Search Results for: Bulgarian

Companies breach sanctions laws at their peril. Fines of many thousands of dollars, and even jail terms, await the unwary or careless. Fortunately, an Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (ACSS) has been created to advise businesses on negotiating the complex world of international sanctions compliance.…

CYPRUS is under pressure to appoint a full-time prosecutor working with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), with the EPPO’s chief prosecutor Laura Kövesi claiming 10% of the office’s 3,000 anticipated initial cases will involve this small island country.

Kövesi was addressing a joint meeting of the European Parliament’s committees on civil liberties, justice and home affairs and budgetary control, saying the claim was based on data received from the 22 European Union (EU) member states participating in the EPPO, which includes offshore banking centre Cyprus.…

IMPORTANT building blocks of anti-fraud regulatory and law enforcement policies and programmes for the European Union (EU) have been introduced in the past two months, as the EU continues to grapple with endemically high levels of financial crime and corruption.…

The European Chief Prosecutor (ECP) of the embryonic European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has challenged the 22 European Union (EU) states (1) that have signed up to an enhanced cooperation pact underpinning its existence to properly fund the new institution. Without enough money, the EPPO will not be effective, ECP Laura Codruţa Kövesi told Fraud Intelligence.…

The takeover of troubled Greek cold cuts producer Creta Farms has been approved by a court, with Dutch-Bulgarian investment trust Impala Invest Group, which already runs food manufacturers in Bulgaria, to gain ownership.

A court of first instance in the Cretan city of Rethymno has formally approved a restructuring plan filed at the court by the new owner, which had been previously approved by the Greek banks and includes debt haircut of 64.12%.…

DAIRY products are supposed to be healthy, tasty, clean and legal, but unfortunately, as with other industries, criminals seek to exploit demand created by honest suppliers through smuggling, mislabelling, adulterating and selling unsafe stock.

These concerns prompt regular action by police, for whom food fraud and related crime is an increasing risk worldwide, and given the international nature of today’s supply chains, cross-border collaboration between law enforcement forces is of special value.…

IMPROVING on performance in AML/CFT is never a simple process, and that is especially a case with a country such as Bulgaria which has had a long-standing corruption problem, causing this east European country to be under special monitoring by the European Commission from the day it joined the European Union (EU) in 2007.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) knitwear sector will be pushed to improve its sustainability within 100 days of a new European Commission taking office, expected to happen on December 1. That is the deadline that a new Commission executive vice-president Frans Timmermans must meet to propose a ‘green deal’ package of reforms, that will include new commitments for EU industries to reduce waste and pollution.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has reached political agreement on creating a new EU-wide e-commerce VAT transaction database, which EU member states hope will help fight fraud. The move comes as a European Commission report indicates that the EU’s expensive battle against fraud continues to struggle to achieve results.…

FAR from being the zone of volatility of the 1990s, eastern and central Europe’s economies and hence their paint and coatings markets, are enjoying stability and steady growth. In Croatia, for instance, according to market researcher Euromonitor International data, the paint and coating industry posted revenues of USD147 million, USD 2 million more than in 2017.…

BULGARIA’S plastics industry has been making the most of the growing demand for supplies from major western markets. The sector has been particularly buoyant over the past five years, with Bulgaria’s comparatively low costs and occasional regulatory light touch making its plastics companies competitive with competitors in western Europe.…

Turku-based Hesburger is now building sales in Belarus, having announced it would move into this country in 2017. This follows launches in Ukraine in 2015, and Bulgaria in 2016. Having branched abroad into Estonia first in 1996, now has 207 overseas outlets in eight countries (also including Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, as well as Germany, close to 271 it has in Finland.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) chocolate, biscuit and confectionery industry association CAOBISCO has raised concerns that EU exporters will be unable to exploit the reduction of Japanese tariffs under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), in force since February 1. CAOBISCO is concerned about how the deal includes rules of origin forcing its members to demonstrate how they source specific volumes of ingredients from the EU, rather than their value, which would be easier to demonstrate.…

A FINNISH burger chain that has taken the plunge into some of Europe’s most challenging eastern markets now has almost as many outlets abroad as in its home market.

Turku-based Hesburger is now building sales in Belarus, having announced it would move into this country in 2017.…

EUROPEAN Union member states are dragging their feet implementing the fourth anti-money laundering directive’s (4AMLD 2015/849) beneficial ownership rules. Only five countries met the June 26, 2017, AMLD4 deadline for having an ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) register under national law – Britain, Denmark, France, Germany and Sweden- according to the European Commission. …

EASTERN Europe offers some significant advantages as regards digital fabric printing – it has a high skilled workforce, reliable utilities and transport, access to western European markets, and comparatively low wages.

Its fabric producers also look for technological niches that allow them to compete with Asian manufacturers on quality and western European companies on cost – and digital textile printing as a result is popular.…

THE NONWOVEN adult incontinence market in Europe is offering hygiene product manufacturers and brands a chance to profit in a wider sanitary segment that has been and remains highly competitive.

Western Europe has a high per capita consumption in sanitary protection and a fiercely competitive retailing environment, according to Miles Agbanrin, an analyst for market researcher Euromonitor International.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) current Bulgarian presidency (January-July 2018) will probably face a tough challenge, when tripartite talks between the European Parliament, member states and the European Commission on electricity market reform begin this spring.

