Search Results for: Greece

European Union (EU) law enforcement, perhaps emboldened by the launch of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), has launched a series of cases and inquiries, including against high-ranking politicians accused of corruption. For example, Gabrijela Žalac, Croatia’s regional development and EU funds minister from 2016-9, and three accomplices, have been arrested, on EPPO orders, for alleged fraud regarding the purchase by her ministry of deliberately overpriced software for a public company.…

A recent verdict (judgement 1751/2021) by Greece’s top court, the Council of State, regarding the ritual slaughter of animals has raised significant concerns to the Muslim and the Jewish communities of Greece, potentially impeding growth in Greek halal exports. The ruling effectively withdraws a permit that has allowed the slaughter of animals without stunning them first, as (usually) required to produce halal and kosher meat.…

The Romanian clothing industry has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with supplies of raw materials from China and exports to Italy disrupted, with the pandemic also choking off labour supplies, which were already a problem for this near-sourcing hub.…

Global supply chain delivery delays and price tensions continue to disrupt Italy’s otherwise robust food can production sector. With profit margins squeezed, food canners expect prices to rise across the board for these long shelf-life food staples

According to Italian can manufacturing industry association ANFIMA’s most recent data, Italy produced 698,523 tonnes of rigid metal packaging (tinplate and steel) and 24,745 tonnes of aluminium packaging in 2020, up 3.6% and 7% from the same period the previous year, respectively.…

A key political question emerging from the Coronavirus pandemic has been how the disease might readjust relations between this world’s two largest powers – the United States and China. The two countries have had two very different experiences of Covid-19, which reflect their contrasting social and political systems.…

The European Union (EU) is currently considering reforming its excise duty rules for tobacco products, with the tobacco industry and commentators seeing the negotiation on the integration of e-cigarettes being one of the hottest topics. Today, e-cigarettes in the EU are treated just like any other product, falling under EU VAT rules, and are not subject to EU-excise laws that apply for conventional tobacco products or spirits for instance.…

The Greek metal packaging sector is characterised by fragmentation between two multinationals and a larger number of smaller Greek enterprises. This defines a national industry that is primarily inward looking, with few exports. Vasilis Papapanousis, sales director at leading tinplate manufacturer ELSA SILGAN Metal Packaging SA, told CanTech International that exports do not account for more than 5-10% of the total Greek production metal packaging.…

THE RULING council of the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) is preparing to agree major reforms to the International Cocoa Agreement, which should see the agreement increase its commitment to boost sustainability in the chocolate sector.

Council members are considering final changes committing the ICCO to ensuring that cocoa production, processing and manufacture is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.…

“Yes, to coexistence.” It sounds like a platitude – yet sometimes, it is simply a statement describing a most important principle of real life. This statement is written on the entrance of the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School in Jerusalem, that teaches Jews and Arab students side-by-side.…

The long-awaited proposals to create a powerful European Union (EU) Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) have been released by the European Commission. If approved, this would be the world’s first supra-national AML/CFT regulator. AMLA would operate under a new EU regulation, directly applicable across all 27 EU member states.…

FOOD and drinks companies from across the European Union (EU) are now able to apply for research funding from the European Union’s (EU) Horizon Europe programme, which has a budget of around EUR95.5 billion. This spending will last until 2027, with companies generally needing to form international consortia focused on food, ingredients and packaging projects to secure funding.…

Long after the January 10, 2020, deadline set by the European Union’s (EU) 5^th anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD) (1) for member states to establish public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) registers, a Transparency International (TI) report (2) has alleged widespread non-compliance.…

Corruption increased in 2020 across the 27 European Union (EU) countries according to 32% of participants in Transparency International’s latest survey of over 40,000 people, the ‘Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – European Union 2021’ (1). As regards other respondents, 44% saw no change and only 16% a fall, year-on-year.…

INTRODUCTION

ROBOTICS are not new to the textile and clothing sector, and have driven productivity improvements for more than a decade. But these technologies are becoming increasingly more adaptable and more autonomous, offering the many stages in the textile and clothing and distribution chain the potential to increase margin.…

The European garment sector has been growing uneasy about how the six-day stranding of the 400-metre-long cargo ship Ever Given in the Suez Canal will affect its supply chain. It has also been assessing the lessons for future contingency plans regarding such cargo transport pinch-points.…

Covid-19 has reshaped commercial crime, and one lucrative offence taking a real turn for the worse is tobacco smuggling and counterfeiting. Keith Nuthall reports.

The Covid-19 pandemic has depressed incomes worldwide and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

Oil companies decarbonising their portfolios are getting out their cheque books for floating offshore wind projects.

Bottom-fixed offshore wind farms familiar in some places worldwide are generally limited to water no more than about 60 metres deep. Beyond that, it becomes economically unfeasible to connect the increasingly large turbine assemblies to the seafloor by either monopile or jacket foundations.…

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled the black-market trade in illicit and smuggled licit tobacco products. The disease has depressed income and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

The surge in ecommerce in the past year driven by the Covid-19 pandemic will push financial institutions and commercial traders to use more big data analysis, maybe utilising artificial intelligence (AI), to identify anomalous behaviour, say fraud analysts.

International payments company Worldpay (part of the FIS Group, based in Florida, USA, since 2019) valued global online spending at USD4.6 trillion last year, up 19% on the previous annual figures – the highest growth in the past five years.…

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 Union’s (EU) international food and drink trade has withstood the challenges of Covid-19, with figures for the first eight months of 2020 valuing EU exports (excluding the UK) at EUR119 billion, up 1.2% compared to January-August 2019. Imports also rose slightly to EUR81.6 billion (up 0.8%).…

LUXEMBOURG may be a small country, but it is big in dairy, especially milk – with its other main products cheese, butter, butteroil and cream. Growth in the dairy sector of this Grand Duchy, similar in size to the UK country of Dorset and slightly smaller than the US state of Rhode Island, is continuing – even during the market disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit.…

Many of European Union’s 27 member states appear to have been dragging their feet when implementing a key provision of the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD) (1), setting up a public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) register.  The registers should have gone live for the corporate world on January 10, 2020, and two months later on March 10 for trusts.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has ramped up pressure on Turkey to stop exploratory oil and gas drilling in Mediterranean waters that EU member state Cyprus claims is within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Turkey’s state-owned oil company TPAO (Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı) has sent its drillship Yavuz south of Cyprus, notably testing areas close to Israel’s EEZ that have anticipated major gas deposits.…

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 NEW campus of the University of Cape Verde (Uni-CV), which has cost almost USD60 million to build and should open next March (2021), is expected to attract more national and international students and researchers to this island country. The launch of this modern facility has been delayed from July (2020) because of Covid-19, but it is hoped the March opening will stick.…

International efforts are stepping up to scope and map what it will take to wean chemical manufacturing off its high dependence on oil and gas feedstock for chemicals that are then used to make plastics, fertilisers and other important products.

Options include using building-block raw materials from biomass instead of fossil-fuel feedstock; boosting the yield of chemicals for a given quantity of feedstock; and, applying advanced recovery and recycling technologies in circular economy approaches.…

The tobacco market in Greece, once one of the world’s most robust, is struggling with declining consumption trends seen across Europe and north America, as well as a growing illicit trade.

Vassilis Mastorakis, marketing director of the Karelia Tobacco Company Inc, Greece’s largest cigarette manufacturer and exporter, told Tobacco Journal International that “smoking of cigarettes in Greece has been in a declining trend over the last 36 months [July 2017-June 2020] by almost 7% (2020 versus 2018) while the roll-your-own (RYO) consumption is slightly growing by almost 2 percent over the same period.”…

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%.…

THE UNITED Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has proposed creating a permanent ‘observatory’ monitoring cocoa markets, assessing value and costs, to help chocolate sales revenues be more equitably distributed throughout supply chains.

In a report called a ‘Comparative study on the distribution of value in European chocolate chains’, the FAO said such “objectified and cross-checked data” would aid “a multi-stakeholder discussion” at national and global levels on revenue sharing.…

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.…

Swiss pharmaceuticals giant, Novartis AG, plus a former subsidiary Alcon Pte and its current Greek wing, are together to pay out USD345.9 million in fines to American regulators because of corrupt practices. The penalties follow admissions that staff bribed public and private healthcare providers in Greece and Vietnam to choose Novartis products in breach of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).…

Carbon emissions within the European Union were falling fast last year (2019) even before the Covid-19 crisis halted much of the EU economy and slashed CO2 releases, according to new figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat. It argues that tightening regulatory controls were the key reason for a 4.3% year-on-year EU-wide fall in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion (including oil and oil products, coal, peat and natural gas).…

HUNGARY continues to be an attractive market for tobacco majors, with its populist government seemingly determined to fight the European Union (EU) for the right to keep excise duties below EU mandated  minimums, and the fact that, according to the OECD Country Health Profile 2019 official data (https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/hungary-country-health-profile-2019_4b7ba48c-en#page1…

The European Commission has launched a series of infringement procedures for shortcomings in national legislation implementing the European Union’s (EU) fourth and fifth anti-money laundering directives (4AMLD and 5AMLD), including one against Britain, even though it left the bloc on January 31 (but remains subject to EU law during a transitional period to December 31. …

The suspension for alleged corruption by senior officials at a financial intelligence unit (FIU), the cornerstone of any jurisdiction’s AML work, would be shocking. But if those suspensions were at the FIU of the world’s only purely theocratic state, such reports would sound like the work of thriller fiction.…

Nicotine consumption is declining worldwide, with smokers are consuming less, as well as e-cigarette and heated tobacco users, according to market research provider Euromonitor International’s ‘Nicotine Survey, Exploring the Modern Nicotine Landscape’.

“Overall [the study] shows nicotine prevalence is declining not growing, and it is clear to see there isn’t much evidence that greater availability of nicotine formats is increasing smoking prevalence among adults,” said Shane MacGuill, head of tobacco research at Euromonitor International, in a webinar attended by TJI.…

GEOGRAPHICAL indications can be controversial legal protections that some food manufacturers regard as being unjust restrictions on trade in quality food items that are inspired by traditional products.

Of course, for companies based in traditional production regions of goods such as Prosciutto ham and Irish whisky, they can be a Godsend – preventing illicit competition (as they see it) from banking on a reputation for taste that has been created by protected manufacturers in previous decades, even centuries.…

THE MANY properties that have contributed to graphene being described as a ‘super material’ make it an increasingly attractive choice as an ingredient in a wide range of coatings with special functionalities say researchers and manufacturers. And, with Many of these properties offering environment-friendly and sustainable benefits, graphene is being considered as a key part of the coatings industries efforts to reduce carbon emissions and hence climate change.…

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.…

Like other European cities, the sheer number of cheap nail salons that have exploded in Barcelona in recent years has reached saturation point. There is one, however, that has a waiting list. Dvine creates the ‘art nails’ that have become the statement accessory of Rosalia, the Catalan singing sensation who swept the 2020 Grammy Awards.…

After 34 months of intensive work and investment of more than Israeli Shekels ILS12 billion (USD3.4 billion), the partners in the Mediterranean Sea Leviathan gas field project – the USA’s Noble Energy Inc, along with Israeli partners Delek Drilling, and Ratio – have announced the start of natural gas production from the reservoir, the largest energy project in Israel’s history.…

The Netherlands-based investment trust, Impala Invest BV, has reached an agreement with creditors banks and will take over troubled Greek pigmeat, turkey, cheese and other deli product manufacturer Creta Farms, according to sources close to a planned deal. While company representatives have yet to release a formal statement on the plans, because Crete-based Creta Farms operates under temporary administration appointed from a court of first instance, the final approval of the deal is expected to be announced in the next few days.…

A survey that the European Commission released for International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9 has shown that fewer European Union (EU) businesses contend that corruption is widespread than in 2013. But at 63% – compared to 75% in 2013 – the number believing corruption is widespread remains significant. …

A free trade deal between Europe and Australia is in the making but European Union (EU) trade negotiators have managed to generate some serious concerns among Australian dairy industry in the process. The EU wants Australia to recognise the exclusive rights of EU cheesemakers to the traditional names of almost 60 different types of cheeses through Australia recognising EU geographical indications (GI) within any agreement.…

With a new European Commission about to take office (probably on December 1, one month late, with three proposed nominees being rejected by MEPs), one key challenge will be pushing fraud out of the European Union (EU). It is still a huge problem, with in 2018, 1,152 frauds detected and reported.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) fourth anti-money laundering directive had not even been implemented before Panama Papers revelations on massive tax evasion highlighted critical gaps in the bloc’s regulatory framework, especially regarding cryptocurrencies and prepaid cards. The result was directive (EU) 2018/843 of May 30, 2018 commonly known as the fifth anti-money laundering directive.…

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.…

A MEMORANDUM of understanding (MoU) has been signed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) with China’s ministry of finance and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) boosting SFC access to audit working papers from audits of HK-listed mainland companies.…

MARCH’S approval by the European Parliament of new European Union (EU) electricity market rules, designed to increase consumer choice, boost renewables access and cap power subsidies, were hailed by the European Commission as a new dawn for the creation of the EU’s much vaunted Energy Union.…

While today 12 out of every 100 Europeans are tattooed or have some sort of permanent cosmetic treatment, experts are increasingly concerned that these skin colouring agents may contain hazardous substances, known or suspected to have adverse health effects causing cancer, allergies or mutations.…

GREECE’S cosmetics sector showed significant resilience during the country’s long financial crisis and is currently expanding, as the country’s overall economy pulls ahead (1.9% GDP growth in 2018 and 2.1% projected for this year). However, problems afflicting the country’s personal care product regulations and a duty imposed on cosmetic producers might impact the sector going forward.…

Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws have been used extensively by its government following the 2016 attempted coup, but fighting money laundering, corruption and financial crime has not been given the same priority.

With the rule of law undermined by the sacking or suspension of an estimated 150,000 members of the judiciary, civil service and military deemed part of the plot to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, eyes are on the mutual evaluation report being undertaken by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of Turkey this year.…

GREECE and the newly renamed Republic of North Macedonia have struck a military agreement enabling Greece to help monitor its neighbour’s air space, including for civilian flights. During a visit to the North Macedonian capital Skopje, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras noted the deal between the two country’s defence ministers includes the Hellenic Air Force providing air traffic control services to Northern Macedonia, which it will monitor via radar.…

GREECE and the newly renamed Republic of North Macedonia have struck a military agreement enabling Greece to help monitor its neighbour’s air space, including for civilian flights. During a visit to the North Macedonian capital Skopje, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras noted the deal between the two country’s defence ministers includes the Hellenic Air Force providing air traffic control services to Northern Macedonia, which it will monitor via radar.…

BODY artists in Europe may have to reconsider the pigments that they use in future, with the European Union (EU) drafting new rules that could regulate what chemicals can be used in tattoo inks. While today 12 out of every 100 Europeans are tattooed or have some sort of permanent cosmetic treatment, experts are increasingly concerned that these skin colouring agents may contain hazardous substances, known or suspected to have adverse health effects causing cancer, allergies or mutations.…

In Croatia, an ultimate beneficial owners register has been established, operated by the Croatian Financial Agency (FINA – Financijska Agencija). Persons demonstrating a legitimate interest in data will be able to obtain limited BO information, including companies and persons undertaking legally required due diligence.…

BRITAIN was among a handful of European nations that fell down in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perception Index, dropping out of the top-10 of the most honest jurisdictions in the 2018 rankings. The UK is now joint 11^th with Germany, dropping two points to 80 on the scale where 100 is seen as cleanest and 0 highly corrupt among experts and business people surveyed.…

Centre right members of the European Parliament’s special committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance (TAX3) have hit out at the 18 EU member states, that offer citizenship or residence in exchange for investments. The MEPs, members of the European People’s Party (EPP), spoke out November 14 as the committee handed down a draft report*, with findings and recommendations, including phasing out such rights.…

Dimitris Koutsopoulos, CEO of Deloitte Greece, identifies three key policy points promoting his company’s success: maintain a culture of professionalism in the workplace; provide services that are of high quality to clients; and invest in employee training to implement new technology.…

With traditional universities increasingly using web-based learning as a way of recruiting students world-wide, University World News spoke to the head of Italy’s top online university to see how it has developed a successful model for international higher learning

Enrollments for the 2018-2019 school year at the Rome-based International Telematic University, Uninettuno, have exceeded expectations, university rector Maria Amata Garito, shared with UWN: “I can confirm that enrolments have jumped quite a bit this year – up by circa 200% compared to last year,” said Garito.…

THE CHINESE government has directly targeted the American knitwear sector in the latest tit-for-tat response in the trade wars launched by US President Donald Trump. Beijing has highlighted knitted goods in a list of products that maybe subject to retaliatory tariffs, should the USA impose a threatened third list of duties on Chinese tech, drafted over alleged thefts of American IP.…

A senior figure in the American cotton industry has told just-style of his concern that Turkey’s collapsing currency and trade disputes with the US government will cause it to import less US-made cotton.

The Turkish lira – TRY has dropped in value by 45% this year – indeed last September 12, USD1 bought TRY3.43, this September 11, it bought TRY6.43.…

A new report from Transparency International has found that only 11 major exporting countries in the world significantly punish companies that pay bribes abroad. The report, called ‘Exporting Corruption’, also found that more than half of world exports come from at least 33 jurisdictions, including several European Union (EU) member states, where companies that export corruption along with their goods and services face weak consequences. …

SUPPORTERS of the European Union (EU) as a political concept stress how it has the vision, and the money, to promote energy projects of common interest (PCIs) between its (for now) 28 member states. Their goal is to promote an effective continent-wide energy market that offers European citizens more security in their supply of gas, electricity and to a lesser extent oil.…

Dairy producers may find it more difficult to protect distinctive products from copies in the European Union (EU) after recent legal decisions confirming the tough standard of evidence manufacturers need to meet to claim intellectual property (IP) rights over food characteristics.…

EUROPE can meet its goal of cleaning up the power sector several years earlier than by the European Union’s (EU) self-imposed deadline of 2050, according to Kristian Ruby, secretary general of the Union of the Electricity Industry – Eurelectric, the sector association representing the industry at pan-European level.…

AN UPCOMING European Union (EU) ‘Counterfeit and Piracy Watch-List’, being developed by the European Commission to identify physical and digital marketplaces outside the EU where counterfeit tobacco and other consumer product are traded widely.

Intellectual property abuse is a key concern to the EU tobacco sector.…

THE CANADIAN fur industry is adapting to changes in consumer demand by looking to new uses of pelts, including fur yarns that can be knitted or weaved, as well as the use of fur for trimming. The resulting product lines are intended for a broader target market, including clothing and accessories that will appeal to a new generation.…

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) financial watchdog, the European Court of Auditors, is auditing the deployment of SESAR, the EU’s technological modernisation programme for air traffic management. The assessment will examine whether it is well managed and will contribute to the Single European Sky (SES) initiative.…

THE DECISION of the European Commission not to propose a harmonised European Union (EU) approach for excise duty on e-cigarettes and other novel tobacco products has been welcomed by the tobacco sector for avoiding punitive taxation on a nascent segment.

But should such rules ultimately be introduced the tobacco sector may not oppose them if they reflect the lower health risks involved in consuming such products by enabling lower excise duty bands.…

GERMANY’S federal finance ministry has said it will lend EUR1.2 billion to a key Azerbaijan company involved in developing Caspian Sea natural gas, exporting it via a burgeoning pipeline network to central and western Europe. Azerbaijan’s ‘Closed Joint Stock Company Southern Gas Corridor’ (SJCC), formed in 2014 by presidential decree, will borrow the funds to help develop the Shah Deniz offshore gas field in the Caspian.…

THE UK may have a formal relationship with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) after its planned March 29, (2019) departure from the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May has signalled in a detailed policy speech. Speaking in the City of London, she said: “We will also want to explore with the EU, the terms on which the UK could remain part of EU agencies…” And while not naming EFSA, she said – in theory – she was prepared to allow the UK to be bound by the rules of EU agencies, post-Brexit. …

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 economic crisis, anti-smoking legislation, increased product taxation and new tax regimes for producers are taking their toll on the Greek manufactured tobacco market.

A surge in cigarette prices has depressed cigarette sales and increased fine cut tobacco sales, according to market researchers Euromonitor International.…

Efforts to safeguard the security of supply of gas to the European Union (EU) and its countries are gathering pace after recent EU regulatory changes. Gas transmission system operators (TSOs) are now developing a new, collaborative system for managing supply crises.…

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.…

A CHANGE in the name of Macedonia’s Skopje Alexander the Great Airport could be afoot, as the Macedonian government seeks to heal an 18-year-old dispute with Greece over the country’s name and association with this historic king and conqueror. Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev declared at the World Economic Forum in Davis last month (January) that he would be prepared to stop naming Skopje airport after Alexander, along with maybe changing his country’s name.…

GERMAN airport operator Fraport has announced a new EUR10 million development plan for Kavala International Airport, which serves eastern Macedonia and Thrace in northern Greece. Fraport Greece CEO Alexander Zinell said Fraport would upgrade the existing terminal, expanding it by 2,000 square metres, installing a new baggage handling system while remodelling and expanding its fire station.…

OECD SAYS 49 JURISDICTIONS WILL AUTOMATICALLY EXCHANGE TAX INFORMATION THIS YEAR

THE IDENTITY of 49 jurisdictions that will automatically exchange tax information in 2017 under a global standard has been revealed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).…

THE CENTRAL Archaeological Council (KAS), of Greece’s culture ministry, has ruled that 30 hectares of Athens now closed Hellenikon International Airport should be protected from redevelopment to conserve historic artefacts. The airport closed in 2001, and plans to build residential and commercial units on this coastal site have been held up while the council assessed its historic value.…

COMPANIES and citizens defrauding European Union (EU) revenue collection (including customs duties and cross-border VAT fraud) and spending programmes, may from 2020 face direct criminal proceedings brought by a European Public Prosecutor. The EU Council of Ministers has approved establishing this new institution in 20 of the 28 EU member states – Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.…

COMPANIES and citizens defrauding European Union (EU) revenue collection (including
customs duties and cross-border VAT fraud) and spending programmes, may from 2020 face
direct criminal proceedings brought by a European Public Prosecutor (EPPO). The EU
Council of Ministers has approved establishing this new institution in 20 of the 28 EU
member states – Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal,
Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.…

International police agency Interpol and its European Union (EU) counterpart Europol have
announced what they say is the biggest hit ever against online piracy with law enforcers
taking down more than 20,500 websites selling counterfeit goods seized in 26 countries.
Participating countries were Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Britain,
Colombia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Latvia, Moldova, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine, the USA
and China special administrative region Hong Kong.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states and the European Commission have agreed to strengthen monitoring and information sharing systems on food fraud, to help prevent the emergence of damaging scandals such as this summer’s Netherlands egg contamination scandal. Rapid common risk assessment procedures are to be created including swift convening of Commission/member state meetings to exchange relevant scientific information.…

VIETNAM’S textile and clothing and textile sector is looking to sell more product into Asian markets such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, while solidifying its traditional export bases like the US and EU, the latest trade data indicates. 

