IRISH farmers will be able to receive compensation if they have lost export sales as a result of the E coli outbreak, but the amount has yet to be fixed.

Germany has been warned to take more care over its food safety announcements in the wake of the E.coli fiasco, in which Germany pointed a finger at Spanish cucumbers, then at local beansprouts, before backtracking on both.

GOING abroad for health care, especially for rare ailments and cancers, should be easier for patients under new legislation agreed by the European Parliament.

COUNTRIES will be able to ban the growing of genetically modified crops for socio-economic and ethical reasons under new proposals for the controversial but multi-billion euro industry.

EU health ministers will discuss today what advice to give travellers in the swine flu outbreak – and what better name to give the latest “novel” virus.

THE Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has claimed that a new European Union report is a damning indictment of Brazilian beef auditing and traceability.

FARMERS could save €8 million a year as a result of the cattle age for BSE testing increasing from 30 to 48 months.

THE number of BSE active surveillance tests is to be reduced from next January, according to the European Commission.

MEAT factories have been urged to start paying “a decent price” to farmers for Irish beef following the European Commission decision to impose a total ban on Brazilian imports from today.

BRAZILIAN beef will be banned from being sold in the EU from today because of concerns about its safety.

Restaurant chains in New York will be forced to put calorie counts on their menus as part of a healthier eating campaign.

A SIT-IN protest by members of the Irish Farmers Association was continuing at the European Commission offices in Dublin late last night.

The European Commission was urged today to step up efforts across Europe to fight hospital superbugs.

HALF of the population in most EU countries is now overweight or obese while an increasing number of children are dangerously heavy.

THE European Commission is to establish an emergency veterinary team to respond rapidly, if needed, in member states and third countries.

Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan is expected to brief her Cabinet colleagues today on the steps being taken in Ireland following an outbreak of bird flu in Britain.

European Union veterinary experts today agreed to tighten rules on the import of live birds into the 27-nation bloc.

SOME 58,000 EU citizens commit suicide every year but little is being done to tackle mental illness.

SUN worshippers gearing up for the summer holidays were warned yesterday not to believe all the claims they read on sunscreen products.

Sun worshippers were warned today not to believe all the claims they read on sunscreen products.

COCA-COLA, Pepsi and other soft drinks manufacturers have agreed to end the targeting of young children in their marketing campaigns in Europe as part of a European Union drive to fight rising obesity among youngsters.

Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other soft drinks manufacturers have agreed to end the targeting of young children in their marketing campaigns in Europe as part of a European Union drive to fight rising obesity among youngsters.

China needs to improve the safety of toys and other products it exports to the EU, the bloc said today, adding that it would seek an agreement on higher standards.

THE European Union yesterday declared the spread of bird flu from Asia into the EU a “global threat” requiring international co-operation.

The European Union will not hesitate to propose “drastic measures” to fight the spread of bird flu if current safeguards prove insufficient, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday.

Authorities were culling thousands of domestic birds in Romania today to prevent the spread of a deadly strain of bird flu that has decimated flocks and killed dozens of people in Asia.

The EU was readying precautionary measures tonight, including the stockpiling of more anti-viral drugs, amid confirmation that the bird flu virus found in Turkish poultry was the H5N1 strain that scientists worry might mutate and cause a pandemic in humans.

Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou today told the European Parliament the EU was keeping a close eye on an outbreak of bird flu in Russia, reiterating there was still no need for an EU-wide order to farms to keep poultry indoors.

The proportion of overweight or fat men is higher in some European countries than it is in the US, experts said in a major analysis of Europeans’ expanding waistlines.

A new strain of highly drug-resistant HIV that leads to the rapid onset of Aids has been detected in a New York man, it emerged today.

THE food industry has been given a year to stop advertising junk food to children or face a mandatory ban.

The EU was urgently looking for eight people who came in contact with a rabid dog in south-western France last month to ensure they have not contracted the dangerous virus.

EU Health Commissioner David Byrne has reportedly met a US trade representative in Dublin to discuss the possible ending of the EU ban on imports of US beef produced with the aid of growth hormones.

Experts from throughout Europe are due to address a three-day conference on cardiovascular health that gets underway in Cork today.

IRISH people use highly-addictive anti-depression drugs more than anyone else in Europe, according to evidence presented to the EU in Brussels yesterday.

The European Commission has called for more effective screening programmes for breast cancer, colon cancer and cervical cancer and said the 15 EU countries must learn from each other on how best to detect the disease.

EU health ministers today adopted proposals to counter underage drinking through tougher enforcement of laws on alcohol sales and self-regulation by advertisers.

Ireland's EU Health Commissioner David Byrne has expressed his "very great regret" that a determined and concerted effort to tackle the BSE crisis has taken so long to emerge.