“Since early March, we have been preparing for the ‘trilogues’ [EU jargon for talks between its three main bodies], comparing the [EU] member states’ general approach reached in December with Parliament’s position, so we have documents to work on when trilogues start,” a Council spokesperson told Modern Power Systems, adding “no dates have yet been fixed” for the negotiations.…

BULK tobacco smuggling is on the rise in eastern and south-eastern Europe, and cigarette manufacturers are calling for a better coordinated approach by law enforcers, as well as the passing of clearer and stricter rules to combat the menace. While regulation is in place in some countries (Montenegro and Romania insist on licensing and growers’ record keeping, for instance), the licencing and registration of tobacco growers are still not required in others (for example Poland and Greece), causing weak links that can be exploited by smugglers, according to the legitimate tobacco industry.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) fourth anti-money laundering directive (4AMLD – 2015/849) was hailed as major step forward in combatting money laundering when it was adopted in May 2015, but member states are dragging their feet on compliance, just as the bloc moves towards adopting its fifth update.…

AFTER years of slow growth since 2008, eastern Europe’s now mature cosmetics and personal care market has continued to show marginal gains in products sales in the past year, according to experts.

The region’s cosmetics and personal care products sales edged to USD23.67 billion in 2017 from USD21.74 billion in 2016, counting sales in Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Georgia.…

British Prime Minister Theresa May is to ask the National Crime Agency (NCA) to investigate UK companies’ role in a USD2.9 billion Azerbaijan money laundering scandal, unveiled in a September 4 report from the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), based on data leaked to Danish newspaper ‘Berlingske’.…

EASTERN and central European food consumers have often complained that international branded food tastes worse in their countries than in western Europe – even when comparing the same brands in similar packaging.

But the question is whether these grumbles are effectively urban myths – or if there is evidence suggesting that these differences are real.…

Investing and doing business in Bulgaria is not for the faint-hearted. Overseas companies are not only likely to encounter a few rotten and corrupt business partners, but rather systemic bribery, tough access to financing, policy instability, and an inefficient government and judicial system.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s (EU) comprehensive and ambitious ‘Energy Union’ package of reforms, launched last November (2016) could do more to boost the oil and gas industries, experts have told the Petroleum Review.

These ‘Clean Energy for All Europeans’ legislative proposals cover energy efficiency, renewable energy, the design of the electricity market, security of electricity supply and regulatory rules.…

As the Northern Ireland government lurched from crisis to political crisis in recent years there has been less focus on the rivers of dirty money flowing through and out of the province, the results of criminal enterprises run by Ulster’s paramilitaries.…

BUILDING a career in auditing in what is often regarded as the most corrupt country in the European Union (EU) is not for the faint-hearted, but that is what Nikolay Garnev, EY manging partner for Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo, has done.…

THE EUROPEAN Association of Sugar Pro­ducers (CEFS) and the European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism sectors (EFFAT) have called for the European Union (EU) to push for a global agreement ending all subsidies and other trade-distorting policies affecting the sugar sector.…

EUROPEAN confectionery manufacturers have urged caution over the impending end of food export subsidies, which will be scrapped after a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. Developed country members have promised to remove export subsidies immediately for basic food products, with a slower phase-out for many processed foods.…

FOOD and drink export subsidies are to be scrapped after a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, agreed to phase out these trade sweeteners. Developed country members have promised to remove export subsidies immediately for basic food products, with a slower phase-out for many processed foods and drinks, pigmeat and dairy products.…

It has taken more than half a decade for the cosmetics markets of eastern Europe to finally shrug off a long-running period stagnation that has characterised the regional market. Two underlying features – the financial crisis of 2008 and the completion of multinational takeovers in the noughties that saturated these post-communist markets – lay behind the extended period of slow, low or non-existent growth.…

AN AGREEMENT has been signed between Bulgaria and Greece to build a 182-kilometre interconnector gas pipeline between Greece’s Komotini and Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora, which will help funnel Azeri gas sent via Turkey to eastern and central Europe. The pipeline will also ease Bulgaria’s energy exposure to Russia – it relies heavily on Russian gas exported via Ukraine.…

IT has been a tough year for China’s growing economy, which has experienced some unexpected faltering in 2015, but facial care product sales have continued to surge ahead.

Retailers of these products have posted strong and sustained growth rates, increasing by 8% in the whole of 2014 to Chinese Yuan Renminbi – CNY142 billion (USD22.1 billion) and are estimated to have grown by another 10.2% in 2015, to CNY (also known as RMB) 156.4 billion, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

GERMAN-made automobiles were the largest source of reports regarding potentially dangerous motor vehicles made to the European Union’s (EU) RAPEX consumer alert network in 2014, analysis of its data shows.
There were 194 notifications to the system relating to automobiles and parts last year, the fourth largest category following toys (650), clothing and textiles (530) and electrical appliances (217).…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s vice-president for energy Maroš Šefčovič has backed the idea of creating a European regional energy distribution hub in Bulgaria, which has been floated by its government. However, speaking after a visit to Brussels by the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov last week (12 January), Šefčovič underlined the conditions necessary for this to happen in the country: proper infrastructure, transparency, liquidity and non-discriminatory access to suppliers and customers.…