Last year, Vietnam exported USD2.28 billion’s worth of clothing and textiles to South Korea – a 7.45% gain compared with 2015, according to Vietnam customs data analysed by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS). …

In a socially-reserved country such as Saudi Arabia where entertainment options are mostly limited to shopping and cafes – the opening of spas and beauty salons offer another avenue for leisure and recreation.

According to market research company Euromonitor International, Saudi Arabia’s spa market was valued at Saudi Arabian Riyals SAR275 million (USD73.3 million) in 2017, growing by 7% over 2016.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a new revamped European Union (EU) directive on combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment, with a key aim of criminalising scams associated with virtual currencies.

This legislation, which updates now obsolete 2001 rules, would insist EU member states treat as crimes possessing, selling, procuring, importing and distributing a stolen or unlawfully appropriated counterfeited or falsified non-cash payment instruments.…

GREECE is planning to make country-of-origin labelling on milk mandatory from 2018, Agriculture Minister Evangelos Apostolou said on 7 September. The labelling regulation bill will be discussed in the Greek parliament this week.

With this move, Greece joins a growing trend of European Union (EU) member states, notably France last year, to introduce these labelling rules for milk.…

CONFECTIONARY manufacturers in India are having to grapple with their products and ingredients attracting a wide range of tax rates under the country’s new goods and services tax (GST), which started to be levied from July 1.

India’s GST Council, a body representing the central and state governments, has been deciding which goods will be covered by the zero, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% tax rates allowed under India’s GST legislation. …

SOUTH Africans are boosting their spending on cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures, with their national market expected to generate South African Rand ZAR94.15 million (USD7.1 million) in annual receipts by 2024. This reflects a 5.8% annual growth rate from the ZAR61 million (USD4.6 million) spent in 2016, according to US-based market research and consulting company Grand View Research, in figures released in July (2017).…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and China have struck a geographical indications deal preventing the names of 100 traditional food and drink items from either jurisdiction being used by manufacturers based outside their historic production regions or following standardised production techniques. Without complaints from manufacturers, the agreement will be formalised later this year.…

THE GREEK government says that it and seven other European Union (EU) member states may launch legal action over the Chinese government’s refusal to ban China-registered trademarks of products falsely marketed as traditional EU-made foods.

A document released by Greece’s economy and development ministry has claimed that France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain have agreed to join forces to finance a case in the Chinese courts.…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is planning to lend up to USD100 million to LUKOIL Overseas Shah Deniz Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia’s PJSC LUKOIL, helping it take part in developing Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field. This investment is a rare EBRD financing of a Russian company.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) lawmakers are calling for a seismic shift towards low carbon mobility in the auto sector, including requiring manufacturers to meet a 25% minimum fleet quota for electric vehicles by 2025 and a sales ban on cars emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2035. …

The European Union (EU) and China have struck a geographical indications deal involving both parties preventing the names of 100 traditional food and drink items from either jurisdiction being used by manufacturers not based in their historic production regions or following standardised production techniques.…

Greek savoury snacks specialist company Chipita has refused to confirm or deny reports that it plans to build a new plant for its products in Slovakia. The company told just-food.com that “it is interested in many markets (including Slovakia) and is constantly looking for opportunities.…

THE NETHERLANDS-based Hendrix Genetics plans to build a complex producing hatching eggs for turkey chicks in Russia this year, according to the Russian ministry of agriculture.

Ina report, it has said the new complex will be able to produce 6.5 million hatching eggs per year, and the potential to increase volumes in future.…

SEVEN years of recession and two years of capital controls have taken their toll not only on the Greek economy but also on the country’s cosmetics market, although local companies have been maintaining their focus on R&D and exports. According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (Elstat), the overall turnover retail index for cosmetics and pharmaceutical products in February 2017 was 58.8% of sales in 2010 – the year marking the beginning of Greece’s financial and economic turmoil.…

EUROPEAN electricity industry federation Eurelectric hews closely to the views of its national associations, so when all but two of its members made a commitment in April (2017) not to fund investments in new-build coal-fired power plants after 2020, the energy sector can be sure this is a solid promise.…

GREECE is to benefit from nearly EUR500 million’s worth of financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) to finance regional airports whose concessions were approved as complying with European Union (EU) competition law in March.…

AUTOMOTIVE parts and vehicles have become the second most dangerous category of goods in the European Union (EU) in 2016, according to the most recent annual report of the EU’s ‘Rapid Alert System for non-food dangerous products’, or RAPEX.

The system routes safety alerts about consumer products within the 28 member states of the EU.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has taken a significant step towards the creation of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), but its chosen procedure may mean the powers of EU anti-fraud office OLAF will be undiminished, at least for some countries.

The latest European Council – the EU summit of heads of government – on March 9 agreed that the creation of the EPPO should be mandated through the EU’s ‘enhanced cooperation’ procedure.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) exports of cheese to Canada will increase substantially, by some 128%, as a result of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada, which the European Parliament approved provisionally on February 15, say EU dairy associations.…

THE OLIVE oil industry has traditionally been dominated by some key major European players, notably Spain, Italy and Greece, but with global consumption rising, production is emerging in countries which have previously relied on imports.

International Oil Council statistics show how new production centres are being created.…

WHILE Japan has freed up its electricity market, in 2015, end-user price regulation was still applied to household electricity markets in 12 European Union (EU) member states (46% of electricity and 54% of gas price offers from different service providers), Europe’s electricity industry association Eurelectric spokesperson Anamaria Olaru told Energy World.…

THE EUROPEAN Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is investigating if European Union (EU)-wide controls are needed to protect consumers against substances used in tattoo inks and permanent make-up (PMU) – with one solution expanding the scope of the EU cosmetics directive.

While the printing ink industry has suffered a recession, the tattoo and PMU ink sectors are booming in the wake of a huge increase in purchases of tattoos EU-wide.…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is planning to lend EUR60 million to a joint venture taking over 14 Greece regional airports from the government under a public-private-partnership arrangement. The financing to Fraport Regional Airports of Greece ASA, owned by Fraport AG and the Copelouzos Group, would be long-term, enabling the JV to boost the airports’ infrastructure and service quality, promoting Greece’s key tourism industry.…

Fast fashion is all about getting product to market quickly without over-spending. And while new technologies such as digital printing machinery can speed up the process, they can also add cost.

Guido Schlossmann, president and chief executive officer of Thailand-based consultants Synergies Worldwide, stressed to just-style that the key issue is getting the balance right.…

GREECE’S rural development and food ministry has said it plans to re-introduce mandatory origin labelling for milk and dairy products sold in the country. The measure has to be accepted by the European Commission as complying with European Union (EU) laws before it can come into force.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has finally been instructed to draft a European Union (EU) directive authorising an EU financial transaction tax, which would apply to 10 of the EU’s 28 member states.

Meeting on the margins of a Eurogroup session in Luxembourg on Monday (Oct 10), the governments of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain agreed to push ahead with the project.…

MILLIONS of Euros have been released by the European Union (EU) to fund projects deepening the international gas pipeline network in eastern Europe, a key element of EU plans for forge an ‘energy union’.

One major project is a EUR179 million plan to create the Bulgaria–Romania–Hungary–Austria (BRUA) system of gas lines.…

EUROPEAN COMMISSION LAUNCHES GLOBAL TAX AVOIDANCE BLACKLIST ASSESSMENT

THE EUROPEAN Commission has completed the first phase of an assessment designed to help the European Union (EU) frame its own blacklist of jurisdictions deemed un-cooperative over tax avoidance and evasion. Brussels has released a ‘scoreboard’ of non-EU jurisdictions judging whether they exchange information with foreign tax authorities, have preferential or low tax regimes, have close and important economic and financial links with the EU and are politically stable (and hence more attractive as a tax haven).…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) SNIFFER project which has developed artificial olfactory techniques to detect explosives and illicit narcotics is being taken forward in a new study designed to create cargo-screening technology.

SNIFFER, which wrapped up in 2015, is the subject of a new European Commission memorandum, which reported successful trials at Athens international airport, Greece.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s latest EUR500 million support package for European farmers, finalised at an August 26 European Union (EU) committee in Brussels, will not ease the dairy crisis, European dairy groups have warned.

“Production cuts is the label used to describe the current package of measures,” said the EU farm lobby group European Milk Board (EMB)’s president Romuald Schaber following the initial announcement of the plans in July.…

AFRICA’S economic growth means it does not just have more banks than before, banking groups are spreading across national borders. And while this can boost banks’ lending and savings security, it also complicates the job of regulators charged with ensuring such institutions are honest and solvent.…

WITH 4.8 million Syrian refugees registered by the UN, and many more displaced without registration, their impact on consumer markets outside their home country has been significant. The tobacco sector has been no exception. Indeed, even before the civil war, Syrians were keen smokers – with 2004 Syrian Centre for Tobacco Studies research indicating that 56.9% of men smoked cigarettes and 17% of women; 20.2% of men smoked waterpipes (shisha) and 4.8% of women; 29% smoked daily – 51.4% of men and 11.5% of women).…

allowing gas – including LNG – to be transported between the two countries, starting July 1 (2016). This deal was struck between the network operators for Bulgaria and Greece – Bulgartransgaz and DESFA. It will enable companies from both sides and other countries to make north- or southbound deliveries, boosting gas movements between Greece, Turkey, Macedonia and Ukraine.…

Yet the good old British public is defying its political leaders and employers in its tens of millions. Why? There are a number of reasons, some of them more ‘tangible’ than others. I’ll attempt to list the main ones.

IMMIGRATION

The EU is associated in the public mind with immigration because it allows the free movement of labour.…

Swedish hi-tech company Ericsson is under investigation for corruption on both sides of the Atlantic, but not for the same cases. US investigators (thought to be from the department of justice and the Securities & Exchange Commission – SEC) are looking at Ericsson practices in China in line with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).…

The design of sustainable clothing poses many additional challenges compared with conventional products, from restrictions in fibres to product designs and manufacturing processes – but the biggest hurdle to overcome is keeping up with changing trends at the same time. But while fast fashion is undoubtedly profitable, its very nature can promote waste, making clothes that are only supposed to last a season or two and being particularly demanding on workers.…

An EU-funded project has developed innovative deep-mining strategies that are set to cut Europe’s dependence on the imported rare earth elements (REEs) within four years with less environmental damage.

The I²MINE – or ‘innovative technologies and concepts for the intelligent deep mine of the future’ – aimed to secure European access to the 15 lanthanides, as well as scandium and yttrium [ARE THESE IN SPECIFIC LOCATIONS/ REGIONS?],

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it will propose a ‘services passport’ system by December 31, designed to simplify administrative procedures for service providers, such as accountants, auditors and bookkeepers, who want to expand to foreign member states. EU internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska said: “The cross-border provision of services in the EU is underdeveloped, in particular in the area of business services – such as accounting…” The passport system would give accountants more information, boosting legal certainty and clarity about relevant professional rules in another member state.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has chiselled a new template for international organic food trade deals with its new agreement with Chile. The deal involves EU regulators recognising Chilean exports as organic when produced and controlled under Chilean controls; and Chilean regulators accepting EU food exports as organic in Chile when produced under EU organic rules.…

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drafted plans to led EUR1 billion to TANAP Dogalgaz Iletim, the Azeri-Turkish consortium developing the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TAP) from the Shah Deniz production field in Azerbaijan to European and Turkish markets. The loan, which still needs approval from the EIB board of directors, will help ensure the TAP project proceeds.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Greece to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) after the Greek government refused to comply with an order from Brussels that it recover EUR37 million’s worth of illegal subsidies and tax breaks from Athens-based manufacturer United Textiles.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has agreed to back reinforcing checks of all persons entering or leaving the EU, including of EU citizens, to reduce the risk of visitors promoting terrorism.

“We have to determine whether they form a threat to our safety or not,” said Klaas Dijkhoff, the Netherlands’ minister for migration following a February 25 meeting of the EU council for justice and home affairs.…

The European Commission should not accept the voluntary ‘traffic light’ food labelling system used in the UK where ‘red’ means high, ‘amber’ medium, and ‘green’ low levels of fat, sugar, salt and calories, seven European Union (EU) member states are arguing.…

TAX breaks from the Greek government that will benefit the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) joint venture building a fixed gas link from Greece, through Albania to Italy have been approved by the European Commission. It had to decide whether the support complied with European Union (EU) state aid rules, designed to limit national government subsidies to companies in the EU’s border free single market.…

The European Commission has indicated that to just-style that it may accept a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling against “anti-dumping” duties imposed on leather footwear made in China and Vietnam imported into the European Union (EU).

The duties were imposed in 2006 over concerns that these were being sold in the EU at below cost-price and have been the subject of some controversy ever since, with several retailers claiming they were illegal and demanding refunds.…

THE BORDER-free European Union (EU) Schengen zone has continued to weaken, with the European Union (EU) telling the Greek government to boost its border controls or face additional checks on passengers travelling to and from Greece. Reporting on how Greece had dealt with migrants from Turkey, many escaping Syria’s war, the European Commission, concluded there was “no effective identification and registration of irregular migrants and that fingerprints are not being systematically entered into the system and travel documents are not being systematically checked for the authenticity or against crucial security databases, such as SIS, Interpol and national databases.”…

A report released yesterday (Mar 10) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) has advised textile manufacturers to support government efforts to tighten environmental rules, saying they are unlikely to cause a loss of business.

The report is an attempt to dispel the widely-held view that tighter environmental rules increase costs and damages business – especially in emerging market manufacturing hubs.…

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.…

The European Commission has noted that while the number of patent settlements in the European Union (EU) pharmaceutical sector declined in 2014, it is still optimistic that such deals will be used to avoid legal action in future. It says in a report that there were 76 patent settlements concluded between originator and generic companies in the EU pharmaceutical sector in 2014.…

OPPOSITION is growing within eastern and central Europe to the plan to expand the Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Germany. Gazprom, E.ON, BASF/Wintershall, OMV, ENGIE and Royal Dutch Shell have formed a consortium that would double the capacity of the current Nord Stream 1 and 2 line to 55 billion additional cubic metres of gas a year (bcm/y).…

EUROPEAN dairy producers are keen participants in the European Union (EU) protective systems that prevent competitors from claiming to sell products made using traditional production methods and ingredients. The systems: PDO (protected designation of origin); PGI (protected geographical indication); and TSG (traditional speciality guaranteed) promote and protect names of quality agricultural products and foodstuffs.…

China’s new found taste for olive oil is growing, opening up new sales channels for olive oil producing countries and Morocco is one potential beneficiary. Morocco is the fourth largest exporter of olive oil and olives after the European Union (EU), Turkey and Tunisia, currently producing between 100,000 and 120,000 tonnes per year of which 25,000 tonnes are exported.”…

TAXES on wages in developed countries within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) have risen by about 1% between 2010 and 2014 even though a majority of OECD governments did not increase statutory income tax rates. A new OECD report Taxing Wages 2015 said in 2014, the tax burden paid by average OECD workers increased 0.1% to 36%.…

The UK is lagging behind many other European Union (EU) member states when it comes to energy efficiency and is fiddling the figures to show it is making better progress than in reality, according to the latest report from the Brussels-based Coalition for Energy Savings.…

In the Gulf, the harsh desert climate has always made agricultural production difficult, so fats in the form of animal lard or milk ‘ghee’, have traditionally dominated diets.
But population growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – UAE), rising affluence, booming ex-patriot populations, and increasing diversity in imports, have driven increases in sales of higher end edible oils in the region.…

A BREAKTHROUGH project that could return all olive oil waste back to the olive oil production cycle by turning it into onsite energy could bring significant profit margin improvements to the industry, while reducing its environmental impact. 
The European Union (EU)-funded pilot project Biogas2PEM-FC, based in Andalucía, southern Spain, uses  “valourisation” techniques to deal with waste, as opposed to the traditional method of “depositing or using physical, physicochemical or biological methods for detoxification, which is costly,” explained Per Ekdunge, the Swedish fuel cell technology company PowerCell’s vice  president and chief technology officer.…

NATURAL gas projects are a key part of the Euro EUR315 billion development plan released before Christmas by the European Commission. A keystone of the pro-growth policies of new Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the plan involves the EU, especially the European Investment Bank (EIB), leveraging public funds to generate private capital.…

Chinese travellers are increasingly venturing to Greece, offering great potential for its tourism industry. And while Greece’s exotic landscapes and architecture attract visitors from China, the tourism industry could prosper still further from developing services and infrastructure designed to cater to this growing market.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) judges have ruled that slaughterhouses within the EU can only insist that public authorities provide a veterinarian supervising slaughtering on Sundays or public holidays, if it is “objectively necessary” this work happens on those days.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) however refrained from giving a precise definition of what circumstances would indicate this necessity, and said that national courts would have to decide.…

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.…

THE COMPREHENSIVE Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union (EU) will make it easier for both jurisdictions to recognise each other’s nursing certifications. Political leaders celebrated the end of negotiations in September in Ottawa, Canada (Sept 26).…

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.…

THE NEW European Commission of president Jean-Claude Juncker, which will take office for five years on November 1 is expected to be more political than its predecessors and certainly has a clear brief from its boss: more growth and jobs.

Juncker, a consummate European Union (EU) insider, a former president of the Eurogroup of Euro-zone finance ministers, and an ex-prime minister of his native Luxembourg, will use powerful vice-presidents to keep his team in line.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) finance ministers agreed at an EU economic and finance ministers (ECOFIN) meeting on the scope of the long-threatened ‘financial transaction tax’, and 11 governments pledged to reach an agreement on its details by the end of the year.…

Spanish meat producers seeking new export sales to compensate for repeated bans on deliveries to Russia have stepped up efforts to woo importers and agents in Greece.
Business meetings last week in Athens were arranged after an introductory series of presentations delivered there in May.…

THE SALE to Russia of multi-directional, multi-dimensional knitting and interlacing machines, including adapters and modification kits, specially designed or modified for weaving, interlacing or braiding fibres, for composite structures has been banned by the European Union (EU).

This is because the EU considers such machines of potential use to the Russian military, which has been involved in the Ukraine crisis.…

CONSUMERS could face more real-time transaction checks when buying goods by card, leading analytics software firm FICO, USA, has suggested in a study of card fraud levels in 19 European countries. Analysis showed United Kingdom (UK) card fraud hit record levels in 2013, up 15% year-on-year at GBP450 million (USD751.86 million) and beating the previous peak in 2008.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched the second phase of its fuel cells and hydrogen joint undertaking, sinking EUR1.33 billion into hydrogen-based energy and transport fuel technology until 2020. The European Union (EU) is planning to contribute up to EUR665 million, leveraging at least EUR665 million from private sources.…

As Europe seems to be stepping out of its long recession, the renewables sector seems to be coming out stronger, despite its reliance in government subsidies. Even in crisis hit Greece, it was a renewable energy company that provided the Athens Stock Exchange with its first IPO since the debt crisis began in 2009. …

THE FINANCIAL watchdog of the European Union (EU) – the Court of Auditors – has claimed the 2011 bank stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority (EBA) were flawed. The regulator failed eight out of 90 banks: five in Spain, two in Greece and one in Austria.…

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released a full version of a new global standard for the exchange of information between jurisdictions. Its ‘Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters’ calls on governments to obtain detailed account data from financial institutions and exchange it automatically with other jurisdictions annually.…

European Union (EU) police agency Europol has hailed as a success a two-day operation against illicit scrap dealers, which yielded 271 arrests and identified 146 cases of theft across Europe. Law enforcement teams, backed by the EU unit, checked 8,300 scrap metal dealers in 20 European countries.…

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.…

HELPING AND ADVISING EUROPEAN CONSUMERS SHOPPING AND TRAVELLING ABROAD

WHEN CAN ECC-NET OFFICES HELP YOU?

• Air travel

So much can go wrong: flights can be delayed or cancelled; luggage can be lost or damaged; and hidden fees can be charged.…

Final statistics to be published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the fall are expected to confirm that the average CO2 emissions of new cars sold in the European Union (EU) in 2013 were already below the European Union’s (EU) 2015 required target.…

REPRESENTATIVES from Europe’s sugar industry want sugar to be excluded from the current free trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union (EU). Speaking at an EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) briefing in Brussels, Oscar Ruiz de Imaña – the deputy director general of the European Association of Sugar Producers (CEFS), warned of the uncertainties in the sugar markets on both sides of the Atlantic.…

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.…

WHEN a company issues a motor vehicle recall, there are a number of short term and long term implications. The company must consider the costs of repairing the vehicles, any legal costs that might arise, and, of course, its reputation.

But Paul Nieuwenhuis, co-director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff Business School in the UK, said companies often decide to cut costs when manufacturing a vehicle, calculating that the costs associated with issuing a recall as a result would be worth it.…

IRAN and Turkey are regional giants within the Middle East oilseeds sector, and while their industries have been performing the threat of political instability and unstable energy subsidies threaten their profits.

According to Bill Baker, foreign agricultural service analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Turkey and Iran constitute the two “major producers of oilseed crops in the Middle East.”…

IRAN and Turkey are regional giants within the Middle East oilseeds sector, and while their industries have been performing the threat of political instability and unstable energy subsidies threaten their profits.

According to Bill Baker, foreign agricultural service analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Turkey and Iran constitute the two “major producers of oilseed crops in the Middle East.”…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released official guidance on how to protect the environment when ‘fracking’ for shale gas. It has given European Union (EU) member states 18 months to follow its suggestions, saying it will “review the effectiveness” of this voluntary approach after this deadline.…

CORRUPTION hurts the European Union (EU) economy to the tune of Euro EUR120 billion a year, the first pan-EU anti-corruption report issued by the European Commission has argued. Indeed, no EU counties are free from corruption, the EU home affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who is from Sweden – usually regarded as one of Europe’s cleanest countries.…

DETAILED reports on the kind of corruption occurring in European Union (EU) member states have been released by the European Commission. It estimates that graft costs the EU economy Euro EUR120 billion-a-year. The report does not make pan-European anti-corruption reform proposals, but detailed country-based recommendations, for instance, proposing that Greece boosts the authority of its national anti-corruption coordinator.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has increased legal pressure on Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, France, Slovenia and Finland to ban individual pregnant sow stalls, claiming they have flouted European Union (EU) law by continuing to allow the practice.

