Draft Law News

Rhine river traffic came to a standstill in some places on Wednesday due to strikes against French government plans to raise the pension age, with sections of the river in France, Germany and Switzerland affected, a CGT union representative and Germany's Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSA) said.Around 1.28 million people in France had participated in a sixth day of protests on Tuesday against a draft law that would see the pension age delayed by two years to 64.A blockade at Strasbourg lock on the Rhine was cleared by police and an evacuation of the blockades at the Marckolsheim lock…

Germany, racing to end its reliance on Russian gas, plans to introduce new regulation that will make it possible to expropriate property to link offshore liquid natural gas terminals to the grid, Handeslblatt reported. The new law could make it possible to use parts of Gazprom's defunct Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, to link a terminal to the shore.The newspaper said a draft law due to be agreed by the government on Wednesday would make it possible to expropriate "movable objects" when necessary "to build natural gas pipelines or linked infrastructure".Until earlier this year…

Poland's ministry of state assets has published a draft of legislation to promote offshore wind power, aiming to award more than 10GW in the Baltic Sea by 2027.The country will  incentivise the construction of around 10 GW of offshore wind capacity in the Baltic Sea with 25-year contracts for difference to be awarded by 2027, it said in the draft law.It is proposing to award fixed-price contracts for difference (CfDs) to up to 4.6 GW of advanced offshore wind projects before it starts its first tenders for offshore wind.In the first auction – in 2023 – the country would tender for 0.5 GW, with two annual auctions in 2025 and 2027 of 2.5 GW each.If this process results in contracts for less than 4.1 GW…

Vietnam wants to give its coast guard more flexibility to open fire at sea, amid tension in the busy South China Sea waterway, a draft law released on Wednesday showed. The law, expected to be voted by lawmakers at the end of this year, would allow greater assertiveness in disputed waters by the coast guard, now armed with modern U.S. and Japanese patrol boats, in a policy likely to alarm neighbouring China. China claims almost all the South China Sea, through which about $3 trillion worth of sea-borne trade passes every year. Vietnam and four other countries also say they have rights in the sea, believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas.

Spain's cabinet passed a draft law on Friday to end closed-shop hiring at the country's ports, putting the government on a collision course with unions which have called nine days of strikes that are likely to decimate trade flows. Around two-thirds of Spain's imports and exports pass through its ports, and prolonged industrial action could be especially painful for the country's automobile industry and chemical sector. The bill, which attempts to bring Spain's restrictive port labour practices into line with the rest of Europe, still faces an uncertain passage through parliament. The governing People's Party does not enjoy a parliamentary majority and will need to reach an accord with opposition parties if the draft is to become law.

The new draft law "On reindeer husbandry in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District" includes insurance of animals from death due to natural anomalies and expands the rights of herders. In Salekhard, today held a meeting of a working group to draft a new law "On reindeer husbandry in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District", the consideration of which is planned for 2016, according to Tass. "On the one hand, the need to support the most reindeer sector and financially, and advisory, to ensure the preservation of the traditional way of life of the indigenous people of Yamal. On the other hand, it is necessary to "enter" Reindeer in modern society, the market.

The draft law on the development of the Arctic region will be discussed at a joint meeting of the Presidium of the Advisory Council on the Arctic and Antarctic in the Federation Council and the State Commission on the Development of the Arctic November 20. The meeting was held under the leadership of the chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko and Head of the State Commission for the Arctic, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. The event will discuss a draft concept of the federal law on the development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The parties will also consider the issue of participation of administrative-territorial formations circumpolar regions of Russia in the International Arctic Forum.

China's government is moving forward with plans to bring in legislation to control emissions from ships as the country looks to reduce air pollution, state media Xinhua said. According to a draft amendment to the Air Pollution Law, tabled to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for a second reading, ships on inland or river-to-sea waterways must use standard diesel as fuel to cut emissions. Ocean-going vessels will also be required to use fuels that conform to China's environmental protection standards after stopping at Chinese ports, the draft read. The shipping sector accounted for around 8.4 percent of China's sulphur dioxide emissions and 11.3 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions in 2013.

Pacific city of Vladivostok has been chosen to become Russia’s first ‘free port’ in move that could boost trade and bolster the economy in the far east of the country. Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the Pacific port would benefit from the new status by July and it would boost the economy of the Primorsky Territory in the country’s Far East. Draft Law “On Free Port Vladivostok” was presented by Pavel Volkov, Counselor of the Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East. He noted that the Ministry has elaborated three draft laws related to the port itself and to the required amendments into the federal tax legislation.

Egypt expects a planned economic zone near the Suez Canal to eventually make up about a third of Egypt's economy, the country's investment minister said on Thursday. Egypt plans to build an international industrial and logistics hub near the canal to attract foreign investment, alongside a separate scheme in which the army is digging a second canal to facilitate two-way traffic of larger ships. Investment Minister Ashraf Salman said the planned hub would be the centrepiece of a key economic conference planned for the end of next week, which Egypt hopes will draw investors back after four years of economic and political turmoil. "The main project that we'll show in the conference is the development of the Suez Canal…