ALMOST two years since its establishment in January 2013, the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) created as part of Europol, has delivered on its objectives, but still faces numerous resource challenges. Set up by the European Commission to support the 28 European Union (EU) countries in cybercrime investigations targeting online intrusion, fraud and child sexual abuse and to disrupt the operations of organised crime networks that commit a large share of cybercrimes, the EC3 is now receiving more requests for support that it can handle, its head, Troels Oerting, told Fraud Intelligence.…

GUIDO Rasi, executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), has been forced from his job by a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that concluded his 2011 appointment had been flawed procedurally. Rasi, a former director general of the Italian medicines agency, was supposed to serve for at least five years, with his renewable term of office expiring in November 2016.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced a further four European Union (EU)-funded marketing programmes promoting sales of EU-produced meat, within member states and abroad. These are in addition to the Euro EUR7.7 million programme promoting lamb sales run by British beef and lamb levy body Eblex, Ireland’s Bord Bía, France’s Interbev, announced earlier this week.…

LIGNITE power station units are still being built and modernised in the European Union (EU), raising warnings from environmentalists that this could negate EU emissions controls. There are lignite projects in various stages of approval, planning or construction in Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, and Slovenia, for instance.…

EVERY five years, a new European Commission is appointed with the supposed aim of renewing the energy and impetus of the European Union (EU). What are the implications for the fight against commercial crime? Keith Nuthall and Méabh Mc Mahon report from Brussels.…

THE INCOMING European Union (EU) commissioner for budgets and human resources has pledged support for the under-pressure EU anti-fraud office OLAF, assuming she is confirmed to serve a five year term from November 1. Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist and a former vice-president of the World Bank, has pledged to work closely with OLAF, for which she would be the responsible commissioner, and a vice-president under the new commission of Jean-Claude Juncker.…

A NEW European Commission nominated to hold office for the next five years has been told by its incoming president that it must increase transparency and avoid any hint of sleaze.

With fraud against the European Union (EU) institutions still costing taxpayers millions of Euros and the record of the outgoing Barroso Commission marred by the Dalli affair, nominated Commissioners have been told their “conduct must be unimpeachable.”…

Energy savings of up to 30% are possible if clothing and textile producers apply a “simple” system of cost assessment, a Brussels conference of industry experts has been told. Yet too many companies lack fine-tuned energy data and are certainly unable to quantify the money they are losing or know how to focus on the problem.…

ECUADOR, an important confectionery exporter to the European Union (EU), has struck a new bilateral free trade agreement with the EU, which will eliminate tariffs on imports to Europe. The new trade deal is supposed to take effect in late 2016, and until then a system of preferential tariffs will be in place.…

WHEN American personal care product giant Johnson & Johnson opened its shared-services centre in Prague during 2006, it employed 12 people and provided only in-group procure-to-pay services. Currently this Johnson & Johnson finance centre is the largest of the five centres the company operates worldwide in terms of staff numbers as well as the scope of services it provides to internal business partners.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a new European Energy Security Strategy, aimed at further reducing Europe’s reliance on energy imports, notably on politically unreliable trading partners such as Russia.

Its new policy plan was to be debated at the next European Union (EU) summit (European Council) on June 26-27, in Brussels.…

AUSTRIA

The location of ECC Austria in central Vienna means many consumers drop by to receive advice or lodge complaints in person with the ECC’s five staff members. A top priority in 2013 was increasing public awareness about e-commerce fraud; a brochure aimed at combatting the problem was published and more than 600,000 were distributed throughout Austria.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) scientific committee has sounded an alarm about potential health concerns regarding the use of nano-silver in clothing – the substance often used as an antibacterial in knitted socks.

The EU’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks has noted studies indicating that “nanosilver exposure leads possibly to genotoxicity, changes in activity of the immune system and an accumulation of silver in spleen, liver and testes.”…

The European Parliament today (Oct 10) voted to ban cadmium in portable batteries and accumulators used in cordless power tools such as drills, screwdrivers or saws. With the ban already accepted by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers, the EU-wide ban will come into force from December 31, 2016.…

the fanfare that greeted Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union (EU), there was little expectation that membership would eradicate corruption overnight. Six years on, major corruption scrutiny bodies appear to have come to a predictable conclusion: that Bulgaria has made substantial efforts to clean out some of the worst elements of corruption, but there is plenty left to do.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked oil and gas companies to participate in a major public consultation designed to help it draft reforms promoting the development of new energy technologies. Brussels is planning to release a new policy paper on the subject in the middle of this year.…

BULGARIAN authorities have reported more than 350 cases of Newcastle disease in flocks of backyard poultry. According to the World Animal Health Organisation, the Office International des Épizooties (OIE) all sick birds have died. The outbreak follows a report from the OIE earlier this month from Czech Republic, where backyard pigeons were killed by Newcastle disease.  …

BY MARK ROWE AND CARMEN PAUN

AMIDST the fanfare that greeted Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union, there was little expectation that membership would eradicate corruption overnight. There were, though, reasonable grounds for anticipating tangible progress. Five years on, major corruption scrutiny bodies appear to have come to just such a conclusion: that Bulgaria at least has made substantial efforts to clean out some of the worst elements of corruption, but has plenty left to do.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN government wants to secure European Union (EU) geographical indication protection for local rose oil. It says the cosmetics and perfume ingredient is of such high quality, that it should be registered in Brussels, preventing manufacturers selling ‘Bulgarian rose oil’ unless it is manufactured in Bulgaria by traditional methods.…