A Commission note to these countries says it is prepared to invoke legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) should piggeries in these six countries continue to seclude pregnant sows in separate stalls.…

THE FINAL investment deal on piping gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II field has been struck, confirming Europe will receive 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually from 2019. The gas will be shipped via the upgraded South Caucasus Pipeline through Georgia and the new TANAP pipeline across Turkey, linking with the planned Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) through Greece and Albania to Italy.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to consult with ministers and MEPs on whether to draft a law insisting that such information must be included on all food products using meat as an ingredient. It follows the release yesterday (Tuesday) of a report on origin labelling for meat.…

THE DIPLOMATIC stand-off between the European Union (EU) and Russia over their respective links to Ukraine throws into stark light the EU’s desire to secure energy security of supply and to decrease its reliance on an unpredictable Russian government. These needs were reflected in the announcement in October of a list of 248 energy infrastructure projects that the EU wants built in in the next decade, all in some way connecting EU member countries through electricity, gas and oil links.…

A DETAILED report on tax rates levied in 30 rich countries has been released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). It said that ratios of tax revenues to GDP rose in 21 of these 30 countries in 2012 (the largest in Hungary, Greece, Italy and New Zealand), falling in nine countries, with the steepest falls in Israel, Portugal and Britain.…

THE RECENTLY concluded Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada may bring opportunities for European producers of Oriental tobacco, Antonio Abrunhosa, chief executive of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) has told Tobacco Journal International.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) economy and finance ministers (ECOFIN) said at their meeting on Friday (15 November) in Brussels that they wanted to agree the text of the proposed EU fourth anti-money laundering directive with the European Parliament before May 2014.

That would enable negotiations to be concluded before the current parliament’s terms office ends – and elections are held between May 22 and 25, after which committees will need to be re-elected and standard business will be stalled, in some cases until September.…

A SWITZERLAND and Greece-based pharmaceutical company Sellas Life Sciences has signed a Euro EUR388 million investment deal with China’s Fochon Pharma for developing and selling two novel molecules for treating type II diabetes and lung cancer. Under the deal, Sellas will acquire the worldwide rights, outside China, to sell the resulting medicines, having organised and funded the clinical trials, some in Greece.…

ACCORDING to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the largest single health threat to the population of the world today is antimicrobial resistance (AMR). How can it be countered and what options are open to government regulators, the medical profession and, especially, the pharmaceutical companies for the development of new antibiotics?…

TOUGH economic times in Europe’s tourism centres of Spain and Greece have depressed air travel to and from these countries, recently released European Union (EU)-wide statistics from EU statistical agency Eurostat show. It said flights to and from Spain fell by 3.3% to 160 million in 2012, with 8.9% year-on-year falls in traffic at Madrid-Barajas airport and 6.6% at Gran Canaria; flights to and from Greece fell 5.5% to 31 million year-on-year, with a 10.2% decline at Athens International.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian confectioners can look forward to increasing their trans-Atlantic trade once a new free trade agreement between the EU and Canada comes into force, probably in 2015.

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced on October 18, will remove most tariffs for confectionery and sweet bakery products imposed by both sides on each other’s exports.…

DEANS of Greek universities have asked the European Parliament in Brussels today to put pressure on the Greek government not to implement an order that would see 1,349 administrative staff laid off in the months to come. “We think that there should be European pressure on the Greek government so they realize that the measures taken in higher education in Greece will have an impact on Europe itself,” said Helen Karamalengou, professor in the department of philology at the University of Athens, during a press briefing held in Brussels today (Thursday).…

The leader of Greece’s business community has told just-style that the collapse of the Sprider Stores chain highlights why the Greek government needs “to restart growth”. Georgios Karanikas, general secretary of the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce (NCHC) told just-style that the “bankruptcy and eventual closure of Sprider is another sign of the dire circumstances [of] the commercial enterprises of the country…”

Sprider suspended operations last week (Tuesday 1/10).…

THE EXTENT of waste in Europe’s austerity-hit public health services was one of the ‘elephants in the room’ – a big issue seldom discussed – identified by a professionals’ conference in Brussels, Belgium, on September 4 and 5.

150 delegates at the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) annual conference heard that, on average, between 3% and 10% of budgets for European Union (EU) national health systems was lost through waste, but in some cases could even reach 30%.…

A SPECIAL European Union (EU) VAT scheme allowing travel agents to pay one VAT payment on the profits they make from selling services applies to all their customers, and not just travellers, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. The European Commission argued at the ECJ that the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Poland and Portugal should not allow travel agents to use this perk for non-travelling customers buying non-core services, but its case was rejected.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) treasuries are losing almost Euro EUR200 billion-a-year in unpaid VAT lost because of non-compliance or non-collection, a European Commission report has concluded. The Commission called on EU member states to simplify their VAT systems and broaden the tax base to improve collection, criticising “complicated tax systems with multiple rates…” It said governments should “broaden national tax bases and…limit tax exemptions and reductions…”

A study of data into 26 member states covering the years 2000 to 2011 calculated that EUR193 billion was lost in 2011, comparing predicted and actual VAT revenues.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) treasuries are losing almost Euro EUR200 billion-a-year in unpaid VAT lost because of non-compliance or non-collection, a European Commission report has concluded. A study of data into 26 member states covering the years 2000 to 2011 calculated that EUR193 billion was lost in 2011, comparing predicted and actual VAT revenues.…

CROATIA became a European Union (EU) member state on July 1, and will be hoping that its significant olive oil sector will grow though eased EU market access and production support from Brussels.

Marta Bogdanic, director of projects for the food business group at the Croatian food and retail group Agrokor, which produces and sells a range of award-winning Croatian olive oils, and owns the largest olive groves in Croatia, told Oils & Fats International that Croatia’s EU accession will pose several challenges for the country’s olive oil sector.…

The European Commission is to ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to order the Greek government to recover EUR17.4 million from Aluminium of Greece paid in 2007-8 through low electricity bills from Greece’s state-owned Public Power Corporation (PPC).

Brussels said yesterday (Wednesday) that Greece had ignored a 2011 order that this handout be repaid because it was illegal under European Union (EU) state aid rules.…

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that patents covering pharmaceutical manufacturing processes cannot be extended to cover the resulting product if the patent was lodged before 1994. That was when the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) came into force, and it says patents must cover a medicine’s content and manufacturing methods.…

The 9.5MW J920 FleXtra gas engine formally installed in May this year by the municipal utility Stadtwerke Rosenheim, in Bavaria, Germany, ticks off a number of important innovations. The largest gas engine yet developed by the Austrian company GE Jenbacher, the unit is seen by the company as an illustration of the role distributed energy is now playing in Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ – the country’s policy to halt all nuclear power by 2022 and replace it with natural gas, renewable energy, and greater use of energy efficient technologies.…

WITH Europe’s economy still struggling to deal with the fall-out of the global financial crisis, its co-generation sector has had to fight to expand, or in some cases hold its position. Tightening national government budgets have meant that the co-gen industry has had to argue persuasively for public subsidies and tax breaks, or even the right to have equal treatment with renewable energies.…

MOBILE communication services have become a significant focus for airports worldwide regarding improving passenger experience, especially as the use of interconnected smart devices has boomed. Airports have been building on previous services, such as improving and expanding their wireless internet coverage and working with airlines to allow for flight check-ins via mobile communication devices.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have agreed reforms to the EU’s VAT directive 2006/112/EC enabling member states to swiftly impose reversed charge VAT mechanisms to fight tax fraud. They would act when faced with a sudden onset of large-scale VAT fraud, forcing suppliers to pay the tax, rather than final consumers.…

‘LA TORRE PUIG,’ the 22-storey Puig Tower now being fitted out in the Plaza de Europa, of the Catalan capital, Barcelona, for Puig SL, the family owned fragrances and fashion firm, will be yet another landmark building for one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament (EP) public health and environment committee, which is handling the draft tobacco products directive (TPD), went a step further from the European Commission on July 10, when it voted to introduce a “positive list” of approved ingredients to be used in tobacco products.…

THE ACRONYM ‘PIGS’ to mean Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, was never very kind. It was abusive European Union (EU) jargon claiming that these countries were poor and their governments, profligate. Sadly, the international financial crisis showed that there was some truth in this and the four countries have since 2008 had to slash public spending to stave off national bankruptcy, and their collective road and public transport sectors have suffered.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU)-favoured Nabucco pipeline carrying Azerbaijan gas to western Europe will now almost certainly never be built, after Azeri gas consortium Shah Deniz decided to sell its gas to the rival Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The decision came after Greece announced it would sell its natural gas grid operator DESFA to Azeri state energy company SOCAR: the TAP pipeline would run through Greece to Italy, linking with pipelines in Turkey.…

Croatia’s paint and coatings industry is aiming to capitalise on the benefits of the country’s recent July 1 accession to the European Union (EU), and is hoping that an economic recovery can also help the industry return to growth over the next year.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has told Greece to scrap a meat import levy system that diverts this charge to a fund subsidising Greek farmers. In announcement yesterday (Thursday), the Commission said Greece was breaching European Union (EU) laws on fair trading, because the levy made EU meat traders from outside Greece give financial support to their Greek competitors.…

PORTUGAL’S Faro Algarve Airport may not be the first airport that leaps to mind when considering where to test-run the latest in air travel security equipment, but the airport is trialling a cutting-edge airport security system.

Located in the country’s southern Algarve region, it is a small airport with seasonal peaks and troughs of traffic that processed 5,672,377 passengers last year (2012) – the majority of whom arrived on budget carriers between June and September.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) negotiators are approaching the final decision over the future of EU sugar quotas, with a deal expected between the European Parliament and EU Council of Ministers by the end of June. What is almost certain is the current phase-out date of 2015 is dead.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of states and governments have urged their ministers to agree important pieces of draft EU legislation that could potentially curb tax evasion in the bloc.

Meeting during a European Council meeting in Brussels last week (May 22), leaders were under pressure to act from media reports revealing how much untaxed incomes politicians, companies and rich business owners have stashed in tax havens.…

Greece – the Olympian challenge

Hercules may have succeeded in cleaning the Augean stables but the mythic hero would surely have shaken his head at the state of the Greek parliament, labouring to implement austerity measures against a backdrop of corrosive corruption and widespread tax evasion.…

AT a time when the world seems increasingly led by lifelong politicians, it is perhaps refreshing to hear from a political leader who has a solid background in business, and such is former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Speaking to Accountancy Futures, he showed how more than half-a-century of business and public life can be brought to bear in financial and commercial mentorship.…

SUMMER 2013 marks an important milestone in the evolution of the European Union (EU) regulatory framework and financial support for Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E) that will contribute towards the European Commission’s goal of a single-energy market for gas and electricity. Oil and carbon dioxide (CO2) transport from carbon capture and storage systems also figure in the picture.…

CORRUPTION costs the European Union (EU) EUR323 billion a year, three times more than previous estimates,  a study by the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany, and the Brussels office of Germany’s Bertelsmann Stiftung (Foundation) suggests. In an April 9 report to the European Parliament, Hertie and Bertelsmann Stiftung calculated that EU member states could increase annual tax revenues by roughly this much if they reduced corruption to levels found in Denmark, ranked by Bertelsmann Stiftung as the least corrupt in the EU.…

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has advised the European Union (EU) to launch a series of studies to help assess the risk of Rift Valley Fever being introduced to livestock and humans in north Africa and the Middle East, potentially threatening Europe.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced a series of three-year spending programmes helping meat producers from around the European Union (EU) sell their products at home and abroad. The money funds “public relations, promotional or publicity campaigns” said Brussels, with spending being augmented by matching funding sourced from industry groups and national governments.…

THE ECONOMIC and social chaos that has riven Greece in the past few years appears at last to be subsiding, but one part of the healing process is accepting want went wrong in the first place – and new revelations do not make encouraging reading.…

The latest financial crisis to hit the Eurozone – hitting the diplomatically-recognised portion of Cyprus – is perhaps a case study in how to mismanage a banking-reliant economy and of how the international community can err when applying a fix.

As Accounting & Business went to press, the divided Mediterranean island was faced with the prospect of having to stop all government payments unless fresh money pours in by April 24.…

TO listen to opposing sides in a polarised debate, February 14, 2013, could go down in European business history as a St Valentine’s Day Massacre of Europe’s capital markets or as the start of a beautiful love affair with regulation that could help to prevent speculative trading turning boom to bust.…

POLITICAL battle-lines are being drawn over the oncoming debates at the European Parliament and the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers on the shape of the revised tobacco products directive. While formal amendments have yet to be proposed, preliminary discussions are giving the industry a good idea of the challenges to be faced over the coming months.…

A Greece ferronickel, laterite ore and lignite company may have to repay to the Greek government subsidies worth more than Euro EUR105 million, after the European Commission aired concerns they might have been paid illegally.

Brussels has now opened an in depth investigation into handouts to steel raw materials supplier Larco General Mining and Metallurgical Company SA.…

TRANSLITERATION and translation have become inescapable challenges for financial institutions and other companies striving to comply with international sanctions.

Precise identification of a sanctions target named in a foreign language is often difficult, but is essential for efficient screening of transactions that should be controlled or blocked in line with blacklists issued by national authorities (and the European Union (EU)), and those based on the comprehensive list issued by the United Nations (UN) Security Council.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed Thailand lifting its longstanding ban on bovine product imports from European Union (EU) member states, but has complained that Bangkok is insisting on expensive inspections for approved exporters.

Live cattle, beef, veal and other bovine products from Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia and Spain have been prevented from entering Thailand since 2001 over concerns about BSE.…

THE FAILURE of nine European Union (EU) member states to properly protect the welfare pregnant sows – breaking an EU law agreed 12 years ago – has caused the European Commission to threaten legal action over the issue.

It has given the governments of Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Poland and Portugal two months to say how they will resolve the problem or face a possible case at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) confectionery manufacturers and their suppliers stand to boost their export sales and reduce import costs with the launch of talks to forge the two largest bilateral trade deals ever sought by the EU – with the USA and Japan.…

Universities should be more transparent about what their offer through their PhD programmes, to better allow students to compare doctoral studies across Europe, Thomas Jørgensen, the author of the recently concluded Accountable Research Environments for Doctoral Education (ARDE) project told University World News in Brussels today.…

CHINESE investors in London’s property market are becoming increasingly important players, and the signs are that the flow of Yuan into the UK capital could keep growing. Michelle Zhang, who heads up the China desk at DTZ London, said: “CIC [China Investment Corporation] would be viewed as the most active Chinese investor and now have a number of prime London property holdings;” she highlighted the Chinese sovereign fund’s recent GBP245 million purchase of Deutsche Bank headquarters Winchester House, from KanAm, undertaken alongside Invesco.…

THE GREEN light has been given to 11 European Union (EU) member states to forge a harmonised financial transaction tax, the first time common taxation has been agreed through the EU’s ‘enhanced cooperation’ system. This allows EU member states to pass EU laws that apply to a limited group of member states – in this case Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia.…

SPORTS regulators, police and other ‘actors’ in the emerging global scandal over match-fixing and other forms of bribery, fraud and corruption need more dedicated accounting skills in-house to prevent, detect and prosecute offences.

“Sporting institutions are behind the curve and need specialists including people trained in forensic accounting within them,” said Dr Graham Brooks, a leading independent analyst of sports crime, and senior lecturer at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies (ICJS) at the University of Portsmouth, in southern England.…

OVER the past 10 years, solar panels have become increasingly popular through growing demand for green energy. But with recent developments in ‘smart’ coatings that will make photovoltaic (PV) solar applications more efficient, their future is looking even brighter.

Despite continuous developments in their production, solar cells and other PV applications are not always efficient, as they often reflect too much sunlight and create high maintenance costs. …

WITH the European Union (EU) now close to final agreement on its action plan for olive oil, the industry in Europe will be hoping that it will be sufficiently successful in balancing supply and demand so that the EU’s private storage aid (PSA) scheme is not needed, at least for some time.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has put forward an action plan aimed at creating a lasting remedy for Europe’s troubled olive oil sector which has suffered a near-calamitous loss of profitability in recent years. Unveiled last June, the plan follows a sequence of temporary and not wholly successful boosts to the sector in the form of injections of private storage aid between October 2011 and May last year.…

CYPRUS is under intense pressure to clean up its act  – at least on the south of the island, controlled by the internationally recognised government- in battling what some foreign creditors, with Germany at the forefront, see as a widespread money laundering problem.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

Greece is perhaps the best example of how a corrupt political and commercial system can undermine an economy and prevent it recovering from recession. The country has a patent and overwhelming corruption problem that weakens efforts to reduce its huge debt burden, expected to reach almost 190% of GDP in 2012.…

BY MARK ROWE

ANYONE looking for straightforward conclusions about the impact of the recession on eastern Europe’s cosmetics market is likely to be disappointed. Some countries, such as Poland, fared relatively well in the crisis, while others such as Latvia faced punishing economic contraction, therefore signals coming from the region in these uncertain and ever-changing times, are hugely varied.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Counterfeit, mislabelled and substandard meat products have been seized in an international police operation spanning 29 countries, coordinated by Interpol and European police agency Europol. Sausages, ham, lamb, chicken and beef were seized, a Europol spokesman told globalmeatnews.com.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

IT is now 10 year since the launch of Eurojust, the European Union’s (EU) judicial service coordination body, yet official figures still value fraud against EU spending and revenue programmes at for than EUR600 million (USD 800 million) each year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH government will have to carefully assess whether its feed-in tariff system gives unfair advantages to UK-based utilities and their suppliers, following a new World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes case brought by China. It has argued that Italy and Greece have broken WTO fair trading laws by unfairly favouring local companies in contracts securing subsidies under feed-in tariff systems.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

THE GREEK economic crisis may provide the perfect backdrop for money laundering. Dr Ioannis Filos, professor of Auditing at Panteion University in Athens and director of the Greek chapter of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) told the Money Laundering Bulletin that "it is obvious… that the financial stress is a big threat for someone to get involved in wrong actions/fraud/corruption."…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, in ATHENS

CORRUPTION in Greece stems from the top and is still played down by the country’s main media, recently arrested Greek editor Kostas Vaxevanis told Fraud Intelligence after being acquitted November 1 of data protection charges. This followed his Hot Doc magazine’s naming of 2,059 Greeks with Swiss bank deposits.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON, LEE ADENDORFF, IN LUCCA, ITALY; MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW; AND JOHN PAGNI, IN HELSINKI

THE POTENTIAL of micro-CHP (combined heat-and-power) for industrial businesses, residential complexes and individual homes is becoming increasingly clear across Europe.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

GREECE has clamped down sharply on movements of livestock on the Aegean island of Kos, to prevent bluetongue virus spreading to other islands and the Greek mainland. It follows reports of 10 cases being discovered in sheep and one in goats on the eastern Aegean island, which is just 4km from the Turkish coast.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

Greece implemented for the first time in September a law that allows the freezing of assets in cases of large scale tax evasion, with sources at the Greek finance ministry assuring Fraud Intelligence these measures "will most certainly be implemented in all other future cases of tax evasion."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s energy committee has rejected attempts to introduce a moratorium on offshore gas drilling in the Arctic, overruling a contrary vote by the EP’s environment committee last month. Instead, the committee proposed new amendments to a proposed law on European Union (EU) oil and gas exploration, ensuring that companies have ‘adequate financial security’ to cover liabilities from any drilling accidents in all EU waters.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

UNIVERSITY tuition fees cost more in England than anywhere else in Europe, according to a September 10 report from the European Commission, but the headline figures are not the whole story for students sizing up how to survive.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

The economic sanctions imposed on Syria last year by the United States and Europe to pressure Damascus to end its violent crackdown on protesters has made doing business in Syria difficult, especially financial transactions. But the sanctions are being evaded, with Lebanon a prime conduit for goods and capital outflows.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS

INCREASING passenger traffic and aircraft movements have required an expansion of Croatia’s Zagreb Airport, which serves the country’s capital, in the form of a new passenger terminal which should be fully operational by 2016.

"Given the imminent entry of Croatia into the European Union [EU] in January 2013, and the existing attractiveness of the capital Zagreb, we need bigger, better, more beautiful and more efficient facilities – which will certainly be achieved with the construction of a new passenger terminal," Tonci Peovic, general manager of Zagreb Airport (Zra?na…

BY MARK ROWE

THERE is consumer demand in Europe for making confectionery packaging more sustainable, but in the European Union (EU) manufacturers are motivated more in going green by EU legislation.

