Summary of newsmakers of the previous day – 2.1.2008

Control activity of CIE and its role in area of legal control of stocking of dangerous wastes in 2007

The Czech Inspection of Environment (CIE) tries to increase effectiveness of its control activity and to focus rather on problematic cases with a high impact on the environment. While in 2005 and in previous years fines in height c. 30 million crows were imposed annually in the area of waste management. In 2006 CIE in this area imposed legitimate fines in a height exceeding 63,5 million crowns. A similar development is expected also for the year 2007 because a number and relevance of tort in this area increases.

Bio expects a good year

Tom Václavík, a director of the company Green Marketing, providing consultancy for ecological agriculture, production and sale of bio-foods names main trends of consumer’s behaviour and development of retail from a view-point of bio-foods.

The planet Earth

Most people obviously did not realize at all what had happened this year in September, the daily Independent writes. On Sunday, the 16th of September 2007 ice covering the ocean in the Arctic melted in the record highest rate. A regress of ice from September 2007 exceeded the present record from the year 2005 in a huge rate. In the year 2007 in comparison with 2005 by 22 percents more ice melted – an area of 1,2 million square kilometers. An extent of this year’s melting in the Arctic surprised scientists all over the world and many of them were appalled. As a chief of Canadian Ice Service reported this melting was not predicted by any computer-generated scenario.

European Union increases milk quotas of member states for period 2008 – 2009 by 2 %

The European Commission has passed a proposal for increase of EU milk quotas by 2 % with a force from the 1st of April 2008. This decision will enable to deliver an extraordinary amount of milk (2,84 mil. t) to European and world markets. It is supposed that the increase of quotas is a first step to a gradual growth of quotas to an eventual complete cancellation of the quota system in the milk sector by the year 2015. According to an agricultural commissioner Mariann Fisher Boel in the last decision on increase of quotas an intensive growth of milk prices during the last year as well as requirements of member states were taken in account. In coming years, according to her opinion, growth of demand for milk products with a high added value, especially for cheeses, will continue in both inside Europe and in the world, and it is essential to prepare farmers for this situation.