BY JOSEPHINE MCKENNA, IN ROME

Italy may not have the strongest tobacco black market, but it is a key portal into Europe for smuggling. This is fuelled by Italy’s long-coastline and strong organised crime organisations. Italian law enforcement has been fighting the problem, making seizures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is launching an inquiry into establishing a European civil liability regime for offshore oil and gas companies involved in major accidents. They could then fund repairs and compensation for damage they cause without relying on local governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken another step towards focusing the European Union’s (EU) support for biofuel production on those fuels that create at least 35% less carbon emissions than fossil fuels. A key part of this process is using certification schemes to ensure that biofuels are green, taking account of the environmental impact of their production as well as use, and the Commission has now recognised seven of these systems.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, and EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

A PROPOSED joint venture under discussion between Japan’s Toshiba Corporation and Russia’s Techsnabexport (TENEX) is expected to focus supplying low enriched uranium, not only to Japan but to third-party markets, Fuel Cycle Week has been told.…

BY MARK ROWE and E BLAKE BERRY

GIVEN Poland’s reputation as a reliable member of the international community, it is perhaps surprising Poland was (until 2009 at least) reckoned by the European Commission and the US Department of State to have one of the EU’s poorest records for tackling money laundering.…

BY MARK ROWEAND ZLATKO ?ONKA?

IT is easy to see why the European Commission is upset over money laundering in Bulgaria, a key consequence of the widespread corruption bedevilling the country before and since it joined the European Union (EU) in 2007.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled its gas infrastructure investment priorities for the next 20 years. They are pipeline and other transit projects delivering gas directly from the Caspian Sea to Europe; integrating the Baltic gas market, connecting it to central and southeast Europe; and boosting north-south infrastructure in western Europe to remove internal bottlenecks.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, ZLATKO ?ONKA?, CRISTINA MUNTEAN, KEITH NUTHALL

CAR prices in eastern and central Europe tumbled during the recession, significantly faster than in western Europe according to the latest data, impeding attempts to create a unified auto market that spans Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BULGARIA is to likely be suspended from international carbon emissions trading under the Kyoto Protocol because of poor financial controls. A UN Framework Convention on Climate Change committee is expected to prevent Bulgarian trading from June to at least November, the country’s environment minister has admitted.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel has refused to set an advisory limit for the intake of sugar by European Union (EU) consumers. EFSA’s panel on dietetic products, nutrition and allergies has concluded in a comprehensive assessment of dietary requirements for EU consumers “there was insufficient evidence to set an upper limit for sugars”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BULGARIA is to likely be suspended from international carbon emissions trading under the Kyoto Protocol because of poor financial controls. A UN Framework Convention on Climate Change committee is expected to prevent Bulgarian trading from June to at least November, the Bulgarian environment minister has admitted.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is keeping the pressure on the Bulgarian government to recover Euro 511,000 (Bulgarian Lev BGN 432.6 million) subsidies paid in 2007 to now bankrupt steel-maker Kremikovtzi. In a detailed report, the Commission stressed the handout had been authorised under European Union (EU) state aid rules as an exceptional payment, designed to help Kremikovtzi restructure and become viable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CALLS have been made for major additional spending on European Union (EU) energy infrastructure, now a new European Commission team is in office.

The European Parliament’s industry committee has strengthened EU proposals to ensure member states have sufficient interconnected energy links to deal with any unexpected winter shortages.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) RAPEX consumer alert service has reported a spate of sales bans and withdrawals of clothes with drawstrings, because of concerns that they could strangle wearers. Last week RAPEX publicised sales bans in Bulgaria of China-made J.S.J.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH

EUROPEAN Parliament members have claimed one scalp over ethical concerns from among the 27 European Commission candidates, who will begin five-year terms on February 9. Rumiana Jeleva, Bulgarian foreign minister, took the lawmakers’ hit after being strongly quizzed about her business interests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has effectively ordered the Bulgarian government to recoup Euro 222 million in restructuring aid paid to bankrupt Bulgaria steel maker Kremikovtzi. After an investigation, the Commission concluded that Kremikovtzi had not followed a business plan it accepted as a condition of receiving special government restructuring subsidies.…

BY BRENDAN DE BEER and CARRIE-MARIE BRATLEY

"THIS is one of the most serious situations we have ever been faced with," admitted António Mousinho, chairman of Portugal’s National Haulage Association (ANTRAM) at the beginning of October.

As with other industries in these economically turbulent times, the haulage industry in Portugal and its trade unions and professional associations are becoming increasingly obsessed with simple economic survival.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPOL’s Organised Crime Threat Assessments have not always contained a wealth of detailed useful information – but its 2009 report shows how crime groups are adopting innovative technology and organisational skills: international business should take note. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA’S belligerent approach to its neighbours in recent years has ranged from military conflict with Georgia to energy disputes with Ukraine and a string of commodity-based stand-offs, such as rows with Norway over fish products, Poland over meat supplies and Belarus over sugar.…

BY MARK ROWE, in London; KARRYN CARTELLE, in TOKYO; RUSSELL BERMAN, in Washington DC; and MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

INNOVATION in drinks packaging is more intense today than it has been for decades, with cutting edge innovation in intelligent materials, microchip integration and nanomaterials allowing designers to create boxes, bottles, cans and sacks that they could not dream of before.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, LEAH GERMAIN and MONICA DOBIE