They are developing ways of reducing, reusing and recycling packaging, and changing its composition to help.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission will postpone auctioning pollution permits sold under its emissions trading scheme (ETS) to potential further price falls, but has not decided how many allowances will be sold later. ETS permit prices are already depressed as Europe’s economic woes left oil and gas users with unused rights to emit carbon.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POLITICAL agreement has been struck between the three main European Union (EU) institutions over a new directive on the sulphur content of marine fuels burnt in EU waters. Complying with the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) MARPOL Convention, sulphur content for ships in the North Sea, the English Channel and the Baltic Sea will be capped at 1% until December 2014 and 0.1% from January 1, 2015.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, IN SERBIA

AS Russian energy giant Gazprom begins construction work on the South Stream pipeline project by the end of this year for an operational launch in 2015, its final route across the Balkans has yet to be decided and governments are jostling for position.…

BY MARK ROWE

WITH its location adjacent to Europe’s key fashion centre Italy, a highly skilled labour force and low wages, Albania’s textile industry is repositioning itself amid the unrelenting economic crisis that is gripping Europe. A well-educated workforce and widely spoken Italian, English and Greek add to the appeal, according to Diana Cekhodima Sokolaj, president of the Albanian Fashion Designers Association.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S confectionery industry is fighting rearguard moves at the European Parliament to delay the abolition of European Union (EU) quotas on EU sugar production. A report from French conservative MEP Michel Dantin on the new EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has proposed that the quotas stay until 2020 – they are currently to be phased out by 2015.…

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 MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN GREECE AND GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

MINERAL experts in Greece and Nordic countries have agreed with the verdict of the European Geosciences Union’s recent annual meeting in Vienna that the European Union (EU) should exploit rare earths reserves in Nordic countries and Greece to improve its supplies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S largest sugar company – Germany’s Südzucker – has "welcomed" the European Commission approving it joining forces with the continent’s second largest sugar player, Britain’s ED&F Man. A spokesperson noted Brussels had "determined that in most European markets the merger will have no adverse impact on competition."…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

THE GREEK cosmetics market is still holding up, but with difficulty as the country faces years of austerity measures and recession. Although there have been no major mergers or closures in the country’s personal care product market, the market looks far from healthy.…

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 MJ DESCHAMPS

THE EUROPEAN Commission is considering the introduction of laws that would force European Union (EU) member states, consumers and producers to increase the amount of metal that is recycled and re-used from waste streams. These would include EU mandated taxation on waste; compulsory ‘pay-as-you-throw’ schemes charging consumers who fail to recycle metal waste; and enforced producer responsibility schemes, obliging manufacturers to support the costs of organising the collection and recycling of specific waste streams.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

PAOLO Canonico, the chairman of the European Technology Platform for the future of textiles and clothing has told researchers and textile businesses he sees enormous opportunities for textile research and innovation in the Horizon 2020 programme proposed in December by the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A RESTRICTIVE open skies agreement has been negotiated between the European Commission and Sri Lanka that incorporates existing bilateral civil aviation agreements struck with individual European Union (EU) member states. The agreement includes deals previously struck by Sri Lanka with Austria, Belgium, Britain, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

It is maybe the clearest sign imaginable that Greece is in deep economic trouble: people are smoking a lot less. With disposable incomes falling steeply, Greek smokers are buying far fewer cigarettes. And the contraband sector is booming.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

THESE are dark times for Greece’s textiles and clothing industry, which has been particularly hit by the country’s economic woes. Speaking to just-style, Vassilis Masselos, managing director of leading underwear manufacturer and retailer Nota Masselos SA and former president of the International Apparel Federation noted that "with more than 1 million unemployed, slashed wages and pensions and unprecedented taxation, Greeks today have very little disposable income for clothing".…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

ACCOUNTANTS and auditors in Greece have found themselves at the centre of the country’s ongoing political and economic crisis, and it is a far from comfortable place to be. Depending on who one speaks to, Greek official data had been cooked either when the country entered the Eurozone or when it asked for help; Greece was either saved by default or managed a controlled default; the conditions for the bailout loans by the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are either putting Greece back on track or are deconstructing the labour and social framework of the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ALUMINA producers in Ireland, Italy and France have escaped an order from the European Commission that they pay their respective governments additional excise duty for heavy fuel oil they bought between 2002 and 2003. Brussels had told them to pay up because the companies had enjoyed a reduced rate of duty, which the Commission concluded was an illegal disguised subsidy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is coming down hard on European Union (EU) member states which have yet to sufficiently liberalise their natural gas industries, breaching the EU gas directive, agreed as long ago as 2009.

It has sent legal final warnings to Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia saying they have two months to show how they will comply, or face possible cases at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

ANCIENT, natural techniques for making dyes and pigments have been made available today’s textile industry as a result of a European Union (EU)-funded research project, Med-Colour-Tech. A consortium of Mediterranean institutions, headed by the Ormylia Art Diagnosis Centre, operating under the auspices of the Sacred Convent of the Annunciation, Dependency of the Monastery of Simonos Petra at Greece’s Holy Mountain, identified dyes and materials used in different historical periods.…

BY MARK ROWE

ALTHOUGH it has been likened to a 21st century Silk Road, the southern gas corridor is currently making painstaking and troubled progress; inching its way through the political and economic strife that stands between the Caspian Sea and Western Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening Italy with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over a restriction it imposes on generic drug manufacturers. Italian law prevents them from filing marketing authorisation requests before the penultimate year of a patent’s expiry which Brussels says breaks EU genetic medicine legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has voted to end imports of oil and petroleum products from Iran over concerns it continues to develop nuclear weapons. Existing import contracts can be fulfilled until July 1, with the EU reviewing the ban before May 1.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

OFFICIALS at Greece’s competition regulator have told just-food the PepsiCo subsidiary fined almost Euro EUR16.2 million for abusing its dominant position in the market from 2000 to 2008 had been operating "without giving a thought to competition".…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

LIKE most other sectors, Greece’s book market felt the profound effect of the debt crisis this past Christmas, in terms of sales. Annie Ragia, president of the Hellenic Federation of Publishers and Booksellers said that although the country’s market picked up a bit after mid-December, "that was far from enough, as there has been an estimated a 30-40% drop in sales in 2011."…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking legal action against 14 European Union (EU) member states, it thinks are failing to protect egg laying hens against animal welfare abuses. According to the Commission, the countries have failed to comply with EU legislation that prohibits farmers from keeping egg-laying hens in confined, tiny cages smaller than 750 square centimetres.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

THE GREEK ministry of rural development has appealed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against a European Commission order that it collect from food producers and return to Brussels almost EUR425 million of European Union (EU) subsidies.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OLIVE oil growers in the European Union (EU) are currently facing an increasingly frustrating situation: while demand is growing internationally and harvests have been unusually good in recent years, prices are falling at a rapid rate, threatening the livelihood of the thousands of farmers in the main growing countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FUTURE of the natural gas sector is guaranteed in any viable European Union (EU) energy mix, the European Commission has said in a major policy paper. In its ‘Energy Road Map 2050’, Brussels argues that gas is the relatively clean fuel that will buy the EU time to adopt new energy technologies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has confirmed it is scrapping sugar production quotas across the European Union (EU) in 2015 when proposing a comprehensive reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). There have been calls from some member states and MEPs for the quota regime to be renewed, but the Commission has stuck to its guns and will continue with abolition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is coming under pressure to toughen its action against high mobile roaming charges, as its latest proposals are debated at the European Parliament.

MEPs want the Commission to go further in its action to foist more competition on the roaming market while capping bills.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

THE GREEK government has launched an international multibillion Euro tender regenerating the old Athens airport area at Hellinikon. The 620 hectare site is more than twice the size of Hyde Park in London. It includes facilities used for the Athens 2004 Olympics and listed buildings such as the former ‘Athens East Terminal’, designed by the architect Eero Saarinen.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) anti-fraud Commissioner has blamed member states for the EU accounts again being declared faulty by the Court of Auditors, the union’s financial watchdog. The court concluded in its assessment of the 2010 accounts that while they "present fairly the financial position of the European Union…the payments underlying these accounts were still affected by material error, with an estimated error rate of 3.7% for the EUR122.2 billion of EU spending."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission could impose significant conditions on the planned purchase of a 25% stake by German sugar giant Sudzucker of Britain’s ED&F MAN (EDFM) because it regards it as a defacto takeover. Speaking about the Commission’s launch of a detailed inquiry into the deal, a spokeswoman told just-food that its officials were asked to approve it as a merger, noting: "Whether a company acquires ‘control’ is not determined only by…a majority shareholding, but… many other factors."…

BY WANG FANGQING

WHILE soybean oil still remains the main cooking oil of choice used in China, the country’s manufacturers have recently been experiencing a shift – with a growing demand for diversity in terms of cooking products in large and small cities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed its long-awaited package of measures designed to prevent major oil or gas rig accidents that could pollute European Union (EU) waters. They have been collated into a proposed regulation, which would have to be followed to the letter by member states, if the proposal is approved by MEPs and EU ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) anti-fraud Commissioner has blamed member states for the EU accounts again being declared faulty by the Court of Auditors, the union’s financial watchdog. The court concluded in its assessment of the 2010 accounts that while they "present fairly the financial position of the European Union…the payments underlying these accounts were still affected by material error, with an estimated error rate of 3.7% for the EUR122.2 billion of EU spending."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DOUBTS are growing about the wisdom of encouraging biofuel use in the European Union (EU) as a cornerstone of environmental policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The EU has painted itself into a corner with its renewable energy directive.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY is the fifth largest importer of oils and oilseeds in the world, with demand being driven by its burgeoning economy, sizable food export industry, and a population of 74.8 million people. But while its demand for vegetable oils is outstripping local production, in olive oil production the country has set its sights on rising up the global rankings from its current fifth place to become the second largest producer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a major political initiative to prevent European Union (EU) member states being played off against each other in energy negotiations with major suppliers, such as Russia. It has proposed legislation that would insist national EU governments give Brussels information on any current deals and negotiations regarding energy supplies, including, but not only, oil and gas.…

BY MICHAEL KOSIMEDES

A SIGNIFICANT loophole has emerged in the public place smoking ban imposed since September 1, 2010 in Greece, home of some of the world’s keenest smokers. The government has now extended for two years an exemption, (initially expiring on June 1), allowing smoking in entertainment venues exceeding 300 square metres in size, notably casinos and popular music halls (bouzoukia), if they buy a smoking permit costing Euro EUR200 per square metre per season.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

NATURAL resources beginning to run scarce across many industries, and while some natural fibres and yarns are still a mainstay of the global textile and clothing market, some experts say it is only a matter of time before man-made fibres (MMF) begin to dominate.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

WITH Greece on the brink of financial default, and consumer spending power diminishing, the country’s consumers are less than concerned about looking their best, at a time where they are being forced to cut down on even the essentials – thus posing a challenge for the Greek cosmetics industry.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of a possible Greek Euro exit and default. GrExit, as it has been termed, could have catastrophic repercussions for European and possibly the global economy or it could provide some kind of solution for the troubled Eurozone and the heavily indebted country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has told the Greek government it must recover Euro EUR17 million from Aluminium of Greece, having concluded these were a disguised illegal subsidy paid via lower electricity bills from 2007 to 2008. Following an 18 month inquiry, Brussels has concluded this support breaks European Union (EU) state aid rules, which are designed to prevent member states from giving local companies an unfair advantage in the EU’s border-free market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NUMBER of road deaths in Britain fell 47% from 2001 to 2010, making its roads the second safest in the European Union (EU) after Sweden, according to the latest comparative European Commission figures. There was a marked recent improvement too, with UK road deaths falling 18% between 2009 and 2010.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

Rocky times lie ahead for the food retail sector in Greece, as consumers are faced with increasing pressure in the debt-ridden country. With rising unemployment rates, which currently stand at about 16%; a 4.8% drop in the GDP for the first three months of 2011 alone; and price rises mainly due to two VAT increases last year – the spending power of Greek consumers has been reduced significantly, and the food industry is suffering because of it.…

BY MARK ROWE

CO-GENERATION (or combined-heat and power – CHP) plants operate using a variety of technologies: gas turbines, fuel cells, Stirling engines, gas or diesel engines and combined cycle gas turbines. According to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) – the European Union’s (EU) scientific and technical research body – natural gas is currently the preferred fuel across Europe for co-gen, with combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) and gas turbine plants expected to become the predominant future technology for large-scale units.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

IT might sound like science fiction, but airport managers really are exploring the use of robots to boost security at airports. Partly this is because for some potentially extreme events, it is better to put a robot in harm’s way, rather than humans.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, LEE ADENDORFF, MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN, MINDY RAN, GERARD O’DWYER and MARTINA MARECKOVA

FOR an industry that generates energy, heat and maybe cooling, the European cogeneration sector has been operating on a decidedly low output in recent years.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

GREECE soft-drinks consumers are abandoning multinational brands for local manufacturers, wanting to help them survive the country’s economic crisis, a Greek firm claims. Plato Marlafekas, Marketing Director of leading Greek soft drinks industry Loux (http://www.loux.gr/) told just-drinks there has been a clear switch of demand to local brands, which have increased their market share.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

RECYCLING products as large as motor vehicles; or encouraging public authorities to buy environment-friendly autos seem such good ideas, laws insisting this happens is surely just commonsense? Not so in Europe, it would appear, where a string of countries are in trouble for not implementing the European Union’s recent (EU) green procurement directive; and one – Italy – is facing potential legal action for flouting the EU’s end-of-life vehicles (ELV) directive, even though these was approved in the year 2000.…

BY MARGUERITE-JEANNE DESCHAMPS, MINI PANT ZACHARIAH and WANG FANGQING

While sales of alcohol in pubs and bars in North America, Europe and the UK have seen a steady decline since the global economic downturn, experts are saying the shift from on-trade to off-trade sales of alcohol has not really had a financial impact on the alcoholic beverage industry as a whole.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

SEVEN years after the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, a few of the city’s Olympic venues are used and generate income, but most remain unused and with only basic maintenance. The original plan to let the venues for long term investment, raising income to finance the public operation of the rest foundered through Byzantine bureaucracy and poor central planning.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SERIES of bilateral civil aviation agreements negotiated by the European Union (EU) have remained unenforced because some EU member states have failed to ratify their terms. The European Commission has issued a report branding this "unfortunate", noting this "has the consequence of delaying their entry into force".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SCIENTISTS from a Euro EUR14.6 million research project are to unveil progress at a June 1-3 nanotechnology conference in Budapest on their goal of using nano-medicine to fight Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers in the NAD Project have tried to make a virtue out of the environmental concern that nano-particles can breach the blood-brain-barrier.…

BY MARK ROWE

INTERNATIONAL organisations are admitting organised crime has penetrated the government of Kosovo, right to the top. Leaked NATO documents have identified Kosovo’s prime minister, Hashim Thaçi as "one of the biggest fish" in organised crime, noting other Kosovan politicians’ involvement in prostitution, weapons and drugs smuggling.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE FUEL pipeline network around the Caspian and Black Seas increasingly resembles a London Underground map, a comparison enhanced by the latest potential addition to the lattice, known as the AGRI scheme.

AGRI, the acronym for the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector, is a proposal for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) transportation across the Black Sea.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled the cost of its ambitious plan for cutting European Union (EU) greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% of 1990 levels by 2050. Brussels says that an additional targeted annual investment over the next 40 years is needed – equalling 1.5% of the EU’s GDP – or Euro EUR270 billion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN the offices of the Czech Republic’s registry for the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading System (ETS) received a fake bomb threat on January 18, it was an annoying interruption for some Prague office workers. But when returning to their desks, they realised their real bomb had gone off in their computer terminals.…

BY MARK ROWE

LEAKED NATO documents have indicated that the prime minister and senior officials in Kosovo have close links to organised crime. That presents a daunting challenge to law enforcement officials, but their task is made more problematic by the pervasive nature of corruption in the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission may this year release proposals to reduce the vulnerability of the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading system (ETS) to fraud. Cyber-criminals launched a lucrative attack on its systems in January. How open is this ground-breaking system to fraud?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN-owned Greek mining company will have to pay EUR15.3 million, plus interest, to the Greek government, after the European Commission decided it had been originally privatised on the cheap. Brussels has ruled that Ellinikos Xrysos paid too little when it bought gold, copper, zinc, lead and silver mines in the Cassandra area, Chalkidiki region, northern Greece.…

BY LEE ADENDOORF, ALYSSA MCMURTRY, MAKKI MARSEILLES, and KEITH NUTHALL

GLOBAL olive oil manufacturing is on a roll, with the International Olive Council (IOC) saying 2009-10 world production was 3.02 million tonnes, a season-on-season increase of 354,500 tonnes (+13%). This would be the second best olive oil production year ever, next only to the record of 3.17 million tonnes produced in 2003/04.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has blocked the merger of Greece’s two main airlines Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air, fearing a "quasi-monopoly". The companies offered take-off and landing slots to boost competition, but the Commission noted "Greek airports do not suffer from the congestion observed at other European airports…"The deal would have increased fares for four million European passengers flying to and from Athens annually given the carriers’ 90% control of Greece’s domestic air transport market, said Brussels.…

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 PAUL COCHRANE

Kurdish Iraq tobacco market is Middle East black market hub

International tobacco companies entered Kurdish Iraq after the US-led invasion. But political instability has made this a tough market to operate in. Black market trades thrive. And there are a wide variety of brands from around the world available.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, MJ DESCHAMPS, MARK ROWE, BRENDAN DE BEER and MAKKI MARSEILLES

IT has been a real slog – persuading the European Union’s (EU) 27 member states to implement detailed plans to manage their water resources on a river basin basis, rather than artificial political boundaries bearing little relation to hydrology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, MJ DESCHAMPS, MARK ROWE, RENDAN DE BEER, MAKKI MARSEILLES

IT has been a real slog – persuading the European Union’s (EU) 27 member states to implement detailed plans to manage their water resources on a river basin basis, rather than artificial political boundaries bearing little relation to hydrology.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

Greek smoking ban prompts smokers and tavern owners to claim human rights violations

Already reeling from financial crisis, the September smoking ban in Greece has created financial losses to bar and pub owners. They claim the laws are not clear and create confusion.…

BY KEITN NUTHALL

30

THE NORTH Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is taking the threat of cyberattacks on business and government computing networks so seriously, it is staging cyberwarfare trials. The world’s strongest military alliance in November held the Cyber Coalition 2010 exercise near Mons, Belgium, and remote locations to test cyber-attack agencies and NATO strategic decision making.…

BY KEITN NUTHALL

RUSSIA is so corrupt, it is regarded as having more graft than earthquake-shattered Haiti, the 2010 corruption perceptions index of Transparency International has declared. It placed Russia at 154th out of 178 countries in its corruption rankings, level with failed narco-state Guinea-Bissau and worse than Haiti (146th) and Pakistan (143th).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

9

A UNITED Nations campaign could – if successful – significantly increase worldwide demand for soap. Its Global Handwashing Day has highlighted how diarrhoeal and acute respiratory diseases kill 3.5 million children aged under five annually, and that washing their hands after using toilets and before handling food can reduce such deaths by 40% and 23% respectively.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

Sweden’s cheap’n’chic fashion group Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) plans to use its strengthened financial position to roll-out new stores. However, construction hold-ups in southern Europe, with retail space shortages, will reduce the number of planned new openings worldwide in 2010 by around 20 to 220 stores

"We have had to curtail our new opening targets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW competitors for shipping gas to the European Union (EU) from the Caucasus are emerging, while Turkmenistan has announced a major new gas find. The Turkmen government is claiming guaranteed gas supplies to Europe, by quadrupling exports over the next 20 years, after unveiling a major new gas field.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT’S tough for motorists driving in the dark – especially on gloomy nights where there are no street lights. More accidents result. The development of intelligent transport equipment, including in-vehicle cameras, linked to automatic braking and stability systems, is making a difference.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action at the European Court of Justice against Belgium, the Czech Republic and Greece, for not implementing European Union directive 2008/112/EC on the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures. It mandates safety labelling and collating information to protect the environment and human health from chemical mixtures, including cosmetics, soaps and their ingredients.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GREEN energy projects will be a priority for infrastructure spending from a Euro EUR68.7 billion European Union (EU) fund managed from 2014 to 2020, say detailed proposals released by the European Commission. These focus on the next phase of the European Union’s (EU) ‘Cohesion Fund’, which helps countries with 90% or less of the EU average income – the 12 eastern and southern European countries becoming member states since 2004, plus Spain, Portugal and Greece.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES, PAUL COCHRANE

CYPRIOTS are Europe’s heaviest smokers, according to figures from European Union (EU) pollsters Eurobarometer. For those living in the internationally recognised predominantly Greek Republic of Cyprus (RoC) portion of the island, consumption of consumers aged 15 and above during 2009 averaged 21.7 cigarettes daily, and those in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 21.6.…

BY KATHERINE DUNN

EUROPEAN Union (EU) honey production will receive receive Euro EUR32 million annually for the next three years from the European Commission, to help fight the decimation of bee populations by disease. A European Commission communiqué said EU co-financing for national beekeeping subsidies in 2011 would increase from EUR25 million-per-year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN chemical industry federation CEFIC has called for a review of administration under European Union (EU) chemical control system REACH to help small-and-medium-sized paint and other chemical companies (SMEs) deal with its burden. As the first key REACH chemical deadline of November 30 approaches, CEFIC director general Hubert Mandery said REACH costs hit smaller firms hard, especially for the oncoming two REACH registrations, involving smaller tonnages of chemicals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SUGAR has been at the centre of continuing concern about fraud draining European Union (EU) budgets of duty revenue. The latest operational report from EU anti-fraud unit OLAF (which reviewed 2009) recalled how fraudsters made millions of Euros from exporting 3,400 tonnes of sugar from the EU to neighbouring non-member state Croatia via the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.…

By Emma Jackson

Researchers say they have secured the future of Europe’s huge volumes of digital data, having created an open source software that will protect digital data from becoming unreadable or unusable because it is incompatible with newer technologies. This has been developed by the European Union (EU)-funded CASPAR (Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval) programme.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE PROCESS of ‘unbundling’ in the European Union (EU) gas industry as called for under the EU’s third energy package, notably the gas directive 2009/73/EC, adopted in 2009, has come to a bit of a standstill. This will not last.…

BY MARK ROWE

ENERGY production that uses renewable sources or drastically reduces the use of fossil fuels are of course increasingly entering the market place, and with such transformation, innovation is at a premium. Demand for novel thinking and processes is being inflated in Europe by the European Union’s EU2020 objectives for a 20% reduction in CO2, and for 20% of energy to be generated from renewable energy sources by 2020.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INTERNATIONAL consortium will generate and investigate a liquid library of 3,600 plant extracts, hunting for compounds useful for cosmetics (and food) manufacture. Germany’s BASF and Bruker Biospin GMBH, Greece’s Korres SA Natural Products will work with national research centres from Greece, France and South Africa plus universities from Greece, Panama and Switzerland in this 2010-2014 Euro 4.2 million, European Union-funded research project.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, and KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN imagining Europe’s greenest and most efficient energy systems, the countries of the former Yugoslavia do not readily spring to mind. The simple truth is Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and even Slovenia have a reputation for having ageing energy dirty systems.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

DRINKS retailers and wholesalers are coming under pressure in Greece as duty increases ordered within the government’s tough austerity programme start to bite. Excise duty on spirits rose three times since the beginning of the year – twice by 20% in February and March and 30% in April and now comprises at least 65% of the total price, while in addition VAT was increased from 19% to 21%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is helping the USA deal with the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Coordinated by the EU emergency response group, the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), the EU will send oil skimmers and oil spill experts.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

OFTEN lumped together, the three Baltic States (Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia) vary greatly in their anti-money laundering standards and risks and banking competencies. Estonia has a well-regarded financial centre with one of the most advanced and transparent banking systems of the newer European Union (EU) member states as well as newly adopted anti-money laundering laws, something the other two Baltic States cannot boast.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded Ismael project for monitoring airport surface movements has now developed prototype computer software to achieve its goal. The programme knits the project’s sensor equipment together, processing the data it collects to offer observations and predictions about airport ground traffic movements, superimposing these on an airport map.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST major food product promotion programme financed by the European Union (EU) is focusing heavily on healthy foodstuffs – with organic, fruit and vegetable products getting the lion’s share. The European Commission has approved 19 one-to-three year publicity programmes in 14 member states (Austria, Belgium, Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain) which will promote sales in the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined 17 producers of prestressing steel Euro 518 million for operating a cartel that lasted 18 years until 2002 and covered all but three of the then 15 European Union (EU) member states – Britain, Ireland and Greece.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) may be legally a single market, food prices range widely across its 27 member states. The most recent survey of 500 comparable products by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, shows last year (2009) the price of a comparable basket of food and non-alcoholic beverages was more than twice as high in the most expensive EU country than the cheapest.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

THE GREEKS – the heaviest smokers in the European Union (EU) and by some counts the world – may start to reduce tobacco consumption significantly, with taxation rising steeply as a result of the country’s ongoing financial crisis.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GREEK government, beset by a financial crisis and political turbulence in Athens, has another problem to worry about – a nuclear energy legislation case against it at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

This legal action is being taken by the European Commission, which accuses Greece of failing to implement the latest European Union (EU) directive on the supervision and control of shipments of radioactive waste and nuclear spent fuel (directive 2006/117/Euratom).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IN a month highlighting that many European Union (EU) countries are living beyond their financial means, it was timely perhaps for the European Commission to note that member states also have unsustainable water policies.

