Summary of newsmakers of the previous day – 8.4.2008

Sweden can further give beer preferential treatment; EU court has decided

Sweden can further advantage its beer at the expense of imported wine. A higher taxation of wine does not mean that Swedes would switch to beer en block. The European Law Court (ELC) decided on it in a ten-year long cause in which the European Commission brought a suit against Sweden. A reason was a rule according to which no state have to disadvantage by a higher tax imported products at the expense of the domestic ones. In case of Sweden and wine it is dealt with a complicated decision making: domestic production of wine almost does not exist.

European farmers return subsidies

Member states of the European Union have to return 85 million EUR (more than two billion crowns) from badly used agricultural subsidies in the Union budget. The European Commission informed journalists on it today. The Czech Republic has to return a part of subsidies too, however, it is dealt with only about 250 000 crowns for “exceeding of financial ceilings”. In role of the biggest sinners are traditionally Spaniards and the French. Nevertheless, the biggest sum has to be return by farmers from Iberian Peninsula. They used without authorization more than 55 million EUR (1,4 billion crowns). Most of them are represented by subsidies for building of vineyards, however, whose foundation was illegal. Spain has also gaps in quality control where it also has to return a part of subsidies.

Veleba expects permanent growth of food prices through the world

The president of Agrarian Chamber Jan Veleba expects that food prices will rise next year through the world. According to him last year's rise in cereals prices as much as by third was caused by concurrence of three influences: a dynamically growing raw materials in third countries; increasing production of bio-fuels; and bad crops in traditional growing countries cased by dry weather. The climate influence is the only variable, the two remaining show also in the future a contrast growth, Veleba said to ČTK at the agricultural fair Techagro in Brno. “Consumption of pig meat has doubled to 50 kilograms per head and year since 1985 in China. The world population will have increased by 2030 from the present six to more than eight billion. It means a necessity to increase production of cereals by third”, Veleba said.

NASA expert: The climate situation is worse than we think

A scientist, highly positioned in a hierarchy in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) fell on a sharp critique of American politicians as well as industry captains. The sixty-seven-year old James Hansen stays in head of Goddard Institute for Universe Study at NASA the magazine Time ranged him in a list of hundred the most influential people of the planet in 2006. In an interview for an agency AFP - and also in a new study for a magazine Science - the reputable expert asserts that managers of large industrial enterprises conceal in the public facts on influence of human activity on global warming.