MAYBE the best sign that renewable energies have hit the mainstream is that they now have their very own international organisation: the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Launched in Bonn, Germany, this January, with the support of 76 countries, including its host nation, Spain, Italy, France and Sweden, the roster of signatory nations has since been swollen by India and Belarus.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed allowing a doubling of the duration of its planned cotton production restructuring programme to eight years, and suggested including all cotton ginners in this production-linked subsidy package. It is the latest of a series of initiatives planned by the European Union (EU) executive to use public money to protect industries being battered by the financial crisis and the resulting global recession.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, LUCY JONES and KEITH NUTHALL

INTRODUCTION

CLOTHING and textile production and trade subsidies are under pressure today, as they have not been for many years. There has been a steady trend towards liberalisation in the sector worldwide, stemming from the abolition of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) in January 2005 and with it, then end of restrictive quotas for imports for the WTO’s 152 member countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN government is being lent Euro 198 million to develop a 156-megawatt wind farm. This money will come from the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Australia have signed a wine trade agreement, having expanded its scope to protect Bulgarian and Romanian producers. Because these countries joined the EU in January 2007, they were excluded from the text of the agreement concluded later that year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GREEK cheese industry will receive Euro 2.6 million in marketing subsidies from the European Commission over three years, while the Irish meat sector – under pressure from the dioxin crisis – receives just Euro 234,000. In Brussels’ latest announcement this morning of marketing assistance to sell food outside the EU, it is releasing Euro 17.8 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GREEK cheese industry will receive Euro 2.6 million in marketing subsidies from the European Commission over three years, while the Irish meat sector – under pressure from the dioxin poisoning crisis – receives just Euro 234,000. Other winners included Italian meat producers, with Euro 1.9 million; and Bulgarian dairy producers who scored around Euro 1 million

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONTROLLED opening of Arctic fisheries made more accessible because of the steady retreat of polar ice through climate change has been called for in a European Commission policy paper.

It wants "a regulatory framework for [those] Arctic high seas not yet covered by an international conservation and management regime before new fishing opportunities arise," saying no fisheries should be opened for any country until such controls are established.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has expanded the scope of the European Union’s (EU) wine agreement with Australia to protect Bulgarian and Romanian producers. Because these countries joined the EU in January 2007, they were excluded from the agreement concluded later that year.…

BY IRINA PRENTICE

WHILE finding accurate statistics about the Libya industry is as easy as finding your way around the country’s vast deserts without a map, it is undeniable that this is a growing paint and coating market: the country is in full economic development which includes construction, boosting demand for coatings of all kinds.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR the nuclear power plant industry, global economic crises can make for uncertain times. On the one hand, the long lead-in times associated with construction, along with copper-bottomed signed state contracts, should mean many projects continue as usual.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has expanded the scope of the European Union’s (EU) wine agreement with Australia to protect Bulgarian and Romanian producers. Because these countries joined the EU in January 2007, they were excluded from the text of the agreement concluded later that year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN prime minister Sergei Stanishev has dug the first sod to launch the construction of the country’s second nuclear power plant at Belene. The aim is to see the Euro 4 billion 2,000 MW plant operational by 2014.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN prime minister Sergei Stanishev has dug the first sod to launch the construction of the country’s second nuclear power plant at Belene. The aim is to see the Euro 4 billion 2,000 MW plant operational by 2014.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has suspended payments of European Union (EU) funds for infrastructure projects in new member state Bulgaria because its government has failed to combat graft. Citing "irregularities", the Commission has formally withdrawn accreditation for two Bulgarian government agencies managing EU funds helping new member states attain EU standards: Bulgaria’s Central Financing and Contracting Unit and the Implementing Agency at the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Work.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN research network EUREKA has asked for plastics firms to participate in a new project that will involve the development of new laminated multi-layer packaging materials for food. The aim, said a EUREKA note was "to design and apply new laminated packages [also incorporating non-plastics materials such as paper and aluminium] that will help to extend the shelf life of food products."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN government is pushing the European Commission for another Euro 550 million at least to compensate it for the forced closure of its Kozloduy nuclear power complex. Its economy and energy minister Petar Dimitrov told an intelligent energy national information day ceremony the Euro 550 million already pledged to the Kozloduy International Fund (Euro 300 million has been used) was not nearly enough.…

BY MARK ROWE

NUCLEAR energy production costs a lot of money and so it makes some economic sense for smaller countries interested in this climate-change friendly power supply to combine forces on major projects. So it is in eastern Europe, where in February 2007, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland provisionally agreed to build a new nuclear plant at Lithuania’s existing Ignalina site, initially with 3,200 MWe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN government is pushing the European Commission for another Euro 550 million at least to compensate it for the forced closure of its Kozloduy nuclear power complex over safety concerns. Its economy and energy minister Petar Dimitrov told an intelligent energy national information day ceremony that the Euro 550 million already pledged to the Kozloduy International Fund (of which Euro 300 million has been used up) was not nearly enough.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SHOOTING dead of the chief executive of the company maintaining Bulgaria’s Kozloduy reactors has redoubled the determination of the European Commission to see organised crime stamped out in the country. Borislav Georgiev was killed at home in Sofia, just two weeks after Commission President José Manuel Barroso called for action against Bulgarian crime, saying: "Endless investigations, delayed court cases do not amount to justice."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEWEST members of the European Union (EU) – Bulgaria and Romania – have been roundly attacked in Brussels over failures to combat organised crime and corruption. Their inaction could cost them dear. Keith Nuthall reports.