In short, many EU governments are failing to prevent the abstraction of fresh water at rates exceeding nature’s ability to replenish supplies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ROLL-OUT of the European eCall in-car emergency system is approaching critical mass with 20 countries now committed to operating its supporting infrastructure. The European Commission today announced another five countries were implementing eCall services – Belgium, Denmark, Luxemburg, Malta and Romania.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES and KEITH NUTHALL

IT can only be hoped that the Euro 750 billion financial package announced by the European Union (EU) this weekend prevents Greece’s debt crisis affecting other EU member states.

If it does, then some breathing space will be bought to examine the weaknesses in the single currency – and clearly one of those is the provision of financial data by Eurozone member governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OFFICIALS from the European Union’s (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF have revealed to just-drinks how an international EU customs operation seized counterfeit and smuggled coats and scarves. OLAF said the Matthew II operation was organised by the Czech Republic, working closely with Poland and OLAF: all EU countries were invited to participate.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ON the face of it, the UK, with other leading western European Union (EU) countries, leads the pack in terms of drawing up and submitting its River Basin Management (RBM) plans to the European Commission – the key first stage requirement of the EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and EMMA JACKSON

THE EUROPEAN Commission has reported the number of notifications of potentially unsafe automobiles though the European Union (EU) consumer warning system remains high – being the third most common product category receiving withdrawals and sales bans in 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AMBITIOUS proposals to ban the sale of European Union (EU) reared meat in all 27 member states where livestock has suffered from poor welfare have been tabled by the European Parliament’s agriculture committee. Advising the European Commission to swiftly draft a new ‘action plan on the protection and welfare of animals’ for 2011-2015, MEPs said: "The EU ought as soon as possible to adopt a strong general animal welfare law which accords animals the right to a life worth living…" It should prevent "any producer [offering] animal products on the internal [EU] market which do not comply with the conditions laid down by the general law."…

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 ALAN OSBORN

JUST six years ago, in March 2004, Ireland was the first country in the world to impose an outright ban on smoking in workplaces. A lot of European governments have followed its lead though Ireland (plus the UK and, surprisingly, Turkey) remain the only countries in Europe where the ban is total – that is it applies to smoking in all enclosed public and workplaces without exceptions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH a new European Commission in office, major decisions can now be made on pushing ahead with European Union (EU) energy policy priorities: Brussels has released a Euro 4 billion package of 31 gas infrastructure (and 12 electricity) projects.…

BY MIRIAM ELDER

WHILE the government of the Russian Federation has made real efforts to fight money laundering – as documented recently in the Money Laundering Bulletin – the problem remains rampant in this resource-rich country, according to Russian and international experts.…

BY PHILLIPA JONES

DESPITE ever greater restrictions on smoking, the land of the Gauloises (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT) last year bucked trends with cigarette sales increasing by a small but significant 2% compared to 2008. According to British American Tobacco (BAT), the world’s second largest tobacco company, the industry benefited from a number of factors, most notably a reduction in the purchasing of cigarettes from neighbouring countries, pushing the number of sticks sold in France up 55.6 billion in 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS a new European Union (EU) energy Commissioner takes office for the next five years, EU member states are stalling over a plan to inject Euro 50 billion into European energy research budgets over the next decade. The Strategic Energy Technology (SET) plan released by the previous European Commission last October would involve a massive expansion of such spending from 2013 to 2019, but national governments have signalled nervousness.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has effectively accused Greece of fraud over its misreporting of government deficit figures. As the country teeters towards potential financial default, a report on repeated errors in financial data said the European statistical checking system run by European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat and national agencies had been undermined.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW European Union (EU) agency could be created to enforce and implement EU waste control legislation. That is the proposal of a new European Commission report, which says the standard of waste disposal in some EU countries remains low.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Maritime Organisation (IMO) has raised concerns that the hijacked Greece-flagged supertanker Maran Centaurus could be the source of a major oil spill. IMO says pirates have moored the vessel in an unsafe anchorage off Hobyoin port, Somalia, prey to unstable weather.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ALUMINIUM of Greece could face paying an expensive Euro 17.4 million electricity bill, after the European Commission decided to open an in-depth investigation into whether low tariffs granted by the Greek state-owned Public Power Corporation were an illegal subsidy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AFTER the disappointment of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, it is perhaps encouraging to note that the auto industry – so often painted as the bad boy of the climate change issue – really is reducing its vehicles’ carbon dioxide emissions.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE and KEITH NUTHALL

SYRIA is such a staple of Middle East political turmoil, it is easy to forget that it is a near neighbour of Europe: less than 200 miles of sea separate it from Cyprus and it borders Turkey, which could be a European Union (EU) member by 2020.…

BY ALAN OSBORN,ANCA GURZU and KEITH NUTHALL

THE GLOBAL trade in illicit tobacco is huge and growing and a significant source of dirty money worldwide. Tobacco multinational British American Tobacco (BAT) estimates that 6.3% of cigarettes worldwide are illicit products (either counterfeit, smuggled or sold domestically on the black market), which makes 332 billion sticks, and that is a lot of cigarettes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CO2 emissions statistics released by the European Commission show that while British motorists are ignoring government calls to buy smaller cars, their vehicles are at least getting greener. Across the European Union (EU) the CO2 emitted by passenger cars is falling fast: looking at 2008, a report said the average specific CO2 emissions from passenger cars were 153.5g CO2/km.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MARIA Damanaki, the Greek leftist nominated to become the next European Union (EU) fishing Commissioner from February 1, has promised a tough line on conserving fishing stocks. A senior member of Greece’s current socialist PASOK governing party, she has a far left background, having been a Greek communist MP in the past.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) paint and coatings industry faces significant administrative burdens in the next few years, as the EU increasingly regulates the biocides companies use in some products, such as wood preservatives and antifouling paints. The key legislation here is the 1998 biocides directive (98/8/EC).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CORRUPTION in Greece is now considered as bad as in Romania and Bulgaria – European Union (EU) member states investigated by the European Commission over graft. Greece’s slide from 57th in last year’s Transparency International (TI) corruption perception index to 71st in this year’s report will concern its new left-wing PASOK government.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

TOBACCO manufacturing in Greece is alive and well and the industry is looking forward to a very fine future. A ban on smoking in public places introduced this April 1 has had very little effect so far and a reported 6% drop in sales alleged by some retailers has not been substantiated, stressed the Association of Greek Tobacco Industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MINIMUM excise duty rates on tobacco products across the European Union (EU) are rising and at such rates that demand will almost certainly be depressed in many EU member states. The impact will be especially marked in eastern Europe, where governments have been given additional time to implement hikes in excise duty.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

The Venezuelan cigarette market experienced an overall decline in 2008 and the first half of 2009. In 2008, 11.95 billion sticks were sold, an 8.6% drop from the 13.07 billion sticks sold in 2007, according to the United Nations Statistics Division.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a little like the election of a Pope. The five-yearly reappointment of the European Commission – now underway – is shrouded in complex procedure and murky backroom deals. Closed discussions between Europe’s power-brokers in Brussels offices, embassies and national capitals divide up the available positions – currently there are 27: one per member state.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SIZE of the planned international investment in Ukraine’s gas distribution system has been revealed in a European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) memorandum: up to US$3 billion maybe pumped in. Money would start flowing with a US$300 million working capital loan from the EBRD for purchasing gas, repayable after this winter heating season.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

A BEER commercial on Greek television depicts Dimitris, a lorry driver stopping to give a foreign young couple a lift. He offers them cheese and spinach pies and later in the lorry park café he treats everyone to a free beer earning a well-deserved cheer: Dimitris is a ‘mythos’, that is a legend – the brand name of the beer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEDITERRANEAN countries yesterday blocked a European Commission initiative to temporarily ban the global trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, despite warnings that this key sushi ingredient source is being overfished. France, Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece, and Cyprus opposed backing a proposal from non-member state Monaco to ask next March’s meeting of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to ban the trade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GIVEN contract packing is often undertaken by larger businesses and of course, packers usually welcome economies of scale, cross-border trades within the European Union (EU) is commonplace within Europe.

And as a result, naturally, keeping on top of EU legislation is essential for contract packing clients and suppliers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GREEK government has been fined Euro 2 million for failing to recoup Euro 24.84 million in state aid it had illegally granted to Olympic Airways (now Olympic Air). Athens will also have to pay another Euro 16,000 every day from August 7 until the subsidy is repaid.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

Food commodity prices are seldom out of the news nowadays, due to a mushrooming global population, the food-for-fuel controversy, an increasing focus on sustainability and the continued growth of the organic sector. However, beyond the generality of crop prices spiralling to new highs in 2007 and 2008 and then plummeting – in some cases – back to where they were before the boom, the picture is far from uniform.…

BY MARK ROWE and GAVIN BLAIR

THE ANSWER to the world’s future fuel needs may be literally all around us, and freely available in abundance, thanks to the throw-away society of the 21st century. Bioenergy, produced from all matter of waste products, from wood chips, to agricultural husks and slurry, has been steadily elevated up the list of potential sources of energy that will be required in a low-carbon world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has opened nine case files as it attempts to force European Union (EU) member states to comply with EU accounting and auditing directives. Brussels is taking four briefs to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding Austria, Ireland, Italy and Spain, which it accuses of failing to comply with the 2006 statutory audit directive (2006/43/EC).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ADDING different alphabet versions of a trademark may not prevent the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling a proposed mark is too similar to a registered brand. The court ruled Delta Protypos Viomichania Galaktos, of Greece, cannot register as a European Union (EU) trademark its ‘Milko’ sign, written in western Latin and Greek alphabets, for "milk with cocoa" products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONFECTIONERY giant Kraft has won an important precedent-setting ruling at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to protect its ‘Milka’ mark, for chocolate, cocoa, bakery, sugar, ices, milk and other products. Judges have ruled that Vivartia ABEE Proïonton Diatrofis kai Ypiresion Estiasis, of Greece, cannot register as a European Union (EU) trademark its ‘Milko’ sign, written in western Latin and Greek alphabets, for "milk with cocoa" products.…

BY MARK ROWE

The expansion of the European Union (EU) continues eastwards – and the food and drink industry of the existing EU will inevitably be affected by the new competition, as will companies in the new member countries.

The next few years are likely to see several countries accede to the EU.…

BY MARK ROWE

EVEN with the technological advances of recent years, fog and other poor weather conditions can still snarl up civil air traffic. But researchers from a project backed by the European Commission claim to be on the verge of commercialising a new traffic control system that will speed up airport movements in bad visibility.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DELICATE state of European Union (EU) and Russia diplomatic and energy relations has been illustrated starkly by the inclusion of eastern European gas interconnection projects within the European economic stimulus package. National governments of these new EU member states threatened to torpedo the entire agreement – seen as the lynchpin of European efforts to shake off the recession – if their gas schemes were not included.…

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

DOCUMENTS released by European Union (EU) heads of government detailing their approval of a Euro 3.9 billion in EU spending on energy investment projects includes a commitment to spend Euro 200 million on the Nabucco gas pipeline within Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany and Romania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have approved Euro 3.9 billion in EU spending on energy investment projects, after they finally finished wrangling over the detail of this keystone of their economic stimulus package.

As expected, the final programme has more projects in southern and eastern Europe than in previous drafts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed proposed European Union legislation laying down information that must appear on bottles, cans and boxes for aromatised drinks made and consumed in and exported from the EU. The regulation covers Greece’s Retsina for instance and covers ingredients and origin issues.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have voted to allow all 27 EU member states to charge low rate VAT on leather goods repair services in future. Although this formal right should be introduced from January 2011, the vote makes it unlikely that the European Commission would prevent earlier VAT rate reductions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SENIOR Brussels diplomats have been told to revise the proposed Euro 5 billion energy infrastructure building plan drafted by the European Commission to help kickstart Europe’s economy from its current slump.

The EU Council of Ministers (general affairs) released a communiqué saying "adjustments of certain aspects will still be necessary."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INNOVATIVE recommendations are being developed for fruit and vegetable producers by a Euro 13.8 million European Union (EU) research project to increase consumption of their products. The ISAFRUIT scheme wants more Europeans to eat their recommended minimum five portions of fresh fruits and vegetables.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INNOVATIVE recommendations are being developed to boost fruit and vegetable consumption by Euro 13.8 million European Union research project ISAFRUIT. It says consumers in Greece, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, eat the most fruit in Europe (70- 100 kg per person), followed by Germany, Poland and Britain at 40-60 kg, but that consumption is not rising.…

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 EUROPEAN Commission has announced it wants Euro 3.5 billion of the general European Union (EU) economic recovery plan it announced in November spent on energy investment. It has proposed spending Euro 1.75 billion on gas and electricity interconnection projects; Euro 500 million on offshore wind power; and Euro 1.25 billion on carbon capture and storage.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MITIGATION measures taken by European Union (EU) utilities and member states to deal with the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis were effective, the EU’s Gas Coordination Group has concluded. Consisting of gas industry representatives from the EU’s 27 countries and chaired by the European Commission, the group concluded that protective steps taken "allowed most countries to successfully manage the situation in a way which is the least disruptive for their consumers".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EURO 100,000 European food Safety Authority (EFSA) grant has been awarded to a consortium of European Union (EU) science consortia to investigate the impact of the so-called bee ‘colony collapse disorder’ on honey production.

Since 2003, there have been reports of serious losses of bees from beehives in Europe, with the cause being unknown, although possible factors include starvation, viruses, mites, pesticide exposure and climate change.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH

A LITTLE noticed event took place in Brussels last month when the European Union (EU) Court of Auditors awarded the president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering its annual Gold Medal, citing "the co-operation between the two institutions in safeguarding the interests of the European taxpayers."…

By Keith Nuthall

A group of European universities are banding together to create potentially valuable nanotechnology that could help pharmaceutical companies better target their anti-cancer drugs against tumours. The aim is to reduce the need to use wide-ranging chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which can cause patients to suffer from so many side-effects they sometimes wished their tumours had been left alone.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHEMOTHERAPY and radiotherapy maybe effective against cancer, but sometimes they are a sledgehammer to crack a nut, causing patients to suffer from so many side-effects they sometimes wished their tumours had been left alone.

And so it has long been the aim of pharmaceutical companies and cancer researchers to devise means of targeting therapies, so that it is the tumour that gets harmed, while the patient feels OK.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE

ONE of the aviation industry’s worst nightmares – the theft of credentials to access a major airline’s Citrix computer system by a criminally-controlled server – was uncovered in May this year by the US-based Internet security company Finjan.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

GREECE is something of a paradox in the tobacco sector. Its citizens smoke more cigarettes per capita than anywhere else in the world, yet its government is increasing anti-smoking legislation and its long-established leaf growing sector is shrinking towards virtual extinction.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GREEK government may have to repay the Euro 12.7 million in European Union (EU) development grants the European Commission says was wrongly paid to develop a new Athens International Airport at Spata. Greece has lost an appeal at the European Court of Justice Court of First Instance against a reimbursement demand from Brussels for money paid from its cohesion fund for regional development.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking legal action against three European Union (EU) countries over alleged breaches of EU water legislation. It will ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to impose potentially massive daily recurring fines of Euro 1,000s against Greece for breaking the EU urban waste water directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE OLD 15 member European Union (EU) will hit its Kyoto Protocol collective target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 8% for the period 2008-2012 from 1990 levels, but only by financing pollution cuts in poor countries abroad.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening Greece with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over alleged infringements of European Union public procurement rules for a contract issued by the Company for Water Supply and Drainage of Athens.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RESTRICTIONS on the rights of non-Greek European Union (EU) hauliers to freely deliver cargoes on the last road-leg of a combined transport shipment to Greece have been declared legal by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Its ruled Greek police were right in preventing an Austrian haulier choosing the railhead closest to his Greek customer to offload and deliver ordered goods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) researchers are investigating why the citizens of poorer European countries are less likely to contract food allergies by those in richer states. The EU’s EuroPrevall project has noted that between 2% to 4% of EU adults suffer from food allergies, with 6% of children younger than three-years-old suffering from the problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has given Greece a final warning it could take its government to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over security concerns. Brussels thinks Greece is breaking EU regulations by failing to regularly effectively audit all Greek airports for compliance with EU security standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

ONE of the more colourful (and thankfully less deadly) aspects of Russia’s mini-war with Georgia in August was the simultaneous attach by hackers on Georgian Internet sites, especially those of its government.,

Ones of these were crashed by ‘denial of service’ attacks, where masses of data are sent to particular sites until they cannot handle the megabytes and closedown.…

BY MARK ROWE

LAST month Modern Power Systems examined the workings of the pan-European ‘Energy Community’, which extends EU energy law eastwards to the membership hopefuls and encourages the region’s electricity transmission system operators and regulators to establish the cooperation and energy trading agreements and mechanisms by end of 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MUCH praised Mediterranean diet – relying on fresh fruits and vegetables – is being discarded by consumers in countries where it was created. The UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning growing prosperity in southern Europe, and to some extent the Levant and north Africa, has led locals to eat fattier more calorific foods.…

By Keith Nuthall

The launch of a new Euro-Mediterranean University in Slovenia dedicated to higher education courses focused on issues of importance to European, African and Levantine countries bordering the sea has been given a formal seal of approval. The creation of the institution was welcomed within a joint declaration issued by heads of state and government from 43 countries at a Paris summit launching a Mediterranean Union organisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TEMPORARY right of European Union (EU) member states to levy reduced rates of VAT on clothing and footwear repair services could become permanent. The European Commission has proposed governments henceforth always can reduce VAT on such services by up to 5% from their standard rate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Research on the causes of food allergies and measures that can be taken to

prevent them are primary topics of the EU-funded project EuroPrevall,

coordinated by the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, UK.

Between 2 and 4% of EU adults suffer from food allergies 6% of children

under three.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EURO 2.4 million Greece government loan guarantee rescue package for Greek fibre yarns producer Varvaressos has been approved by the European Commission. Varvaressos suffered high losses and declines in turnover during 2007, and its debts now surpass its capital by a third, preventing it financing its own recovery.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POLITICAL map of Europe these days looks very blue. Most of it (discounting Russia) is part of the European Union (EU) and those countries that have yet to join are increasingly the odd men out.

The European Commission and its fellow EU institutions are keen on some of these countries becoming members and less keen on others, but the countries that are almost destined to join the EU (if they want to) are those surrounded by EU territory.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MUCH praised Mediterranean diet – relying on fresh fruits and vegetables – is being discarded by consumers in countries where it was created. The UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning growing prosperity in southern Europe, and to some extent the Levant and north Africa, has led locals to eat fattier more calorific foods.…

By Keith Nuthall

WE all know about Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. These social utility websites allow us all to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, exchange messages, post pictures and play silly games – such as throwing a digital sheep at someone or giving them a pixellated hellraiser cocktail.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FOREIGN European Union (EU) drivers in an accident in Greece are insufficiently protected by Greek insurance laws, the European Commission has concluded. It is taking Greece to the European Court of Justice, to force it to enact the EU’s fifth motor insurance directive which guarantees policy holder rights and improves the protection of accident victims.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

REFORMS to the European Union’s (EU) cotton subsidy system have been approved two years after previous changes were outlawed by the European Court of Justice. It ruled these 2004 reforms had been flawed through a lack of impact assessments and consultation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers are debating an urgent rescue package for a European fishing sector that is being buffeted by high fuel prices. European Commission officials are drafting formal proposals, which would suspend certain European Fisheries Fund subsidy controls for two years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN has one of the European Union’s (EU) worst rates of salmonella contamination of slaughtered pigs, a new study from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found. Analysing data collected from 2006 to 2007, the EU agency has concluded that 21.2% of slaughtered pigs within the UK had contracted the disease, compared to an EU-wide average of 10.3%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PLANNED acquisition by British American Tobacco (BAT) of certain roll-you-own tobacco and snus sections of Denmark’s Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni (STK) has been approved by the European Commission. To secure this agreement, BAT had to promise selling-off certain brands in Norway (notably Petterøe’s and Tiedemanns Rød), where the expanded company would have had a dominant position.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LAST May, a coordinated attack on essential computer networks in the tiny Baltic republic of Estonia set nerves upon edge amongst European Internet security specialists. Following the removal of a Russian war memorial from the centre of its capital Tallinn, a still unidentified group of computer users bombarded Estonian political, government, media and banking websites with so much data, they were forced offline.…

BY PAUL RIGG, in Madrid

THE DOMINANT event in the Spanish Tobacco Market in 2008 has been Imperial Tobacco’s takeover of the Franco-Spanish company Altadis. Following a series of rebuffed bids in 2007, the widely predicted buyout was finalised on January 30, 2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ENVIRONMENTAL health officers think they are helping keep people fit and well by reducing pollution and food disease. But maybe the best move the cold, rheumatism and asthma sufferers of Britain can make to be healthy is emigrate to a Greek island, sunbathe (moderately) and eat fish, vegetables and olive oil.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH government is facing legal proceedings from the European Commission, which claims that the UK has failed to arrange for a sufficient number of checks on lorry drivers’ working time. Brussels is taking action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), alleging Britain is breaching a directive – 2006/22/EC – on implementing road transport employment legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UNHEALTHILY high concentrations of ground-level ozone in Europe were lower during summer 2007 than since 1997, claims the European Environment Agency (EEA). While not predicting whether this is a long term trend the agency stressed that Britain did not suffer any concentrations of the traffic-related pollutant exceeding European Union (EU)-advised maximums.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has extended the financing of the Community Tobacco Fund to the end of 2009, ordering that it receive 5% of tobacco production aid this year and next. Ministers praised the scheme in a communiqué, stressing its use for "financing campaigns against tobacco consumption as well as measures to promote a switch of production," and adding: "It is considered as a successful example of synergy between agriculture and health policies."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament is pressing for an effective re-nationalisation of European Union (EU) powers to support the continued existence of an EU cotton production industry. In non-binding amendments to a proposed EU subsidy system largely disconnected from cotton production levels, MEPs called for national funds earmarked for wide-ranging actions protecting the EU industry, largely in Greece and Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH Dmitry Medvedev becoming Russia’s new president, the European Union (EU) has been pushing ahead to secure oil and gas supplies independent of Moscow. EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and external relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner met with Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey diplomats and officials to discuss gas pipeline links.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are planning to help build motorways in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Greece. The EIB plans to lend up to Euro 200 million for a new Korinthos-Patras-Tsakona Peloponnesian motorway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NUMBER of counterfeit cigarettes seized at the external borders of the European Union (EU) fell 63% in 2007 compared to the previous year, the European Commission has concluded. Brussels said 27.1 million packets worth (20 stick equivalent) of counterfeit cigarettes were seized.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament is pressing for an effective re-nationalisation of European Union (EU) powers to support the continued existence of an EU cotton production industry. In non-binding amendments to a proposed EU subsidy system largely disconnected from cotton production levels, MEPs have called for national funds earmarked for wide-ranging actions protecting the industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Greece and Latvia with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to publish national energy efficiency action plans as required by the European Union (EU) energy services directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MORE than a fifth of European teenagers are overweight or obese, failing to eat sufficient fruit and vegetables, while exercising too little the European Union (EU) HELENA project has warned.

