Does the EU’s Joint Research Centre science and knowledge service know something we don’t, when they predict livestock farming will decline by 2030 in Ireland, the Netherlands, the UK, Austria, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and Finland, while expanding in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia?

Freedom to express an opinion is one of the rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Courts have interpreted that right to include statements that may be disagreeable, disturbing, and even offensive to others. Up to last week’s referendum, that right, or liberty, was tempered by a provision that declared blasphemy an exception.

In excess of €500m worth of drugs have been seized by European law enforcement agencies since the start of the year, reflecting a substantial increase in trafficking across the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Marine scientists have found new coral species and a rare sponge reef off the coast which, it is hoped, could even lead to the discovery of new antibiotics.

Applications have opened for courses on which more than 8,000 jobseekers and working people can improve their prospects of changing careers or beginning new ones.

Ireland topped the EU milk production growth table in May, producing 69,000 tonnes more than 12 months previously.

A fifth of Irish businesses have been the target of online ransom demands in the past year while more than half of top IT professionals don’t believe their firms understand their own security systems, according to a survey by a leading cybersecurity firm.

TODAY is International Women’s Day, an annual event celebrated by millions of women around the world. It is done so, however, in the knowledge that equality between the sexes is still a long way off.

Ireland has been warned by the European Commission to designate more special areas of conservation. 

Irish people are among the most tolerant people in Europe, but despite this there has been an increase in the number of people saying they have been discriminated against in the past year.

The causes of the current migration crisis in Europe will not be resolved in the short term, so the EU must face facts and deal with this issue fairly and decisively, writes Ana Palacio.

THE recent BSE scare underlined once again the importance of the Irish food and agriculture industry, and how a significant part of the nation’s economy can become affected by an unexpected circumstance.

Ireland is facing infringement proceedings at the European Court of Justice this week over its long-running failure to comply with EU working hours legislation in relation to junior doctors in public hospitals.

Researchers aided by the EU play a major role across the globe in developing valuable ideas, writes Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

More than half the days employees take off work are due to stress, mostly in the workplace, while fear of losing a job has increased the levels.

A full-scale war under way between the Department of Agriculture and the Inland Fisheries Ireland is likely to determine the fate of Europe’s biggest fish farm planned for Galway Bay.

Innovative inmates circulate free sheet

The Government is unlikely to offload its €1.6bn contingent convertible (CoCo) capital notes in AIB before the results of the ECB’s comprehensive assessment of the banking system is completed later this year, according to market sources.

The European Union’s top diplomat has had two hours of talks with Egypt’s ousted president, who has been held incommunicado since his overthrow in a July 3 military coup, the EU said today.

There is “unprecedented demand” from companies to secure a Guaranteed Irish trademark, according to the firm behind the scheme, as other companies await the outcome of a legal challenge over Waterford Crystal glass.

Ireland came last in a report on what EU countries are doing to match their fishing fleet to the amount of fish that can be safely taken out of the sea.

The Department of Agriculture has got the seal of approval of the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office for its measures to implement prohibition of the use of unenriched cages for laying hens after Jan 1, 2012.

WILL the EU add to the suffering of one of its peripheral member states sentenced to decades of financial austerity, by closing down its poultry industry?

A pledge to stabilise markets from the world’s leading economies failed to reassure investors today and stocks were falling sharply again.

SPECULATORS are making very attractive guaranteed incomes of up to €1 million a year from the European Union’s farm fund, often without owning as much as a garden, and without doing a day’s work on the land.

TRACEABILITY of beef and beef products has improved significantly since 2002, said officials from the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in last week’s report of their inspection in Ireland last September.

IRELAND is too hard-up to contribute to the EU’s rescue bid for the Portuguese economy, the Government admitted last night.

THERE are now almost 9,500 Traveller families in the country, up more than 40% since the number of families was first recorded in 2002, new figures have revealed.

MORE than four out of five Irish mobile phone users roaming in the EU use text messaging services — the highest rate of all EU countries.

IRISH soil is under threat, according to an innovative new map of Europe’s soil biodiversity.

RECOMMENDATIONS have been made by the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office to authorities in Brazil to address shortcomings identified last October during assessment of the possibility of live cattle exports to the EU from the country’s southern state of Santa Catarina.

NON-taxable persons and entities such as holding companies should not be included in VAT groupings, the European Commission says.

BIOFUEL producers want the Government to protect jobs by prioritising home-produced fuels over exports under its new green fuel usage scheme.

IRELAND’s exports of services are set to rise by between €10 billion and €14bn per annum across the 27 EU nations, thanks to the EU’s Services Directive, according to a leading Irish industry body.

MORE than 100 trainee gardaí could be taken on at the end of the year in the first wave of new recruits since the public sector jobs moratorium was introduced.

ALMOST half of Irish holidaymakers organise their own travel and accommodation, but they are rarely covered if anything goes wrong.

IRELAND’S nominee for European Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, will be the country’s first woman in the job and is tipped to get the prestigious budget portfolio.