip, there will be a need to choose between the Lisbon treaty and the Nice treaty," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov downplayed earlier criticism of a German peace plan aimed at resolving a conflict with Georgia, saying it could break the deadlock. Abkhazia's separatists however have rejected the plan.

Speaking after talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Moscow on Friday, July 18, Lavrov said Berlin's peace plan was "extremely helpful for looking for compromises and a way out of the crisis."

"We believe that the logic of your plan is absolutely the right one," Lavrov told Steinmeier at a joint news conference.

An Irish MEP has called for a total ban on tobacco products across the European Union within 15 years.

Avril Doyle, head of the Irish faction within the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), on Tuesday told a Brussels conference on how to prevent the tobacco industry from lobbying EU politicians that she wants cigarettes and cigars illegal in Europe by 2025.

Earlier this week, the European commission unveiled plans to make Europeans pay a lot more for cigarettes by hiking excise taxes

"I would be happy to see a long-term target date, say 2025, when it would be illegal to sell tobacco products in the EU," she said to an applauding crowd of parliamentarians and global health experts.

"That would give them 15 years' notice for all our citizens to realise just how serious we are about not allowing their continued sale in the EU, and hopefully elsewhere," she added.

Ms Doyle, who sits on the steering committee of the EPP, the largest political group in the EU assembly, organised the conference, which was tasked with developing ways for the EU to comply with what anti-smoking campaigners call the most important article of the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Article 5.3, which requires its signatories to prevent lobbying by tobacco companies on any public health policies.

Last week, the gloves finally came off the Dmitry Medvedev presidency in Russia. It had to happen sooner or later, but few would have expected this soon. It was crystal clear US President George W Bush administered a diplomatic snub to Medvedev on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G-8) summit meeting at Hokkaido, Japan.

Bush characterized him patronizingly as a "sharp guy" soon after they met in Hokkaido on July 9, but that was after making sure Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proceeded to Prague and signed a deal just the previous day to install a US radar system as part of its missile defense system in Central Europe.

If Medvedev's core mission in Hokkaido was to underscore

Russia's growing role in the world arena as a power with which the West has to contend, Bush acted as if he couldn't care. The US was also plainly dismissive of Medvedev's proposal at the G-8 for a pan-European security system that would include Russia. Medvedev expressed his "dismay" on hearing about the Prague deal. As if to rub in the snub, Rice proceeded from Prague to Bulgaria, where the US has for the first time established a military base, and then on to Georgia to discuss its plans of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

While in Tbilisi, she called for international mediation to stop violence spilling over in Georgia's beakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abhkazia, which have been sources of rising tensions, with Georgia accusing Russia of trying to annex the regions. To carry matters further, the US began a joint military exercise with Georgia codenamed Immediate Response 2008, near Tbilisi, which will continue through the month of July.

The exercise, financed by the Pentagon and planned by the US Armed Forces Eastern Command, is intended as a warning to Russia that Georgia is America's project and Washington wouldn't hesitate to do some heavy lifting to safeguard the "Rose Revolution".

Solar Firms Struggle to Forecast 2009 Uncertainty about subsidies in Spain and - to a lesser degree - the United States has led to a flurry of activity to get installations finished before the expiration dates, but some analysts say a slight slowdown could be coming. by: Jennifer Kho June 19, 2008

Like any business, the solar business hates uncertainty. And right now, there's plenty of it. Advertisement

That's because government subsidies in Spain and the United States hang in limbo, leaving solar companies with a foggy picture of what 2009 will look like, according to a research note from Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Jeff Osborne this month.

The Spanish incentive is one of the most alluring in the world today, offering at least 42 euro cents per kilowatt-hour of solar energy fed into the grid. But the program is set to expire Sept. 30 and a new policy hasn't yet been established, meaning projects that aren't completed by then aren't guaranteed a set price.

With decisions still hanging in the balance, industry insiders have been speculating about the replacement incentive for months.

Spain's Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade last year proposed lowering the feed-in tariff to 31 euro cents per kilowatt-hour. A leaked royal decree in April proposed a subsidy of 35 euro cents per kilowatt-hour, according to a research note from Piper Jaffray analyst Jesse Pichel.

The concern about the Spanish tariff is heated enough that when Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luís Rodríguez Zapatero called public-sector support of renewable energy "an important investment in the future" in an interview with the Financial Times earlier this month, it prompted Pichel to write another note.

"We believe this interview should give investors some comfort that Spain will remain a significant growth market for solar longer term, although 2009 may be a modestly down year," he wrote. "Spain remains an overhang until the new decree is official in July or September."

In the United States, a bill that would have extended renewable-energy incentives for several years failed to pass last week and again this week, throwing a wrench into projects that won't be completed before the year ends. The industry has been struggling for months to extend tax the tax credits, but hasn't been able to get a bill past both houses of Congress (see Senate Blocks Renewable Incentives Bill, Policy Roundup: U.S. Senate Passes Incentives, Solar Roundup: Another Tax-Credit Proposal, Solar Sharpens Weapons for Incentive Battle, Solar Industry's Five-Step Plan, Renewable Tax Incentive Still At Risk, Senate Rejects Green Incentives to Pass Energy Bill and Senate Sends Energy Bill Back to Beginning).

While many companies still believe a one-year extension will be passed before the credits expire at the end of the year, Thomas Weisel Partners doesn't have high hopes that will happen on time to prevent a gap, according to a research note.