British youths were among the 3,000 13-17-year-olds studied by HELENA (healthy lifestyle in Europe by nutrition in adolescence) researchers, along with adolescents in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MORE than a fifth of European teenagers are overweight or obese, failing to eat sufficient fruit and vegetables, the European Union (EU) HELENA project has warned.

HELENA (healthy lifestyle in Europe by nutrition in adolescence) researchers assessed 3,000 13-17-year-olds in Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) passenger road transport sector is set for constant expansion until 2030, according to a new detailed report written for the European Commission. It predicts that 2005’s EU passenger numbers by private (and fleet) cars and motorcycles of 4,714 gpkm (one billion passengers carried over one kilometre) will rise to 5,115 by 2010; 5,498 in 2015; 5,849 in 2020; 6,171 in 2025; and 6,441 by 2030.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EXPERT report for the European Commission has concluded that additional efforts are required by the European Union (EU) and its member states, or the target of increasing renewables’ share of EU energy consumption to 20% will be missed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GREECE has signed an agreement with Russia over routing the Moscow-Italy coordinated South Stream pipeline project through its territory, with outgoing Russian president Vladimir Putin denying it posed a threat to the rival Nabucco project. Putin told a Kremlin press conference with Greece prime minister Kostas Karamanlis that South Stream would be the "most optimal and competitive" pipeline system serving Europe, and would "help energy security".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) road haulage sector is set for constant expansion until 2030, according to a new detailed report written for the European Commission. It predicts that 2005’s EU freight transport total haulage of 2,464 gtkm (one billion tonnes carried over one kilometre) will rise to 2,770 by 2010; 3,061 in 2015; 3,321 in 2020; 3,546 in 2025; and 3,717 by 2030.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed European Commission proposals to increase the current European Union (EU) minimum excise tax rate on diesel to match that for unleaded petrol. However, MEPs have proposed phasing the increase from diesel’s current Euro 302/1,000 litres rate to unleaded petrol’s Euro 359/1,000 by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016, but Spain, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Greece acting immediately.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW fishing agreement has been negotiated between the European Commission and Mauritania, slashing maximum catch allowances, after an earlier deal was poorly exploited by European Union (EU) fishermen. Under the replacement agreement – which should run from this August to July 2012 – catch quotas for EU vessels in Mauritania waters will fall by 25% for cephalopods; by between 10% and 50% for demersal species (mainly shrimp and hake); and by 43% for small pelagic fish.…

By Alan Osborn

Greece has violated EU laws by maintaining rights that give the state-owned electricity company Public Power Corporation (PPC) quasi-exclusive access to lignite, the cheapest source of electricity in the country, said the European Commission. Brussels said Greece had infringed Article 86 of the EC Treaty, which ensures the application of competition laws to public corporations, and Article 82, which prohibits abuse of a dominant market position.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SLOVENIAN government has tabled compromise proposals to break the current political logjam at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over gas supply unbundling. As current EU president, Slovenia has suggested for instance that some joint ownership of energy producing and transmission utilities could occur if there were "additional safeguards" preventing conflicts of interest, and guaranteeing the "structural independence of decision making" by distribution operators.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed proposals to increase the current EU minimum excise tax rate on diesel to match that for unleaded petrol. However, MEPs want to phase the increase from Euro 302/1,000 litres to Euro 359 by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016 – Spain, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Greece acting immediately.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A TEAM of European researchers has developed an innovative traffic control system that allows air traffic controllers to monitor aeroplanes whist they are taxiing at airports. The system developed by the European Union (EU)-funded Euro 2.13 million Ismail project uses a network of small, inexpensive sensors to monitor planes’ own magnetic forces.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has thrown out a case brought by two users of Athens International Airport who claimed the European Commission breached European Union law when rejecting complaints that Athens International Airport charges illegally excessive security charges and other fees.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN oil and gas executives think of European Union (EU) funding for their projects or companies, they may consider the European Commission, with its high profile in energy spending and investment. But there is another EU institution with an important role as a financial fountainhead for European energy loans: the European Investment Bank (EIB).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ordered three member states to reform their national water laws, or face the imposition of massive daily recurring fines of Euro 1,000s.

France has been censured for breaching EU directive 98/83/EC on drinking water quality.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s economics committee has called for the European Union’s (EU) minimum rate of excise duty on diesel to be raised to that for unleaded petrol: from the current Euro 302/1,000 litres to Euro 359/1,000 litres by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HEAVIER vehicles such as SUVs and luxury models will be able to breach a proposed European Union (EU) carbon dioxide cap, under formally proposed legislation now tabled by the European Commission. Pressure from German manufacturers forced Brussels into abandoning an absolute cap for all new models of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometre.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been approving a series of operational programmes for many European Union (EU) member states’ fishing (and aquaculture) sectors, outlining how it will target money from the European Fisheries Fund (EFF).

One of the largest recipients of this Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) subsidy scheme is France, which is to receive Euro 216 million from 2007-13, less than it received under the 2000-2006 Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG), which supplied Euro 278 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has highlighted eight member states as having failed to submit national energy efficiency action plans as required by the European Union’s (EU) energy services directive. Legal action has already been launched against 10 member states – but two of these (Belgium and Slovakia) submitted action plans in December.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee wants European Union (EU) rules to insist that biofuel production is environmentally sustainable, even an increase in this growing fuel sector reduces CO2 emissions. The call was made in amendments tabled to European Commission proposed reforms to the EU fuel quality directive to reduce CO2 production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PORTUGUESE presidency of the European Union (EU) has called for compromise proposals on the European Commission’s energy unbundling plans, under discussion at a Council of Ministers meeting on Monday (Dec 3). A paper released by Lisbon clarified the split between member states: supporting the proposal are Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Romania and Sweden; opposing are France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovakia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SPANISH wine makers will receive the most money – Euro 162 million – for improving their vineyards, in the latest tranche of European Union (EU) grants earmarked for this purpose.

The European Commission will spend Euro 510 million across the EU on viticulture reform in 2007/8, with money allotted for variety conversion, relocation of vineyards and improvements to vineyard management techniques.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ENVIRONMENTAL health officers may think there are a lot of smokers in the UK – in 2005, 24% of adults aged 16 or over in Britain smoked cigarettes, but spare a thought for officials in Greece – home of Europe’s keenest smokers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHIFT in opinion on the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers looks likely to end the de facto right of EU member states to block the entry of GM foods and ingredients into their national territories. Governments such as Greece and Austria have exercised bans, even for foods and ingredients with EU-wide marketing approvals.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

SWITZERLAND’S Nestlé, the world’s biggest food and beverage company, played down reports that it had been fined Euro 6.2 million for participating in a Greek dairy cartel. Speaking to just-food.com the company’s spokesman François-Xavier Perroud said he was aware of press reports to this effect, but stressed that over the past two years "Nestlé has not been in the milk market at all in Greece."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHIFT in opinion on the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has ended the de facto right of EU member states to block the entry of GM foods and ingredients into their national territories. Governments such as Greece and Austria have exercised bans, even for foods and ingredients with EU-wide marketing approvals.…

BY CHRIS JONES, in Paris

AUTO manufacturers in Europe are calling for greater support from national governments and European Union (EU) institutions in promoting eco-driving – where good motoring styles are adopted which reduce the greenhouse gas and other polluting emissions from vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LEVEL of incineration and recycling of municipal waste within Britain is as low as former communist countries in eastern Europe, a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report has concluded. In an assessment of the contrasting waste management practices in the 27 European Union (EU) member states, the EEA bracketed Britain with Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve an increase in the exploitation by EU ships of the rich tuna stocks surrounding Indian Ocean island archipelago the Seychelles. EU fishing businesses will have to pay for the privilege however: whilst the general limit on EU tonnage accessing Seychelles waters should rise from 55,000 to 63,000 tonnes, the money paid by vessel operators will rise from Euro 25 to 35 per tonne per annum, which would – said a note from the European Commission – bring fees in line with other EU tuna access agreements.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LEVEL of incineration and recycling of municipal waste within Britain is as low as former communist countries in eastern Europe, a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report has concluded. In an assessment the 27 European Union (EU) member states, the EEA bracketed Britain with Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED liberalisation of European Union (EU) design rights legislation, allowing lorry parts makers to copy and sell spares already made by vehicle manufacturers across the EU has been accepted by the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee. A committee communiqué said: "The directive will allow suppliers to produce motor vehicle components which are identical to the original parts without infringing design protection."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHIFT in the balance of power on the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers looks likely to end the de facto right of EU member states to block the entry of GM foods and ingredients into their national territories.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEED to limit particulate matter in Britain and continental western Europe has been underlined by the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) latest assessment of pollution in Europe. In its fourth annual environmental health check of Europe, central Asia and Asiatic Russia, the agency concluded that much of western, central and south east Europe, especially urban areas, "experience daily average PM10 concentrations in excess of 50 ?g/m3…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN is comparatively free of particulate matter PM10 which can cause serious respiratory problems, the latest Europe-wide pollution survey from the European Environment Agency (EEA) has concluded. It said the "highest urban concentrations were observed in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain" plus western Balkan cities, with northern Italy’s Po Valley, parts of Belgium and the Netherlands, and southern Spain being the worst affected.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

APPALLING drinking water quality problems still pose major health hazards for some south-eastern Europe countries wanting to join the European Union (EU), the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) latest assessment of European pollution has concluded. For example, Albania’s "urban water rarely has even preliminary treatment" through "the lack of adequate…facilities and the unreliable supply of chemicals."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned the British government that it has two months to prove it will implement a 2006 European Union (EU) law saying how roadside working time and tacograph checks should be undertaken, or face legal action.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH road transport sector has to play catch up with many of its European Union (EU) competitors regarding the introduction of sulphur-free fuels, a report from the European Commission has shown. It shows that as long ago as 2005, member states such as Germany, Italy and Ireland were already selling this environmentally-friendly petrol and diesel, while Britain was still selling low sulphur fuel, of between 10 and 50 parts per million sulphur content.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHIFT in the balance of power on the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers looks likely to end the de facto right of EU member states to block the entry of GM foods and ingredients into their national territories.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CHINK of light has emerged in the perennially taut energy relations between the European Union (EU) and Russia: both sides have agreed to establish a committee to examine how a system of gas unbundling ‘reciprocity’ might work.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH road transport sector has to play catch up with many of its European Union (EU) competitors regarding the introduction of sulphur-free fuels, a report from the European Commission has shown. Although the UK Petroleum Industry Association has indicated it expects Britain to switch to sulphur-free fuels by a 2009 deadline imposed by the European Union (EU), in June the government admitted the issue was complicated because "the UK fuel distribution network can only accommodate a single grade of diesel", preventing small introductory sales of sulphur-free diesel.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission will close the bluefin tuna fishery in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean for rest of 2007 because the annual quota of 16,779.5 tonnes has been exhausted. Fisheries controlled by (Greek) Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain will affected.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has told Greece and the Netherlands to remove obstacles to second hand car imports that would make it easier – if they are removed – for fleet managers to export and sell old vehicles.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission was poised when the Petroleum Review went to press to unveil a long awaited package of energy proposals, although Brussels was expected to shy away from tabling wholesale unbundling of gas producers and distributors.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE EUROPEAN Commission will close the bluefin tuna fishery in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean for rest of 2007 because the annual quota of 16,779.5 tonnes has been exhausted. Fisheries controlled by (Greek) Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain will affected.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE MONEY Laundering Bulletin has found effects of the European Union’s (EU) second money laundering directive’s (2MLD) extension of EU anti-money laundering regulations to a range of businesses and professions are complicated by differences in the definition of the professions between the 27 member states.…

INTERVIEW – TONY NOWELL, ZESPRI.

BY KARRYN CARTELLE

THE WORLD leader in kiwifruit – New Zealand’s Zespri International – appeared on the scene in 1997, a whole 45 years after the first kiwifruit were exported from its home country’s shores. But despite such a late start the company has experienced rapid growth, securing the dominant position in the kiwifruit marketplace.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

FEW issues have proved as globally divisive as the ability to modify crops genetically. For years, a line has been drawn between the cautious European Union (EU) and the go-for-it United States, which has seen them at loggerheads over trading genetically modified crops.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

WITH packaged goods moving with ever greater freedom and speed between the member states of the European Union (EU), it is of no surprise that the EU has legislated extensively to regulate the industry. It is a raison d’être of the EU to create harmonised rules of key economic importance to oil trade between its member states, and also to minimise cross-border problems such as pollution.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states and the European Commission are squaring up ahead of a political battle this autumn over anticipated energy liberalisation proposals. A letter from France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovakia has been written to the Commission stating their firm opposition to comprehensive energy unbundling in anticipated proposed European Union (EU) legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) air passengers are generally supportive of today’s increased airport security measures, a European Commission-funded Gallup opinion poll has revealed. Across all 27 member states, a majority of informed respondents (61%) consider airport security controls appropriate, one quarter (24%) insufficient and only 16% excessive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SPANISH and Italian fishing businesses and regulators have been blasted by the European Commission for condoning or participated in unauthorised or illegal fishing practices. In the latest statistical report on such problems, which compared national fleets during 2005, the Commission notes that the number of cases was at all time high – 10,443 across the EU, compared with 9,660 in 2004.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Commission has told just-drinks.com that it will power ahead with its proposed wine reforms, despite an overwhelmingly negative reaction at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers. Brussels was “not in the least discouraged” by the criticism at yesterday’s council meeting, Commission wine spokesman Johan Reyniers said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has sent final legal warnings to 10 European Union (EU) member governments, telling them to abide by minimum standards for the training of professional drivers working in their countries. EU directive 2003/59 imposes requirements for initial qualification and continuing training: compulsory basic training of 280 hours, and periodic training of 35 hours every five years to update knowledge and skills.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced the payment of Euro 650,000 in subsidies over the next three years to help the Greek honey industry promote sales of its products within the European Union.

ENDS…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CONCERNS that non-British bus and coach drivers from 10 European Union (EU) member states could have weak professional driving training and be a public transport safety risk are being addressed by the European Commission. It is threatening action at the European Court of Justice against these countries for not complying with an EU directive on professional drivers training that insists upon 280 hours compulsory basic training and 35 hours further training every five years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has struck an important deal with Algeria, ensuring it supplies gas to European markets competitively, scrapping restrictive profit sharing contracts. Algeria is a key gas exporter in the EU’s fight to secure energy security without relying on Russia, and Algiers has now agreed with the European Commission that pipeline gas can be sold-on within Europe, without a cut going to Algerian gas producer Sonatrach.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has signed another fishing access deal with a weak African state – this time with west Africa’s Guinea Bissau, which has recently been criticised for being a staging point for Europe-bound illegal narcotics from south America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVE genetic research project aimed at reducing obesity is examining the DNA of more than 13,000 individuals to devise a long-term dietary anti-obesity plan. The European Union (EU)-funded DiOGenes (Diet, Obesity and Genes) is devising a method of predicting weight change in response to different dietary nutrients and is examining how carbohydrate and high dietary protein enhances fullness feelings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVE genetic research project aimed at reducing obesity launched by the European Union (EU) is examining the DNA of more than 13,000 individuals to devise a long-term dietary anti-obesity plan in eight European countries. The EU-funded DiOGenes (Diet, Obesity and Genes) project is studying the dietary, genetic, physiological and psychological factors behind obesity, so that more sophisticated food control policies can be developed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPREHENSIVE genetic research project aimed at reducing obesity launched by the European Union (EU) is examining the DNA of more than 13,000 individuals to devise a long-term dietary anti-obesity plan in eight European countries. The EU-funded DiOGenes (Diet, Obesity and Genes) project is studying the dietary, genetic, physiological and psychological factors behind obesity, so that more sophisticated food control policies can be developed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has signed another fishing access deal with a weak African state – this time with west Africa’s Guinea Bissau, which has recently been criticised for being a staging point for Europe-bound illegal narcotics from south America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has failed to prove that the levying of national registration taxes on cars brought into Greece by non-resident European Union (EU) citizens who are transferred to that country for more than six months breaks EU law, the European Court of Justice has ruled.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
The Poseidon pipeline being built by Edison of Italy and DEPA of Greece to promote more effective competition on the Italian gas market is to be exempted from the third party access rules of the EU’s Gas Directive for a limited period of time, the European Commission has agreed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has relaunched its bid to split the amount of European Union (EU) subsidies paid to EU cotton producers from the volume of cotton sent to market, following an embarrassing court reversal last September. Then, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overturned a 2003 reform along these lines, because of weaknesses in an earlier impact study that had ignored labour expenses and the potential effects on the European ginning industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) environment Commissioner will push ahead with legal action after EU member states continued to de-list bathing areas from officially-approved beaches subject to cleanliness tests, especially in Mediterranean holiday spots about to be flooded with British holidaymakers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FREIGHT Transport Association (FTA) has called for British hauliers to adopt the same road worthiness standards abroad than at home, after a European Commission statistical report indicated a flawed safety record driving in other European Union (EU) countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has launched a research project – called EuroMedCitrusNet – aimed at reducing the transfer of pathogens from citrus fruits, through processing into final food and drink products, such as juice. Researchers will look at processing chains amongst key Mediterranean suppliers, boosting training and technology, while increasing small and medium-sized citrus fruit business participation in food safety research.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH the key May 18 European Union (EU)-Russia summit in Samara, Russia, looming, the European Commission is continuing efforts to find suitable alternative energy partners to Moscow. Russia and the EU want to start tough negotiations on forging a new energy agreement, with both sides firming up their positions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved in principle a directive criminalising across the European Union (EU) the counterfeiting and pirating of goods, although MEPs weakened the proposed legislation with amendments. In its first reading, the parliament excluded patent rights abuse from its scope and also decided its minimum criminal punishments should apply only to deliberate and commercial counterfeiting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved in principle a directive criminalising across the European Union (EU) the counterfeiting and pirating of goods, a serious problem regarding cosmetics and perfumes. MEPs however excluded patent rights abuse from its scope and also decided its minimum criminal punishments should apply only to deliberate and commercial counterfeiting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved in principle a directive criminalising across the European Union (EU) the counterfeiting and pirating of goods, a serious problem regarding leather products. MEPs however excluded patent rights abuse from its scope and also decided its minimum criminal punishments should apply only to deliberate and commercial counterfeiting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE
WITH the European Union (EU) securing around 25% of its gas from Russia and natural gas being an ever more important fuel for thermal power plants, the failure thus far of the European Union and Russia to agree a new long-term energy agreement has to be of concern to the electricity industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
Italian ports had the most seizures of counterfeit cigarettes, said OLAF, which said customs teams found 27.7 million sticks in four containers. There were three containers found in Spain with 26.6 million sticks in total; 25.6 million sticks in five containers in Britain; 21.2 million in three containers in Greece; 15.4 million in two containers in Romania; 10 million in one Germany container; and 9.5 million in a Belgium container.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREECE government is being threatened with legal action by the European Commission for failing to insist that Greek hauliers use digital tacographs. European Union (EU) legislation made digital tacographs mandatory for new heavy goods vehicles from May 1 last year, but the Commission has claimed in an announcement: “To date, Greece has still to establish the necessary legal and practical arrangements, including the issue of tachograph cards for drivers, companies, workshops and control officers.”…

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
SEAFOOD species are often the ocean’s dustbins, finding nutrients in the particles and waste that filter down to the seabed, and as result they are very sensitive to contamination. This is of course a bigger issue in regions where coasts are heavily populated, causing municipal and industrial pollution, and so it is of little surprise that the European Union’s (EU) news agency the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is concerned with contamination of foodstuffs, including those harvested from the sea.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels, and KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union VAT fraud is still growing at such a pace, that the accuracy of member states’ trade statistics remains under serious threat, a recent seminar of tax experts and accountants sponsored by the European Commission concluded.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILED plans are now being laid for the development of King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) coordinating the management of long term concessions. A joint venture involving the Saudi Binladin Group and Aeroports de Paris Management has been chosen as the preferred bidder for a US$250 million to expand, rehabilitate and operate over 20 years a specialised passenger terminal for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims who flood into the region annually.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN and 10 other European Union (EU) member states have been attacked by an unusual alliance of electrical goods manufacturers and environmentalists who allege they have failed to properly implement the EU WEEE directive on waste from electrical and electronic equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN and 10 other European Union (EU) member states have been attacked by an unusual alliance of electrical goods manufacturers and environmentalists for failing to properly implement the EU WEEE directive on waste from electrical and electronic equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LEGAL action has been launched by the European Commission against six European Union (EU) member states for not providing legally required greenhouse gas emission data. Luxembourg will be taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the issue; Estonia and Greece will receive final warnings about possible court action; and Bulgaria, Italy and Malta will receive initial legal warnings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have given a cool reception to the European Commission’s January energy package on forging a tough EU-wide programme of boosting energy capacity in Europe. At a special EU Council of Ministers meeting, a majority of governments, including the UK, opposed a proposed binding 2020 target of sourcing 20% of all energy consumption from renewable sources.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A CENTRAL purpose of the European Union’s (EU) second money laundering directive (sometimes called 2MLD amongst officials) that came into effect in 2003 was to extend to estate agents, along with other similar professions, the anti-money laundering (AML) controls until then had applied only to banks and one or two other financial institutions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is catching up with the United States in innovation, a European Commission-financed statistical report has claimed, although the US still has many significant advantages. This year’s European Innovation Scoreboard (2006) concludes: “The innovation gap between the EU [minus new members Bulgaria and Romania] and Japan, and in particular with the US is decreasing.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ITALIAN and Greek governments have signed an agreement to build a gas interconnector between their countries, filling a missing link in the growing pipeline network bringing gas to western Europe from Turkey, the Caucasus and central Asia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN UNUSUALLY tough political row between European commissioners has stalled plans to control the emission of carbon dioxide from cars, with intense disagreements erupting over whether limits should be voluntary or compulsory.