BEING criticised by the European Commission could easily be compared to being slapped with a wet fish: unpleasant, but nothing to lose sleep about.…

BY Keith Nuthall and Monica Dobie

Universities and colleges are constantly working with business and industry to undertake commercially valuable research. University World News will regularly feature a selection of these cutting edge developments in its business pages, which we hope will inspire businesses to contact researchers carrying out this valuable work.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CORRUPTION is hard to pin down and is by nature the most insidious commercial crime. While the European Union (EU) has been showing its concern that Europe’s governments and international organisations are at risk, news about a probe into European Parliament financial misdemeanours have highlighted the EU’s own failings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EURO 2.58 million international research project is being organised by the European Union’s (EU) Eureka research network charged with investigating the design of new laminated packages – from paper to aluminium. Its aim is to develop by June 2010 new packs that extend shelf life of food products, said a note from Eureka.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BULGARIA’S road system is to be raised from its current poor and congested standard by Euro 1.6 billion in investment from the European Commission. New motorways will be built and existing international routes upgraded, such as the Vratza-Botevgrad, Struma and Maritza motorways.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have backed the European Commission’s move to introduce private storage aid for pigmeat to fight current low prices. Under the programme, pigmeat producers can claim EU aid when storing meat for between three and five months.…

BY MARK ROWE, in London, JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo, and RACHEL JONES, in Caracas

PERSONAL care products – soaps, cosmetics, lotions and hair products – have always been important consumers of vegetable and animal-based oils and fats. Yet, this is a complex sub-sector of the global oils and fats industry.…

BY MARK ROWE

OTHER member states of the European Union (EU) may have had reservations about the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the once-exclusive EU euroclub, but such sentiments are not shared by the international cosmetics industry. With western European markets reaching a plateau of maturity, the real expansion and investment opportunities lie further east.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) standing committee on the food chain and animal health has lifted a virtual ban on exports to EU member states of meat and dairy products from Bulgaria. Unlike other eastern European countries joining the EU, Bulgaria had not requested additional time for meat and dairy producers to raise health standards to those required in other member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Commission officials are developing proposed standards insisting all cigarettes sold in the European Union (EU) should be self-extinguishing from 2010. The proposals should be released this autumn by new Bulgarian consumer affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, and would – claim Brussels bureaucrats – prevent most smoking-related domestic fires, which kill around 2,000 EU citizens annually.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE STEREOTYPE of Europeans favouring public transport over private cars is deeply flawed according to a new European Commission-funded opinion poll that interviewed 25,767 people. Pollsters Gallup not only confirmed that private motor transport is the most widespread means of making journeys in the EU (53% of those polled drove rather than cycled, walked or took public transport), 22% of these motorists would not drive less, even with dramatic improvements to rail, bus, air and boat transport.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Commission officials have confirmed that they are developing proposed standards insisting all cigarettes sold in the European Union (EU) should be self-extinguishing from 2010. The proposals should be released this autumn by new Bulgarian consumer affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, and would – claim Brussels bureaucrats – prevent most smoking-related domestic fires, which kill around 2,000 EU citizens annually.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to extend to new EU member states Bulgarian and Romania a convention that would effectively prevent these countries’ lorry drivers from working in the rest of the EU, if they receive driving bans while working outside their home countries.…

BY MARK ROWE
MEMBERSHIP of the European Union (EU) appears to represent something o a ‘promised land’ for the nations of the Balkans. A major sticking point for countries pushing for membership, though, is corruption, and in particular efforts to push through practical and applicable anti-fraud legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has dispatched 1.5 million doses of trivalent vaccine to fight foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Thrace, Turkey, on the European mainland, near the country’s borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Brussels is concerned that FMD is endemic in parts of Turkey, especially with two outbreaks being reported this year close to the European Union, where livestock has free movement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is lending US$50 million to Bulgarian and Egyptian subsidiaries of UK-based oil/gas producer Melrose Resources, developing Egypt’s El Mansoura, Southeast El Mansoura, and Qantara Nile delta concessions, and Bulgaria’s Galata gas field and four adjacent offshore concessions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DISTILLED Spirits Council of the United States has pressed the US Trade Representative office for further action over counterfeit spirits from Bulgaria, even though progress has been made against the problem. In a detailed report, it welcomed increased seizures – 1,296 cases of fake US whiskeys in 2006, compared with 284 AEPV cases in 2005, for instance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission struck practical cooperation agreements with the nuclear research institutions of Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia, which will deepen their long-term cooperation regarding the development of nuclear fusion energy with the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). The deals cover the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) in Sofia; the Lithuanian Energy Institute in Kaunas; and the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA is threatening to impose an import ban on all European Union (EU) meat products from January 1. Moscow has written to the European Commission warning of a potential embargo because of the admission that day of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU – Russia claims safety concerns over these country’s meat products, which would henceforth have free circulation in the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PRELIMINARY deal brokered by the European Commission in Moscow covering meat hygiene controls has headed off the immediate threat of Russia banning all imports of European Union (EU) meat and meat products from January 1. The Russian government had warned of an import blockade, because of concerns over the health and safety of meat from Bulgaria and Romania, who join the EU that day and henceforth benefit from pan-EU export rights.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PARIS (ICIS News)–The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has scrapped an exemption enjoyed by Bulgaria’s Chimco AD to Euro 21.43 per tonne definitive anti-dumping duties imposed on imports of Bulgarian urea. Chimco had promised to import urea into the EU at a minimum import price, but failed to supply sufficient documents to the European Commission proving it had honoured this promise, said council documents.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has made permanently legal across the EU experimental wine-making practices that have been under trial. They include the treatment of must and fermenting wine with charcoal, employing L-ascorbic acid, adding dimethyldicarbonate (DMDC) and using yeast mannoproteins.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE in Beirut

