No abstract available

[en] Eurogas is the European Union of the Natural Gas Industry. Since 1994, it has been publishing a booklet presenting the main figures describing natural gas industry in Europe with a view to supporting its positions in the debates taking place with European and international institutions. This paper is presenting the results of the Eurogas outlook updated in 1996, it is based on input from the national members of Eurogas. (au)

[en] Projections of future changes in weather extremes on the regional and local scale depend on a realistic representation of trends in extremes in regional climate models (RCMs). We have tested this assumption for moderate high temperature extremes (the annual maximum of the daily maximum 2 m temperature, T_ann.max). Linear trends in T_ann.max from historical runs of 14 RCMs driven by atmospheric reanalysis data are compared with trends in gridded station data. The ensemble of RCMs significantly underestimates the observed trends over most of the north-western European land surface. Individual models do not fare much better, with even the best performing models underestimating observed trends over large areas. We argue that the inability of RCMs to reproduce observed trends is probably not due to errors in large-scale circulation. There is also no significant correlation between the RCM T_ann.max trends and trends in radiation or Bowen ratio. We conclude that care should be taken when using RCM data for adaptation decisions. (letter)

No abstract available

[en] Car drivers in Western Europe are paying the highest fuel prices at the filling station. The Netherlands is in the leading group when it comes to the prices of petrol and diesel. This is the outcome of a study conducted by the German research organization GTZ among 174 countries.

[en] Many countries follow or adopt completely the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and use the Systme International (SI). Western European countries for the most part have incorporated the recommendations of ICRP Publication 60 (2) into their national legislation. One exception to this trend can be found by looking southward to that other large North American country, the United States. ICRP Publication 60 (2) was issued over a decade ago, but the US still uses the recommendations of ICRP Publication 26 (3), in a modified form

[en] 'Sandanski-2' is a European East-West Coordination Meeting on Nuclear Science, which took place on the 5-9 May 2001 in the town of Sandanski, Bulgaria. It is the second meeting of this type. Here we present the motivations for holding this meeting, its scientific programme, the list of participants, as well as a short summary of the scientific and executive issues, which were presented by 66 reports. At the meeting 115 scientists from 17 European countries, the USA, Japan and JINR were present. Complete information on the Meeting is available on a CD and can also be found under the address: http://www.sandanski.ru/

[en] The major European utilities have jointly developed the European Utility Requirement document for future LWR plants to get requirements acceptable by the utilities, the public and the administrations. Thus the designers can develop standard LWR designs acceptable everywhere in Europe with little changes and the utilities can open their consultations to more vendors on a common specification. Started with five partners in 1992, it now includes eleven utilities. The generic requirements of the EUR document are well recognised as the reference for the LWR plants to be built in Western Europe and they are being reviewed by the safety authorities. The main vendors are developing advanced LWR designs for the European market, with reference to this document. Meanwhile the EUR utilities are producing specific documents that will address these designs. Other joint works are also in progress to clarity and to stabilise the existing texts. (author)

[en] Currently the main short term market is the day ahead market in the countries of the North West European electricity market. Intra-day trades are more or less possible on a national basis in the different countries and provide an important tool to balance portfolio's between day ahead and real time. As consumption (due to customer behaviour, weather conditions, etc.) and production situations (due to forced outages, off-take behaviour, etc.) change, market participants - as balancing responsible parties - are dependent on the local intra-day markets and as a last resort on the local balancing markets to adjust their positions, while better opportunities may be available in one of the neighbouring markets. To further improve market functioning, the North West European Market Parties Platform (NWE MPP) sees in cross border intra-day trade an important role. Apart from providing increased trading opportunities and means to control balancing risks, it may also be an incentive to harmonise national intra-day trade. With this paper the market parties in the region would like to propose a joint guideline for market facilitators on cross border intra-day trade. The North West European Market Parties Platform is a cooperation of VDEW, UFE, Organisation des Entreprises d'Electricite Du Luxembourg, FEBEG and EnergieNed representing the electricity wholesale market parties in Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands

[en] Over the past fifteen years, European gas markets have radically changed. In order to build a single European gas market, a new regulatory framework has been established through three European Gas Directives. The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of the reforms in the natural gas industry on consumer prices, with a specific focus on gas prices for industrial use. The strength of the relationship between the industrial gas prices of six western European countries is studied by testing the Law of One Price for the period 1991–2009. Estimations were carried out using both cointegration analysis and time-varying parameter models. Results highlight an emerging and on-going process of convergence between the industrial gas prices in western Europe since 2001 for the six EU member states. The strength and the level of convergence differ widely between countries. Strong integration of gas markets in continental Europe, except for the Belgian market, has been established. It appears that the convergence process between continental countries and the UK is not completed. Thus, the integration of European gas markets remains an open issue and the question of how far integration will proceed will still be widely discussed in the coming years. - Highlights: ► We investigate the integration of European natural gas markets. ► We use both cointegration analysis and time-varying parameter models. ► We show the failure of cointegration techniques to take account of evolving processes. ► An emerging and on-going process of convergence between the industrial gas prices is at work. ► Strong integration of gas markets in continental Europe has been established.