On one side is environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas, of Greece, who wants to set compulsory CO2 emissions for European Union carmakers, because they are likely to break 2004 promises to reduce CO2 emissions to an industry average of 140 grammes per km, or 25% of 1995 levels by 2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is targeting a receptor molecule protein called CD40 commonly found on cancerous cells, in developing a drug stimulating immune systems into attacking tumours. The Apotherapy project includes German pharmaceutical company Novosom, the University of Crete Medical School, in Greece, and scientists from universities in Helsinki and Uppsala, Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has demanded refunds of Euro 232 million in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies from Greece because of alleged frauds and mismanagement in administration and management. Euro 163.7 million was demanded for olive cultivation, because a compulsory register checking declarations was not set up; Euro 37.4 million was to be repaid for cotton subsidies, where Athens failed to cross-check production aid and did not penalise errors; and Euro 30.9 million was to be returned over poorly checked grape aid, paid for an overestimated geographical area.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEK government is being taken to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission over its alleged failure to abide by the European Union single sky regulation and create a national supervisory authority, mandated with tasks such as air navigation service provider certification.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH
GREECE will be one of the last of the last countries in the European Union

(EU) to possess any common stigma in cigarette smoking – if it ever will.

There is a disdain and defiance of those who, for whatever reasons, disapprove of the habit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will spend around Euro 4.7 million in helping German, Greek, Italian and Polish food producers and processors export to the USA, Canada, Japan, China, India and other big non-European Union (EU) markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will spend around Euro 4 million helping Cypriot, Greek and Portuguese wine producers export to the USA, Canada, Japan, China, India and other big non-European Union (EU) markets. As usual in these cases, Brussels is funding 50% of planned marketing programmes, matching financing from national governments or private sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered Greece to pay back Euro 37.4 million to European Union (EU) coffers that Brussels says have been misspent on cotton production subsidies. The Commission said Greece had failed to stage adequate spending checks, including spot checks, and had not penalised discrepancies that were nonetheless discovered via regional spending assessments.…

BY MARK ROWE

DESPITE devastating hailstorms along Italy’s Adriatic Coast and concerns over damage from the olive fly, the forecast for the olive oil market for the 2006 season is positive, according to the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC).

"All the information available predicts a good harvest for this season" said a spokesman for the IOOC.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered Greece to repay Euro 30.9 million in European Union aid for dried grape production because of fraudulently inflated claims; a poor statistical database; and diversion of grapes to other uses.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is casting around for allies in central Asia and north Africa in its diplomatic tussle with Russia to secure cheap and reliable energy supplies. EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has flown to Algeria to discuss closer energy ties with this major gas and oil producer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved in principle a proposed European Union (EU) regulation which would allow police and other law enforcement officials within the EU’s Schengen open border area to inspect registration documentation held in all countries of this zone.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE LATEST report on the fight against money laundering in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) is a working document issued in November this year from the staff of the European Commission and it makes depressing reading. Reviewing the past year the report finds that "limited progress" has been made in this sector, at least partly because of a lack of qualified staff and because existing legislation is "inadequate".…

BY DAVID HAWORTH

GREECE has usually been at the better end of any crime statistic league table, but the picture has darkened recently, writes David Haworth. The country is the European Union’s second most corrupt (after Poland), while money laundering and drugs have also made their ugly marks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally told Greece and Cyprus they must ensure new lorries using their roads are fitted with digital tachographs. This became compulsory under European Union (EU) law for new goods vehicles in the EU from May, but Brussels claims Greece and Cyprus have not issued the necessary tachograph cards to drivers, companies, workshops and control officers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INNOVATIVE recycling projects are to prosper from European Union (EU) grants under the Euro 66 million EU LIFE-Environment programme this coming year, the European Commission has announced. Although they are not based in the UK, these recycling projects will develop new technology and systems that can be applied freely in Britain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A FISHING access deal allowing European Union (EU) fishermen to exploit Guinea-Bissau’s Atlantic fish stocks until June next year has been approved by the EU Council of Ministers. The agreement was negotiated to run from this June, and includes fishing rights for:

*Shrimps: Italy boats of up to 1,776 gross registered tonnes (GRT), Spain to 1,421 GRT, Portugal 1,066 GRT, and Greece 137 GRT;

*Finfish and cephalopods: Spain 3,143 GRT, Italy 786 GRT, and Greece 471 GRT;

*Tuna seiners: Spain 20, France 19, and Italy 1; and

*Surface longliners and pole-and-line vessels: Spain 21, France 5, and Portugal 4.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) funded research project has developed a system for integrating tiny stainless-steel wires within fabrics, which are designed to ferry information about the wearer’s vital signs to electronic monitors. The aim of the Euro 4 million WEALTHY project has been to create a "groundbreaking woven sensing interface to be worn without any discomfort" that can be plugged into monitors at home or work, downloading important medical data to doctors at remote locations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE COST to Britain’s exchequer of refusing to participate in the European Union’s legal agreement with Philip Morris over illicit cigarette trades has become clearer with the European Commission dividing up the spoils. PMI has promised to pay US$1 billion over 12 years to the European Commission and 10 European Union (EU) member states who have participated in the deal, with the cigarette giant already handing over US$325 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will spend Euro 450 million on upgrading European Union (EU) vineyard production during 2006-7, helping EU wine producers fend off New World competitors. The money will go on varietal conversion, relocating vineyards and improving vineyard management, although not routine replanting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH fishermen have been allocated one of the smaller national envelopes of money from the incoming European Fisheries Fund (EFF), whose money has now been split amongst European Union (EU) member states by the European Commission. Out of the Euro 3.8 billion available from 2007 to 2013, only Euro 122 million has been allocated to the UK.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEDITERRANEAN countries face raising duties on fortified wines such as port and sherry under a proposal to increase minimum European Union (EU) excise duties by 31%. The European Commission wants to maintain the value they commanded when introduced in 1993.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The Dutch are Europe’s top recyclers of household rubbish, recycling 65% of their total waste according to a new study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Next come the Austrians at 59% and the Germans at 58% says the report though it notes that in parts of Germany some local areas charge per kilo of waste not recycled and the regional collection of recyclable materials goes up to more than 65 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared illegal changes to the European Union’s (EU) cotton subsidy system, which effectively decoupled aid from actual production. The ECJ has ruled that by ignoring the effect of reducing aid on ginning businesses and also failing to take labour costs into account when framing the new system, the European Commission breached the key EU principle of acting "proportionately" when faced with a problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEDITERRANEAN countries face raising duties on fortified wines such as port and sherry under proposals to increase minimum European Union excise duties by 31%. Fortified wine tax would increase by 9 Euro cents in Greece and Cyprus on 70cl bottles; 8 cents in Malta; 3 cents in Portugal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEW executive director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has hailed her agency’s initiative to develop a common scientific approach to assess the fish feed additives as "strongly in the interests of environmental protection and the health and safety of consumers."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked European Union (EU) ministers to authorise until January 2011 the right of the Isle of Man and 13 foreign EU member states to levy low rates of VAT on certain building repair services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UNIVERSITIES are set to benefit from a quantum leap in data storage that could see the pages of two million books copied onto electronic chips as small as a postage stamp.

The downsizing of digital memory and related computers, mobile telephones, iPods and other consumer durables has almost seemed like an inevitable progression.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency (IEA) has said in its latest annual report that wind energy still only satisfies 1.2% of power demand in its 20 rich country members, although that proportion is increasing fast in some cases. It said that from 1995 to 2005, the contribution of wind power to national electricity demand rose from 0.2%, with 12 IEA members being in the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PUBLISHERS could benefit from a quantum leap in data storage seeing two million books copied onto electronic chips as small as a postage stamp.

The downsizing of such digital memory, and its access by laptop computers, mobile telephones, iPods, palmtops, datachips and other consumer durables has seemed inevitable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has renewed its European Union (EU) fishing access deal with Mauritania, initialling a new six year deal that involves a two-year protocol, but which should be renewed twice automatically, unless serious political problems emerge.

Brussels is being bullish about the deal, claiming: "It is the most important fisheries agreement concluded by the EU with a third country both in financial terms and as regards fishing opportunities for EU vessels"

And the agreement does will provide fishing rights for about 200 EU vessels on crustaceans (mainly shrimps), hake and other demersal species), cepaholopods, small pelagics and tuna.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LIVESTOCK and Meat Commission for Northern Ireland is to benefit from the latest batch of European Commission grants for promoting meat and other foodstuff sales within the European Union (EU). Brussels will subsidise a Northern Irish meat marketing and information campaign with Euro 207,365 over one year, with matching money being demanded from the UK government and local meat producers, the usual condition of such grants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched a major public consultation exercise, which will include fish farms, to forge a common European Union (EU) method for assessing the environmental risks posed by fish feed. EFSA is not happy that in the European Union "no specific environmental risk assessment guidance exists for the aquatic compartment".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is offering a comprehensive European Union (EU) free-trade deal to Russia, to secure cheaper and more reliable gas and oil supplies. Commission president José Manuel Barroso said the EU will offer this to Russia once it has joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), maybe this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NURSING organisations have been asked to join European Commission public consultation on whether there should be a European Union (EU) directive encouraging the transfer of organs across EU national borders. There are wide differences between the number of donors in European countries, from 34.6 donors per million population (ppm) in Spain to 13.8 ppm in Britain, 6 ppm in Greece and 0.5ppm in Romania.…

BY MARK ROWE, in Munich

THE NOTION that people with phobias or who have been involved in traumatic events should confront their demons has become accepted psychological practice in recent years.

Now, however, this treatment is going a step further, in the form of a virtual reality simulator.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and KEITH NUTHALL

CONSTRUCTION companies who have put up new buildings or extensions in some European Union (EU) countries since January 4 without proper energy performance certificates and standards may have to make additional investments. The European Commission has begun legal proceedings against Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Malta and Sweden for failing to bring in national laws implementing the EU’s 2002 ‘energy performance of buildings’ directive which sets minimum energy standards, affecting construction standards on insulation, ventilation and others.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has issued a highly critical report on the European Union’s (EU) continued failing to contain fraud and the weaknesses of anti-fraud unit OLAF. The paper calls for rationalisation of OLAF’s powers, even now split amongst different laws: these should "be grouped together in a single regulation," said the parliament.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Greece to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over alleged failures to properly treat wastewater in 24 towns and cities. Brussels claims that the Greek government has failed to uphold standards that should have been in place by 2000 because of the urban wastewater treatment directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) wine management committee has recommended that the European Commission spends up to Euro 131 million on another round of compulsory distillation for French and Italian wine producers. EU agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel branded the decision "depressing" – the Commission’s oncoming wine reform proposals are expected to suggest phasing out such overproduction subsidies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF is always at the centre of Brussels’ efforts to suppress the torrents of financial crime that mar its well-intentioned efforts. OLAF’s old boss has been reappointed, but there’s still trouble afoot. Keith Nuthall reports.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POLITICAL struggle has broken out at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers between EU olive oil importing and exporting countries over the current level import tariffs for the product. On one side is a group led by Sweden, supported by Britain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania, complaining about what they call "high market prices of olive oil in the EU and low levels of stocks".…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has attacked another decision by the EU’s Wine Management Committee to fund vast amounts of crisis distillation for unsold European wine – this time in Spain and Greece. The committee has approved distilling up to 300,000 hectolitres of Spanish quality wine; 370,000 hl of Greek table wine; and 130,000 hl of Greek quality wine: total cost – Euro 22.2 million.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

INTRODUCTION

WITH the approval in May of two key regulations covering respectively nutrition and health claims and the addition of vitamins and minerals to foods the EU has taken an important step forward in setting the legal framework for the food industry in Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) political leaders have agreed medium-term (2007-13) budgets for crucial spending projects for the energy sector: Trans European Networks (TENs) and the EU seventh framework programme (FP7) for research. On TENs, the European Parliament, Commission, and EU Council of Ministers have agreed a Euro 7.2 billion budget, Euro 500 million above previous drafts, although this will have to be split with TENs transport projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GREEK government may lose a European Court of Justice (ECJ) case, where the European Commission has argued special licences for bake-off product retailers in Greece illegally restricts trade. An ECJ advocate general has advised the court rules against these controls.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZEN political manoeuvres to duck increased pollution clean-up costs imposed by the revised European Union (EU) bathing water directive have sparked 11 separate legal actions by the European Commission. It has reacted promptly to a massive delisting of 7,000 official bathing water sites by 11 EU governments, to avoid having to comply with new cleanliness standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has underlined its determination to forge a European Union (EU) energy policy with substance by a slew of legal actions against member states over renewables, liberalisation and biofuels. Brussels has started proceedings against Britain, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic for failing to report progress under the 2001 directive promoting renewable energy sources.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

ATTEMPTS to duck increased pollution clean-up costs imposed by the revised European Union (EU) bathing water directive have sparked 11 separate legal actions by the European Commission. It has reacted promptly to a massive delisting of 7,000 official bathing water sites by 11 EU governments, to avoid having to comply with new cleanliness standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN is one of only seven European countries that are fully complying with key guidelines on institutional oversight of financial information issued by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR). Its standard No.1 advises on how the harmonisation of institutional oversight systems in Europe maybe achieved, especially regarding enforcement of good practice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A ROW has broken out between European Union olive oil exporting countries and the European Commission over its withholding contributions to the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC). Italy and Spain, supported by France, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus, told the EU Council of Ministers they wanted the Commission "to ensure the swift payment of its voluntary contribution to the IOOC…to allow the resumption of its promotional activities."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FACT BOX

Population of Cyprus: 793,100

Number of students enrolled at university: 5,000 (see text)

Percentage of university students who are Cypriots: 90%

Percentage of Cypriots (excluding mature students) attending university in Cyprus or other countries: 80%

INTERVIEW

OUT of every ten young people who apply for a place at the University of Cyprus, only three actually gets admitted.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DEBATES are continuing in European Union (EU) institutions over whether general vaccination is a safe response to Europe’s growing bird flu problem. With Germany, France, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Greece, Switzerland, Slovenia, Italy all reporting new cases, the EU’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health has approved the first vaccination campaigns.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

There were about 41,600 road deaths in the 25 EU countries in 2005, down from around 50,000 in 2001 reports the European Commission. This is progress "but not enough" says Brussels which wants member states to halve the rate to 25,000 by 2010 under the EU’s Road Safety Action Programme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ITALY and Spain, supported by France, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus have called on the European Commission "to ensure the swift payment of its voluntary contribution to the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) "to allow the resumption of its promotional activities."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have been authorised to levy until January 2011 low rates of VAT on clothing and household linen repair services. The decision continues for four years an experiment that has thus far been renewed annually and which has been exploited by Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands – who have charged 6% VAT on these services and – Greece, which has charged 8%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s competition directorate general has said it will launch legal action against restrictive business practices and abuses of dominant positions in European Union (EU) gas markets. In a long awaited report, it promised to act against long-term downstream contracts and restricted access to capacity on gas pipelines, storage and inter-connectors between member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN European Union (EU) consumers think of food, more associate it with "taste" – 31%, than with "pleasure" – 29%, "hunger" – 27%, "health" – 19% and "necessity" – 15%. As usual with culturally diverse Europe, however, there were wide national variations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GREEK government has been censured by the European Parliament for its seizing of cars over the non-payment of road taxes and other administrative offences. Noting "a substantial number" of these cars had subsequently been auctioned MEPs said this was "incompatible with the principles of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights" and "not justified by any overriding requirements of enforcement and prevention".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The Austrian presidency of the EU is calling for a negotiated solution to the Russia /Moldova natural gas dispute reflecting deepening concern in Brussels about Europe’s increasing dependence on potentially unreliable outside energy sources. Russia supplies a third of the EU’s gas imports (a fifth of all gas used in the EU) with Germany, Italy and France the main buyers, though a number of EU countries are critically dependent on supplies sent by the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom through the Ukrainian pipeline: 100% for Slovakia, for instance, 92% for Greece and between 60 and 75% for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Austria.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THE MEDIA rush to pick up on the revival of nuclear energy as a serious UK option, made plain in the Department of Trade and Industry’s recent Energy Review consultation document, has diverted attention from which tail will, in practice, be wagging the UK energy dog over the coming months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW tough fuel and road transport pollution standards have been proposed for the European Union (EU) by the European Commission, removing a loophole enabling sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to be covered by looser emission limits currently allowed for commercial vans.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ITALY, Belgium, Greece, Malta, France, Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Portugal have called on the European Commission to support poultry producers hit by low prices because of bird flu outbreaks in Turkey and Romania.

ENDS…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Greece has been ordered by the European Commission to lift its ban on the planting of GMO maize seeds developed by the American company Monsanto. The ban was introduced in April last year on the grounds that the plants presented a "health danger."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ITALY, Belgium, Greece, Malta, France, Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Portugal have called on the European Commission to support poultry producers hit by low prices because of bird flu outbreaks in Turkey and Romania.

ENDS…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Greece may face legal action at the hands of the European Commission unless it ends the practice of confiscating cars for non-payment of taxes and other violations. Outraged Greek motorists have lodged a petition with the European Parliament which has resolved that the confiscations are "contrary to the right of property and freedom of movement" and calls on the Commission to act "without delay."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Greece with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over its alleged failure to establish an independent national supervisory authority to carry out important tasks under the European Union’s (EU) single European sky regulation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union and Norway have divided up common stocks within the North Sea for 2006, overcoming difficult conservation problems, especially regarding cod. Brussels and Oslo have agreed on a long-term management plan for cod, to come into effect when the stock has returned to safe biological levels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PROMOTORS of a European Commission-supported research project encouraging municipalities across Europe to establish local broadband services say their four trials have proved a success. The scheme is especially designed to help local authorities seed new comms tech investment in zones deemed too remote by commercial service providers for investing in infrastructure.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union and Norway have divided up common stocks within the North Sea for 2006, overcoming difficult conservation problems, especially regarding cod. Brussels and Oslo have agreed on a long-term management plan for cod, to come into effect when the stock has returned to safe biological levels.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AIR travel may give you thrombosis but sometimes it can also deliver real gains to medical science. A group of European scientists has discovered an odd fact: that air passing over an aircraft’s wing to give it lift behaves like blood circulating in a human body when it meets an implanted device.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GREECE has warned of a potential EU olive oil glut, calling on the European Commission to postpone a planned low or zero duty import quota. It, plus Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Slovenia warned the EU Council of Ministers of strong 2005 European production, because of excellent climate conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFTER years of doing nothing, and then years of erecting complex bureaucratic controls, the European Union (EU) is at last starting to get its act together on controlling fraud. Keith Nuthall reports.