THE APPEAL hearing of the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for allegedly infecting over 400 Libyan children with HIV has been brought forward to December 25. The hearing was originally slated for January 31, but was altered in response to concerns by the defence team over the health and psychological conditions of the defendants, who have been in jail since 1999.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending Euro 20.1 million to three Bulgarian banks to create a special fund financing small-scale domestic investments promoting energy efficiency and renewable-energy use. United Bulgaria Bank, Postbank and RZB Bulgaria are participating in the scheme which has been developed under the EBRD’s policy of helping Bulgaria deal with the forced decommissioning of its Kozloduy nuclear reactors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend Bulgaria’s Maritza East I Power Company Euro 430.5 million to finance construction of a two-300MW generator lignite-fired power plant on a ‘build-own-operate-transfer’ basis. The project will help Bulgaria deal with the closure of nuclear power plants at Kozloduy – a safety-inspired condition of the country’s 2007 European Union (EU) accession.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT’S fair to say that neither Bulgarian nor Romanian wine stands very high in wine-lovers’ affections at the moment. That wasn’t always so.

The wines were held in some esteem in the 80s, for instance, under the last years of communist rule, but standards have slipped pretty drastically in the score of years since then.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE NETHERLANDS government has shown how rich countries can fulfil their Kyoto Protocol commitments by promoting the overseas development of efficient green energy production, claimed the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The Dutch are funding a Euro 5 million conversion of a Bulgarian paper mill from generating energy via oil and gas to biomass via the EBRD-managed Euro 32 million Netherlands Emissions Reduction Co-operation Fund.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending French wine group Belvedere Euro 9 million to break into the Bulgarian market, paying for it to reconstruct existing wineries and to acquire vineyards. The bank said the loan would “support (Belvedere) in the process of becoming one of the biggest local players in the wine sector and (in) increasing its export sales”.…

BY PUAL COCHRANE, in Beirut

THE APPEAL hearing of the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for allegedly infecting over 400 Libyan children with HIV has been brought forward to December 25. The hearing was originally slated for January 31, but was altered in response to concerns by the defence team over the health and psychological conditions of the defendants, who have been in jail since 1999.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRENCH drinks group Belvédère is to sink Euro 30 million into the Bulgarian wine industry, as the country prepares to become a European Union (EU) member state in 2007. The company is planning to invest in local vineyards to be able to provide approximately 30% of its grape supplies for its Bulgarian production, which is owned by subsidiary Belvédère Capital Management Ltd.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has drawn up plans to lend Dundee Precious Metals Inc US$10 million to modernise and expand its Chelopech Gold Copper mine and associated processing plant in Bulgaria. Its aim is to boost the complex’s processing of ore from 500,000 to 1.5 million tonnes per year, which it converts into copper/gold concentrates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend Dundee Precious Metals Inc US$10 million to modernise and expand its Chelopech Gold Copper mine and associated processing plant in Bulgaria. Its aim is to boost the complex’s processing of ore from 500,000 to 1.5 million tonnes per year, which it converts into copper/gold concentrates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DUTIES on a range of Romanian confectionary exported to European Union (EU) will be phased out by 2007, easing the country’s oncoming EU membership. Affected lines range from chewing gum, liquorice extract, white chocolate, boiled sweets and toffees.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHILE the voters of many European Union (EU) countries express misgivings about greater continental integration, Bulgaria has been making great efforts to join the Brussels club by 2007. But its reputation for commercial crime and the lack of strong governmental structures able to tackle the problem are hampering efforts to clean up the country’s reputation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BULGARIA has come under fire for failing to effectively reform its shoddy mental hospitals, which have been described by a human rights group as “dumping grounds where people are robbed of the right to any activity and wait only to die”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ROSE oil production in Bulgaria has grown in 2004 to a record for recent years of one ton, up on last year’s 700 kg, said a note from the European Commission. Bulgarian rose oil prices have also hit a high of Euro 4,100 per kilogramme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BULGARIAN government has negotiated the right for its tobacco-growing sector to claim direct farm payments from the European Union (EU) representing 47,137 tonnes of production per annum. European Commission officials have told World Tobacco that the notional quota was part of an agriculture agreement within Bulgaria’s talks on joining the EU, which it is expected to do by January 2007.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BULGARIAN police – supported by European Union (EU) police agency Europol – have seized and dismantled three major Euro counterfeit currency print shops. More than 400 officers raided dozens of houses across Bulgaria, netting fake banknotes with a face value of Euro 100,000, fake documents, credit cards and counterfeit tourist visas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BULGARIA has announced it will build a second nuclear power plant to replace the outdated Kozloduy power station, which the European Union (EU) insists should be closed by 2006. Construction will take place at Belene, in northern Bulgaria where work started on building a 1,000-megawatt plant in 1987, but ceased in 1991 following environmental campaigns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHEN the European Union (EU) signed up to an Agreement on Textiles and Clothing at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) last Uruguay Round that foresaw the scrapping of import quotas at the start of 2005, it is hard to imagine it viewing the deal as a way to boost production in knitted products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SERIES of exemptions from the European Union’s (EU) new energy taxation directive have been proposed by the European Commission for the eastern and southern European countries joining the EU in May (barring Cyprus).

