An increased use of satellite technology is set to improve on-the-spot-checks and cut administrative costs of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Defeat devices have been banned in the EU since 2007, but it is up to each member state to check if they are installed to cheat car emission limits, the European Commission has clarified.

Get a taste of some of the interesting and quirky happenings in Europe from our Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill.

Globally and at EU level, we face the twin challenges of increasing food production to meet the demands of nine billion people in 2050, and keeping global temperature rises below 2 degrees centigrade over pre-industrial levels.

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

Ireland’s low-carbon agriculture model puts us ahead of the field in managing harmful emissions, writes Simon Coveney.

Europe must co-operate internationally if it is going to tackle society’s greatest challenges, according to the Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

STUDENTS have been making an exhibition of themselves for 50 years at the Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.

International research collaboration is vital to help scientists achieve global food security and combat climate change, say the hosts of yesterday’s Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture conference in University College Dublin.

European science is helping to reduce the impact of natural disasters, says the European commissioner for research Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

The Department of Agriculture has spent over €633,000 this year analysing satellite images of rocks, rushes, and scrubland to see if land not being actively farmed is included in claims for farm payment schemes in disadvantaged areas.

THEY rushed us into a high-interest-rate financial bail-out, and they are now prepared to sell out most of our farmers. The EU is turning from friend to enemy in the eyes of many in Ireland.

AGRICULTURE Minister Simon Coveney has expressed “shock” at EU trade talks with South America which could cost European farmers €3 billion between now and 2020.

THE creativity and innovation skills needed to foster economic growth feature less than the EU average in Irish schools programmes, an international study has found.

PERHAPS the EU is not really serious about the environment. Farmers worry about EU measures to cut greenhouse gases, but wonder if they may be part of a political bluff mounted in Brussels for reasons unknown to the average punter.

IRISH food products have been rated as having a carbon footprint which is among the best in the EU.

AN elaborate plan to break the stalemate in the EU over GM foods hit more problems when France and Italy came out against it.

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

The world's industrial emissions of climate-changing carbon dioxide held steady last year, as recession slowed production in rich countries while growth in China and India made up the difference, a leading monitoring agency reported today.

HOW nuclear physics helped reveal that a Bronze Age sword was never used to kill anyone has been explained to EU research commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn on her first visit to one of the EU’s flagship research laboratories.

NEW insights into mountain farming in the European Union are outlined by the European Commission in a document launched by Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel at a conference in Austria.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen’s warning that the flooding crisis will get worse before it gets better is mirrored in a EU report on climate change.

A HIGHLY sophisticated poison was how Klaus Leutzenkirchen, the head of the nuclear chemistry department in the EU’s Institute for Trans-uranium elements, described polonium-210.

ACADEMICS on both sides of the Atlantic are now openly calling for the resignation of Government chief science advisor Dr Barry McSweeney, who is embroiled in continuing controversy over the origins of a doctorate he received in America.

Fresh questions have been raised as a result of a probe by the Department of Enterprise into the status of the American doctoral degree obtained by the Government’s Chief Science Adviser, Dr Barry McSweeney.

WITH his €120,000-a-year job on the line, pressure is mounting on the Government’s chief scientific adviser to publicly explain a dubious PhD he received in America.

A DEPARTMENT of Enterprise probe has raised fresh questions about the status of a PhD received in America by the Government’s top scientific adviser.

THE Government’s new chief science adviser is Dr Barry McSweeney who has been appointed in a drive to maximise the potential of Ireland’s multi- billion euro science and technology sector.

The Government has appointed Dr Barry McSweeney as Ireland's first chief science adviser.

IRISHMAN Dr Barry McSweeney who heads up Europe’s major research centre has been honoured for his work in opening up the institution to the new EU countries.

NOTHING short of a wind blowing through smoky bars or restaurants would clear the air, a damning report on the effects of smoking indoors has found.

REVOLUTIONARY new methods of testing chemicals for their safety will dramatically reduce the use of animals and cut the cost of Europe’s new chemicals plan.

A new ventilation system designed by Irish company DionX Limited will reach the requirement needed to achieve clean air levels in hospitality industry, research has claimed.

European research has found that ventilation systems are not an effective means of extracting chemicals from the air in indoor areas.