Spain Could Reduce Solar Subsidies by 35% The government is negotiating with solar-energy producers to set new solar prices and an installation cap for next year. This latest proposal could be bad news or just a hard bargaining position, analysts said. by: Ucilia Wang July 2, 2008

Spain could cut its popular solar subsidies by up to 35 percent and limit the total size of the program to a lower level than previously anticipated, Spanish newspaper Cinco Dias reported this week. Advertisement

The newspaper's story provided the latest glimpse into what the Spanish government might eventually approve for its feed-in tariff program, which requires utilities to buy solar energy at a higher rate than conventional power.

Speculation about the program - one of the most alluring solar-incentive programs in the world - has been rampant, and has filled the industry with uncertainty. That uncertainty has made it difficult for solar companies and their customers to plan future projects, noted New Energy Finance analyst Francesco D'Avack.

The latest proposal isn't likely to reduce their concerns. The government is considering capping the solar-electric installations at 300 megawatts for 2009 and increasing it by 10 percent the following year, according to Cinco Dias, which cited minutes from a meeting between Spain's secretary energy Pedro Marin and the Photovoltaic Energy Industry Association.

The new feed-in tariff program could also make a distinction between panels placed on roofs and those on the ground. Utilities would pay 33 euro cents for each kilowatt-hour of electricity from rooftop systems and 29 euro cents for ground installations.

The current price is about 45 euro cents, depending on the size - not the placement - of the installations. The rate is up from the 42 euro cents last year because the feed-in tariff program allows the rate to be adjusted for inflation.

this last benefit i was 2 years too late to sign on for here in italy. now it's not pegged to inflation. this is seriously dampening my desire to put in 5 more MW, as that's more than i can use, and if 10 years from now the euros i'm being incentivised, and paid for, may bear little relation to the rapidly inflating cost of living.

~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.

Greentech Media | Is Spain Shining Too Bright?

Is Spain Shining Too Brightly? The country's solar industry is growing so fast that the Spanish government is considering upping its renewable-energy goals and decreasing its incentives. by: Rachel Barron October 17, 2007

Sun worshippers have always flocked to Spain to soak up powerful rays of light. That same desire has more recently beckoned those in the solar industry to come in droves. Coupled with support from the Spanish government, the country's solar industry is on track to more than double this year. Advertisement

But is getting so much sun a good thing? In late September, the country reached 344 of the 400 megawatts it had set as its goal for solar-electric power. Spain had originally expected to meet the goal by 2010. The accelerated pace is a cause for concern because the government had scheduled its current high level of incentives to end once Spain reaches its goal. With industry watchers now expecting Spain to exceed this cap as early as this month, the Spanish government is on the move to shift its strategy.

Spain's Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade has proposed tripling the cap on solar-electric installations from 400 megawatts to 1.2 gigawatts. A decrease in the country's feed-in tariff, which pays homeowners and businesses a higher rate for renewable energy fed back into the electrical grid, also is on the table.

Even though the Spanish government has yet to make a decision, industry watchers are bracing themselves for change. The final decree could have a big impact on the country's solar market, which some analysts say is growing at unsustainable rates.

In 2006, 100 new megawatts of solar power were installed in Spain. Credit Suisse expects that number will grow to 300 megawatts this year and 500 megawatts in 2008.

With growth driven by its solar goal and generous feed-in tariff, Spain ranked No. 4 in the world for its total solar capacity in 2006, according to a report by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association and Greenpeace. Germany was No. 1, followed by Japan and the United States.

...

Also fueling concern is the proposed drop in the feed-in tariff. The industry now has a year's grace period before the tariff, which pays 42 euro cents per kilowatt hour, drops. The government proposal also includes an additional annual 5 percent tariff reduction (à la Germany) starting in two to three years.

For the year to come, Jenny Chase, a senior analyst for New Energy Finance, expects developers and investors will race to finish up projects so they can get in at the current tariff levels. If they succeed, the projects will be guaranteed the current rate for 25 years. The result could be even steeper growth -- putting installations in several hundreds of megawatts -- in the next year, she said.

But after that, companies will have to hook into the grid with a lower tariff, which Trip and Chase said could very likely be 31 euro cents.

Such a decrease no doubt dims the bright future of Spain's solar industry.

According to Chase's calculations, owners under the current tariff see an average 26-percent return on their investment, before taxes and a few other costs. But if the lower price were adopted, that rate would drop to about 12 percent. "It's a big cut," she said. "But it won't make them uneconomical."

She also sees an upside. From her perspective, the Spanish solar industry is growing too fast. The proposed legislation could help the industry transition to a model of sustainable growth.

...

Still, Vespermann said Conergy "can live with" the suggested 5-percent-per-year cut in the tariff. The industry is on track to reduce total solar system costs by 7 to 8 percent annually anyway, he said.

Another reason a steady drop won't hurt too bad is that all the sun Spain gets equates to more hours of energy, say when compared to Germany, helping to make up the system costs.

Regardless of the final outcome, solar companies know a change is coming. Trip and Chase said such moves are a necessary to push the industry into a more mature state. And weaning it off government support will push solar power into grid parity, the point when it is competitive with conventional electricity.

Eco Talks - Fosters+ Partners envisions an Ultra- Mod yet Green Rimini in Italy.

A whole eco- development plan is being put forward by Fosters+ Partners for the Italian coastal town of Rimini. In this age of emerging mega cities with their jaw-dropping architectural planning and futuristic buildings worldover, Rimini might just be the next addition. The renowned architectural firm has plans to renovate the waterfront of this town putting it on the map of eco-tourism.

The proposal bears the nouveau development plan comprising of a brand new seafront promenade that links to Rimini's existing green boulevards. Fosters+ Partners have envisioned a hotel tower located 300 meters into the ocean. Not only this, there will be a long pear that will extend from the hotel to the pedestrian link. The whole concept involves developing and planning the new waterfront by making use of latest technologies like rainwater collection and solar photovoltaics.