They would be added to the already long list of exemptions negotiated by existing Member States that prompted EU internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein to liken the legislation to “Gruyere cheese”.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has drawn up plans to lend Euro 50 million via Bulgarian banks to finance energy efficiency and small renewable energy projects in the country’s private sector. This money would be combined with an extra Euro 10 million from the Kozloduy International Decomissioning and Support Fund (KIDSF), which was set up to help Bulgaria cope with the loss of power supplies caused by the decommissioning of the Kozloduy nuclear power station.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) law enforcement agencies are intensifying their fight against the counterfeiting of the Euro currency, as European Central Bank (ECB) figures show an increase in seizures of forged banknotes. In the second half of 2003, 311,925 counterfeit notes were discovered in Euro and non-Euro countries, a 30 per cent increase over the first six months of 2003, when counterfeit seizures had been 59 per cent more numerous than in the previous half-year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is helping to fund the construction of a 150 kilometre 400 kV transmission power line that will link the electricity grids of neighbouring Balkan countries Bulgaria and Macedonia. Although 80 kilometres of the electricity cables will be in Bulgaria, the bank’s Euro 40.5 million loan will be paid to Elektrostopanstvo na Makedonija (ESM), Macedonia’s state-owned power utility; Bulgarian electricity provider Natsionalna Elektricheska Kompanija would meet its share of the project’s costs by providing electricity to ESM during construction.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy ministers have agreed new rules for applying value added tax to cross-border gas supplies that will reduce confusion created by increasing cross-border trading in energy supplies. Now, traders re-selling supplies who are not established in the same country as the supplier will pay VAT through an obligatory reverse charge system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BULGARIA has informed the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that it has dropped its plans to impose a temporary safeguard duty on imports of flat-rolled products of non-alloy steel plus iron or steel bars and rods. The decision follows an investigation staged by the Bulgarian government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL in Paris, ALAN OSBORN in London, MARK ROWE in Singapore, ED PETERS and DON GASPER in Hong Kong, RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane and ALEX SMAILES in Port of Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend international private equity group Advent International Euro 10 million, to help it, and an associated consortium, buy 65 per cent of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), which is being privatised.…

BY MARK ROWE
CUSTOMS and Excise officers in Bristol have made the biggest ever seizure of contraband cigarettes in Britain’s West Country region. More than 10 million cigarettes with an estimated duty value of Pounds 1.75 million were found in a crane imported at the city’s Royal Portbury Dock on board a Bulgarian timber ship.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank has followed up an agreement to integrate Balkans countries’ electrical systems with that of the European Union by announcing a Euro 130 million loan for developing the region’s electricity networks.

Euro 70 million is being lent to the Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro, (Euro 59 and 11 million respectively).…

Keith Nuthall
THE BULGARIAN government is to stem a boom in imports of white tinplate crown corks; Sofia is imposing temporary safeguard duties to protect Bulgaria’s production of this key drinks packaging product, used to seal glass bottles. It told the World Trade Organisation that imports in 1999 increased by 673 per cent compared to 1998, and by 874 per cent in 2000, which “contributed significantly to domestic products’ price decline and to reduced profitability.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations has highlighted how some member countries have been using their money laundering laws to criminalise corruption, while employing bribery or corruption laws to outlaw money laundering. A report by the UN Secretary General’s department on how the organisation’s 1996 declaration against Corruption and Bribery in International Commercial Transactions has lead to national laws being tightened regarding these crimes lists a number of case studies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNATIONAL financial assistance is required in the eastern European shipbuilding and repair industries, if they are to withstand increased competition following the planned entry of their countries to the European Union, a report ordered by the European Commission has concluded.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CITIZENS of eastern European countries which have signed association agreements with Brussels, paving the way for their accession to the European Union, cannot be refused the right to live in a Member State, if they can become successfully self-employed, the European Court of Justice has ruled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has developed what appears to be the rather unlikely plan to lend US$25 million to a South Korean-owned shipbuilding firm, in a bid to increase its industrial capacity. Although the proposed loan would actually be spent on boosting Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering’s operations in Mangalia, a Black Sea coast town in Romania, near the Bulgarian border, the bank is said to be aware of the political sensitivities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has drawn up plans to lend US $5 million to Bulgarian gold and copper mine Navan Chelopech A.D., to improve productivity and efficiency, “by bringing the mine up to international operating and environmental standards.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has drawn up plans to lend US $5 million to Bulgarian gold and copper mine Navan Chelopech A.D., to improve productivity and efficiency, “by bringing the mine up to international operating and environmental standards.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to lend Euro 21.5 million to Balkanpharma, Bulgaria’s leading producer of pharmaceuticals, to support the modernisation of three production sites. It is hoped that the reforms will enable the recently privatised company to raise its standards to meet European Union and Bulgarian official good manufacturing practice levels, allowing it to maintain traditional export and domestic markets and increase its access to the EU.…