IN a filthy flat, not properly cleaned for years, moving the odd cupboard and shining a torch on the floor is sure to highlight a few cockroaches, scuttling for safety towards some Godforsaken corner.…

BY MARK ROWE
IN times of conflict, cultural property, such as archaeological sites, works of art, museums and monuments, can also suffer grievously at the hands of opposing military and guerrilla forces. In recognition of this, such objects are accorded protection by the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHEESE sold as ‘Feta’ within the EU must be made in Greece mainland or on Lesbos island by traditional methods, the European Court of Justice has ruled.…

KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY – which until recently had a Green-Socialist government – is home to five of the 10 dirtiest electricity plants in the European Union (EU), a report from conservation group WWF claims. Its assessment of carbon-dioxide emissions from power stations found Germany’s lignite Frimmersdorf RWE plant second most polluting, behind Greece’s lignite plant at Agios Dimitrios.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCERNS about delays in the implementation of a major piece of European Union (EU) environmental legislation have sparked a review by the European Commission, and will encourage it to pursue legal action in the courts. The law in question is the 1996 integrated pollution prevention and control directive, which insists large EU industrial and agricultural installations obtain operating permits – issued only if the best available techniques on controlling emissions are in use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCERNS about delays in the implementation of a major piece of European Union (EU) environmental legislation have sparked a review by the European Commission, and will encourage it to pursue legal action in the courts. The law in question is the 1996 integrated pollution prevention and control directive, which insists large EU industrial and agricultural installations obtain operating permits – issued only if the best available techniques on controlling emissions are in use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEK government has successfully overturned at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) an order from the European Commission that it re-coup a quarter of a Euro 9.9 million European Union (EU) subsidy paid to olive oil producers storing excess stock.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided on an unchanged figure of Euro 450 million for conversion and restructuring in the European Union’s wine sector in 2005/6 in spite of a high level of compulsory distillation this year so far.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GREEN Paper on improving services promoting mental health across the European Union (EU) has been published by the European Commission, which claims 27% of all EU adults suffer from such problems, annually. It says Brussels will consult with EU national governments on creating an action plan boosting mental health services and also collect more data at a European level, monitoring trends and identifying best practice.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) management committee for wine has agreed that Hungary be allowed to make a “crisis distillation” of 400,000 hectolitres of table wine, paying subsidies of Euro 1.914 per hectolitre times the percentage of alcohol by volume (abv) and 100,000 hl of quality wine at Euro 2.30 per hectolitre per % abv.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has banned poultry meat and live bird exports from Romania into the European Union (EU) following the confirmation of its bird flu outbreak and the earlier imposition of an import ban of live birds and feathers from Turkey for the same region.…

Keith Nuthall
A HEALTHY-DOSE of Nordic culture has been prescribed by the world’ premier anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, which has again hailed northern Europe as the region most free of graft, bribes and kickbacks. Such financial crime is rarest in Iceland, says the 2005 corruption rankings from the German group, with Finland and New Zealand tying at second place, Denmark, fourth, Sweden sixth, and Norway eighth.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNESCO, the UN’s scientific and cultural organisation, has launched a filter removing arsenic from water and which could save tens of millions of lives. Unveiled at its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO said the filter was “simple and ecologically sound”, using as an absorbent recycled iron oxide coated sand produced as a by-product in groundwater treatment plants “available at no cost almost everywhere”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has sent final legal warnings to Italy, Greece and Spain threatening legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over not properly complying with the EU water framework directive. Brussels says they have failed to devise administrative blocks based on river basin districts, and provide detailed information on relevant management authorities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNESCO, the UN’s scientific and cultural organisation, has launched a filter removing arsenic from water and which could, it claims, save tens of millions of lives from a pollutant created by many mines. Unveiled at its headquarters in Paris, UNESCO said the filter was “simple and ecologically sound”, using as an absorbent recycled iron oxide coated sand produced as a by-product in groundwater treatment plants “available at no cost almost everywhere”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to exclude natural sunlight from a new European Union (EU) optical radiation health and safety directive issue to be regulated by national governments. In a plenary session, the parliament supported centre-right amendments restricting the legislation to artificial sources of radiation by 397 votes for, 269 against.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has negotiated open skies deals with Romania, Macedonia, Morocco, Albania and Bosnia & Herzegovina, which will enable their airlines to freely offer services to European Union (EU) airports, including cabotage. EU carriers would have similar rights in these four countries’ national territories.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called on European Union (EU) countries to further liberalise their professions, including accountancy, although a detailed report praises Britain for its reforms. The UK “is making good progress” across the board in fighting restrictive practices regarding profession entry, fees and advertising, along with Denmark and the Netherlands, said Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Management Committee for Wine has approved a plan to allow crisis distillation of up to two million hectoliters of Italian table wine. Assuming the decision is accepted by the European Commission, distillation could begin from September 25, with Euro 1.914 per hectolitre multiplied by a wine’s abv percentage being handed over to producers facing a wine glut.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called on European Union (EU) countries to further liberalise their professions, including legal specialists, although a Communication’ policy paper praises Britain for its reforms. The UK “is making good progress” across the board in fighting restrictive practices regarding profession entry, fees and advertising, along with Denmark and the Netherlands, said Brussels.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH
A FEW recent days on the edge of the Saronic Sea, due West of Athens, is all that was needed to renew the conviction Greece is the European Union’s most sumptuous cliché.

In this, the country is abundant.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A PROPOSAL by the European Commission to publish a blacklist of airlines with unsatisfactory safety records could mean the withdrawal of insurance cover for companies failing to measure up according to Commission officials. The Brussels plan has been made in the context of a recent sequence of aviation crashes off Italy, Greece, Canada and Venezuela where defective aircraft or negligence by operating personnel have come under suspicion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) tobacco-advertising ban may have come into force on July 31, but it yet to be implemented in nine out of the 25 EU member states, the European Commission has admitted. Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus and Hungary have not notified Brussels with corresponding national prohibitions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) tobacco-advertising ban came into force on Sunday (July 31), prohibiting adverts in most print publications, radio and the Internet, although some countries – notably Germany – have not implemented the law. The 2003 tobacco-advertising directive would be, claimed EU health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou “one of the most effective ways of reducing smoking”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LUNG cancer, blamed on smoking by most health professionals, is declining throughout the European Union (EU) amongst men, but not women, according to a new British Medical Journal report. The UK performs well, with lung cancer mortality rates for both men and women falling.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ITALY has become the fourth European Union (EU) country this year to press the European Commission to allow crisis distillation to deal with a major wine grape surplus, warning the situation is so serious, riots could erupt in wine-growing areas.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved a plan by Greece to put 340,000 hectolitres of table wine and 40,000 hectolitres of quality wine into crisis distillation following a collapse in prices. Brussels said there had been a “worrying rise in stocks” and in order to remedy the difficult market situation, “stocks of Greek wine should be reduced to a level that can be regarded as normal in terms of covering market requirements.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will recover Euro 244.4 million of European Union (EU) agricultural subsidies that were wrongly administered by member states through “inadequate controls” or outright rule breaking. France was the worst offender, with Euro 63.79 being reclaimed, notably regarding subsidies paid for fruit and vegetable “withdrawn from the market”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GREECE has been told to repay Euro 34.54 million in European Union (EU) subsidies because of deficiencies in its management and control of livestock extensification premium payments, from 2001-2003. Ordering the repayments, EU agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: “We will not hesitate to recover misspent money from member states.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will recover Euro 244.4 million of European Union (EU) agricultural subsidies that were wrongly administered by member states through “inadequate controls” or outright rule breaking. France was the worst offender, with Euro 63.79 being reclaimed, notably regarding subsidies paid for fruit and vegetable “withdrawn from the market”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PROACTIVE competition inquiry has been launched into the European Union’s (EU) natural gas sector, with the aim of rooting out anti-competitive practices. If the European Commission discovers instances of gas companies breaking existing EU competition law, legal action could follow.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH
THE EUROPEAN Commission has demanded the Greek government repays Euro 23.98 million into central Brussels funds to compensate for recent multiple breaches in the administration of tobacco production aid payments.

This figure represents a flat-rate correction of 5% on money calculated to have gone adrift.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILED studies from a series of collaborative projects on improving the groundwater aquifers of ‘Karst’ limestone coastal areas have been released by a group of scientists coordinated by Europe’s COST initiative (European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical research).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU Council of Ministers has blocked a European Commission bid to lift national bans imposed by Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Luxembourg on eight GM maize and oil seed rape corn products. This was despite their already being authorised by the Commission and the European Food Safety Authority.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project has developed technology that enabling local authorities to assess contaminants on brownfield sites, without having to drill boreholes and take physical samples. The HYGEIA consortium has developed a high-precision positioning system for ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys, which is necessary for collecting high-resolution 3-D data.…

Keith Nuthall
ITALY has become the fourth European Union (EU) country this year to press the European Commission to allow crisis distillation to deal with a major wine grape surplus. Speaking at this week’s EU Council of Ministers, agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel “acknowledged the serious situation of the sector”, but would not yet agree, saying the “request was still under thorough examination”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the abolition of registration taxes that it says impede the transfer of vehicles to the 16 European Union (EU) member states that impose them. Britain is not among the countries concerned, but they include Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Austria and Poland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NETHERLANDS, Greece and Poland have come under legal pressure from the European Commission to reform their car taxation rules so that it is easier to move vehicles around the European Union (EU). It has sent their governments formal requests to reform their systems, which – if ignored – could lead to a referral to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEITHER transport nor any other new sectors will be added to the European Union’s (EU) carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme before 2013, the European Commission has promised. Issuing this promise, (as Greece became the final member state to secure acceptance of its national allocation emissions), the Commission nonetheless started a review of the system, which will consider the scheme’s future expansion to cover transport.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend Euro 26.1 million on 26 programmes promoting the sale within the EU of organic food products, olive oil, milk and cheese, ham, fruit and vegetables, plus some drinks products. There will be matching funding from participating countries Britain, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Cyprus.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Court of Justice advocate general has advised the rejection of German and Danish government claims that the word ‘feta’ cheese is a generic term, that can be exploited for marketing purposes by manufacturers based outside the Greece region where it is traditionally made.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked the EU Council of Ministers to outlaw five national bans on genetically modified products: Austria’s ban on genetically modified maize (MON 810) and GM maize (Bt 176), Germany and Luxembourg’s ban on Bt 176; and Greece’s block on sales of GM spring swede rape.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on the European Commission to frame an action plan on simplifying red tape for the fishing industry, “reducing their bureaucratic workload and the restrictions that bear down on fishermen”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is demanding the recovery of Euro 277.25 million in illegally paid European Union farm subsidies. Notably, Brussels demanded Spain order the repayment of Euro 134.48 paid to flax and hemp growers from 1996 to 2000, following “major shortcomings in the control system and general fraud”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LONGEST collectively agreed working hours in the European Union’s (EU) retail sectors are found in richer western European countries, as well as poorer new member states from eastern and southern Europe, a new study has shown. And Britain, usually attacked for having the longest working hours in western Europe, actually has below-average collectively bargained time at work in the retail sector, noted the European Industrial Relations Observatory, looking at 2004 figures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIVISIONS over the EU sugar regime reforms have been clarified at a European Union (EU) Council of Ministers (agriculture) meeting. British, Danish, German, Swedish, Latvian and Maltese delegations wanted “rapid reform, to make the sector more competitive”, though concerns of ex-European colonies in the African Pacific Caribbean (ACP) bloc “should be taken into account”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending up to Euro 20 million to help glass bottle manufacturer Stirom SA Romania, modernise a furnace and reform its distribution systems. In the latest of a string of investments by the bank improving the country’s packaging sector, Yioula SA, Greece, -owned Stirom may also use the money to buy additional capacity, said the EBRD.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has conditionally approved the greenhouse gas pollution allocation plan of Poland and the Czech Republic, leaving the European Union (EU) just two countries shy of approving all national components of its emissions trading scheme. Now only Greece and Italy await approval.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EURO 4.72 million fine should make anyone mend their ways; anyone, it seems, bar the Greek government, which is facing possible further legal action for not cleaning-up the illegal waste dump causing the original punishment. This was at the mouth of the beautiful River Kouroupitos, Crete, and was only closed after Athens paid many Euro 20,000 daily penalties for ignoring a European Court of Justice (ECJ) closure order in 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a report detailing sales trends and environment improvements in European Union-consumed motor fuels. It shows, for instance, that the average sulphur content in petrol and diesel roughly halved between 2001 and 2003. In that year, 30.3% of diesel sold had less than 50 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur, with 24.9% less than 10ppm, (Germany and Sweden dominated consumption of this cleanest diesel, while regular diesel was most common in Austria, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused nine European Union (EU) governments of dragging their feet over promoting biofuels in their countries. It has sent critical formal notices to Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovenia accusing them of failing to submit national reports framing 2005 targets for biofuel consumption, as required under the Biofuels Directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to lend up to Euro 20 million to glass bottle manufacturer Stirom SA Romania, enabling it to modernise a furnace and reform its distribution systems. The Yioula SA, Greece, -owned company may also use the money to buy additional capacity, said the EBRD.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN and eight other European countries have signed a memorandum of understanding about constructing a groundbreaking X-ray research laser, so acute it could measure chemical reactions in real time. The UK, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany have agreed to negotiate in detail an inter-governmental arrangement for building an approximately three-kilometre-long underground laser generator.…

KEITH NUTHALL
ITALY, Finland, Belgium and Greece are being taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by the European Commission, which says these governments have failed to properly establish the European Union (EU) emissions trading regime in their countries. This came into force on January 1, but has to be written into national statute books in a uniform way.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ADDITIONAL Protocol to the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, concerning Biomedical Research, has been opened for signature by the organisation’s 46 member states. It defines and protects fundamental rights of human biomedical research subjects, saying who can consent to taking part in experiments, and under what circumstances.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) should rule that Greece broke European Union (EU) public procurement rules when issuing a contract for building a conveyor belt to a lignite-run power plant at Megalopolis, an ECJ advocate general has said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) research network Eureka is developing a quality control device for lignite and brown coal, measuring its purity and calorific content by measuring its natural gamma radiation. Poland’s EMAG Research and Development Centre for Electrical Engineering and Automation in Mining is currently coordinating the project, with potential partners from Greece, its Institute for Solid Fuels Technology and Applications (Isfta) and company Aspo Technology.…

KEITH NUTHALL
AS the European Union (EU)’s greenhouse gas trading scheme beds in this year, its environment ministers can push ahead with fighting pollution, in the knowledge that the EU should hit its Kyoto Protocol emissions targets. According to the European Commission, current and planned policies should enable the expanded EU to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8% from their 1990 levels during 2008-2012.…

KEITH NUTHALL
On the basis of existing policies and measures alone, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Sweden and the United Kingdom should reach their individual targets. The Netherlands and Luxembourg will achieve their targets with the help of credits from the project-based mechanisms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Greece with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over its alleged failure to establish an independent national supervisory authority to carry out important tasks under the European Union’s (EU) single European sky regulation.…

Keith Nuthall
THE LATEST government debt figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat shows that Italy and Greece have a long way to go before breathing easy over their governments’ indebtedness. Under the Growth and Stability Pact underpinning the value of the Euro, any country using the currency with debt exceeding 60% of GDP must ensure they are steadily moving towards the black.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched an infringement proceeding against Greece to “prevent (future) incorrect or incomplete data transmission” about its government’s public finances. Greece has admitted that it made “errors” in its national statistics, allowing it to remain within the good housekeeping rules governing the Euro.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHILE discussions continue over how to ensure the security of energy supplies to the European Union (EU), Brussels institutions are sinking money into one sure bet, eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), for instance, is lending US$170 million to SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, to fund two Caspian gas projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union and Norway have divided up common stocks within the North Sea for 2006, overcoming difficult conservation problems, especially regarding cod. Brussels and Oslo have agreed on a long-term management plan for cod, to come into effect when the stock has returned to safe biological levels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PROMOTORS of a European Commission-supported research project encouraging municipalities across Europe to establish local broadband services say their four trials have proved a success. The scheme is especially designed to help local authorities seed new comms tech investment in zones deemed too remote by commercial service providers for investing in infrastructure.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Greece to the European Court of Justice asking judges to order a separation of the Greek Public Power Corporation’s accounts for its lignite mining and its electricity generation. Brussels says Greece is breaking the European Union electricity directive, which outlaws common accounts possibly masking illegal cross-subsidies between two separate business activities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INSTITUTIONS of the European Union (EU) always say they are getting a handle on the fraud that riddles their operations, but are they? Keith Nuthall looks at the latest annual report from EU fraud-fighters OLAF.

MEASURING fraud is notoriously difficult, given that the aim of this crime is to be as undetectable as possible.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will table accounting reforms for all European Union (EU) national statistics offices, following the recent revelation of errors in Greece’s public spending figures. The proposals will underline national offices’ “independence, integrity and accountability”, granting EU statistical agency Eurostat control and inspection rights.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LAST people most farmers would like controlling European agricultural policy are glib public relations experts, armed with palm-top digital personal organisers and a sheaf of focus group studies. Such complaints have often been levelled at the Blair government, accused of bending with the wind of public opinion.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
GREECE has failed to approve legislation implementing the European Union’s (EU) second money laundering directive and has provided neither an explanation nor a promise of future action to the European Commission, laying itself open to action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is largely on track for a timely start to its emissions trading system on January 1, with the unconditional approval in late October of six more CO2 emission allocation plans, from Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Portugal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ECSTASY has become Britain’s number two illicit drug, overtaking amphetamines, warns a new European Union (EU) narcotics report alerting public health professional across Europe to increasing abuse of most recreational drugs. The best news highlighted by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is that heroin use and new HIV infections are falling in western Europe, although they are increasing in many eastern European countries, such as the Baltic States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Greece with a European Court of Justice (ECJ) case over its requirement that companies providing local third-party motor insurance must belonging to the Greek national association of insurance companies. Brussels said this could “risk preventing or discouraging insurance companies from other (EU) member states from entering the Greek market, and thus a risk of restricting competition on prices and on the access of policyholders to a wider selection of companies”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS European Union (EU) debates reforms to its working time rules designed to make it harder for Britain to opt-out of this EU legislation, an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report has claimed more Britons work excessive hours than other Europeans.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) report has claimed more Britons work excessive hours than other Europeans, with 15.5% of UK citizens working more than 50 hours a week, while in other EU countries the proportion ranges from 1.4% in the Netherlands to 6.2% in Greece and Ireland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced Euro 5 million of spending to help France, Denmark, Greece and Italy promote local food products in the USA, Canada, Japan, Russia, China, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Romania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEK government’s alleged failure to implement European Union (EU) rules on solvency margins for life assurance and non-life insurance businesses has landed it in the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The European Commission has launched a case after being dissatisfied with Athens’ response to its final warning letters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has cleared Greece of breaking European Union (EU) excise rules by charging 50% of the duty on its national drink ouzo than on other spirits. The European Commission claimed that in this way, Greece was effectively discriminating against imported spirits, even though EU excise legislation explicitly allows it to charge a reduced duty on ouzo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The first report of the new European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) which was created earlier this year says that in Europe “a high proportion of industrial pollution is caused by a few single plants.” The report, which initially covers emissions in the 15 EU countries, Norway and Hungary in the year 2001, is soon to be upgraded to a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register which will significantly widen the range of pollutants, industries and emissions, will report every year instead of every third one and will take data from road traffic, aviation, shipping and agriculture as well as industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INCOMING European Commissioner for health and consumer affairs has shown signs in a European Parliament questionnaire that he could be as feisty as his predecessor, Ireland’s David Byrne, calling for an EU-wide ban on smoking in public.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S performance in reducing heart disease deaths could be much improved compared with many of its European Union (EU) partners, a new World Health Organisation heart disease atlas, has shown.

Dividing a country’s annual deaths from heart disease with its population, saturated fats and beer loving Britain had a comparative factor of 2, based on 120,530 deaths in 2002 amongst a population of 59 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S current strong performance in employing its citizens in general, and offering part-time jobs in particular, has been confirmed by a Eurostat report placing the UK above most other European countries. In a comparative study on employment rates, (rather than unemployment), the European Union (EU) statistical agency said 17.4% of Britons were in part-time employment, a larger proportion than in any other EU country, except in the Netherlands, where it is 32.8%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT from market analysts IDC has revealed 37% of business programmes used in the EU are pirated. The study, involving 5,600 interviews, identified Greece as having the worst problem, with 63% of business software being pirated, followed by Poland and Lithuania (58%), Latvia (57%) and Estonia 54%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that European Union (EU) insurance laws allow owed salaries to be paid ahead of outstanding policy claims, when an insurance company goes out of business. Its ruling has come in a Greek case brought by a public road-accident liability fund – Epikouriko Kefalaio – against its government for ordering Intercontinental AE, also of Greece, to release part of its frozen assets to pay salary claims.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH Greece and Cyprus are taking over the key European Commission jobs for the cosmetics, soap and perfumery sectors, the enthusiasm of Brussels for tougher environmental, consumer protection and animal welfare rules could wane.

Cypriot Markos Kyprianou has been appointed as health and consumer affairs commissioner in the new Commission that takes office in November.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GREECE and Cyprus are taking over the key European Commission jobs in the environmental health world, in the new team unveiled by incoming Brussels president José Durão Barroso. Taking over from Sweden’s Margot Wallström as environment commissioner will be Greek Stavros Dimas, who has served as stand in employment commissioner since his compatriot Anna Diamontopoulou returned to national politics in March.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered Spain to repay Euro 17 million in EU subsidies for breaking payment rules for nut and locust bean production, and Greece Euro 38.55 million for ewe and goat premium errors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is Europe’s laggard for implementing European Union (EU) environmental law, the European Commission has concluded. It its latest assessment of compliance with EU green regulations and directives, it notes 11 instances of France being recently censured by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) or threatened with legal action by the Commission over non-compliance with environmental legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Environment Agency (EEA) says the old 15 member European Union’s (EU) greenhouse gas emissions fell by 0.5% from 2001-2, following increases in the previous two years. Sadly, proactive anti-global warming measures were not top of the agency’s reasons for the cut.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is Europe’s laggard for implementing European Union (EU) environmental law, the European Commission has concluded. Its latest assessment of compliance with EU green regulations and directives notes 38 cases of France being censured by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) or threatened with legal action by the Commission over non-compliance with environmental legislation in 2003.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEK government is being taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for allowing sludge from a new wastewater treatment to leach into the environment, polluting the air and water supplies. The European Commission alleges that Greece is breaking European Union (EU) urban wastewater directive by failing to treat and safely transport sludge from a sewage works in Psitallia near Athens.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RENEWABLE energy and CHP sectors will be closely studying the appointment of new European commissioners for energy and the environment, who take office this November, especially as the change of guard means the departure of energy commissioner Loyola de Palacio.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE KEY European Commissioner for Europe’s personnel managers over the next four years will be the Czech Republic’s Vladimir ?pidla, who will become the new European Union (EU) commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities. Replacing current stand in commissioner Stavros Dimas, of Greece, (who has taken over temporarily from fellow Greek Anna Diamontopoulou), ?pidla…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE LEGAL web being cast by the European Union (EU) in the fight against money laundering is being tightened still further. A third directive has now been proposed by the European Commission that, among other things, will broaden the definition of money laundering to include not only the concealment or disguise of the proceeds of serious crimes but also the financing of terrorism with either criminal or legally acquired money.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATIONAL work accident statistics are keenly examined by occupational health practitioners, but they do not enable the safety of British workplaces to be compared against other European countries; that is where Eurostat, the European Union’s (EU) statistical agency comes in.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is reclaiming Euro 143.86 million in food production subsidies from 12 member countries, including Britain, because of financial irregularities, largely in the meat sector. While the UK’s repayment of Euro 1.8 million is small and for missing general payment deadlines, France faces the largest demand – for Euro 50.7 million in bovine-product premiums, especially in Corsica.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening seven European Union (EU) countries with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to apply EU law and give local companies the option of applying International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 on financial instruments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is reclaiming Euro 143.86 million in food production subsidies from 12 member countries, including Britain, because of financial irregularities, largely in the meat sector. While the UK’s repayment of Euro 1.8 million is small and for missing general payment deadlines, France faces the largest demand – for Euro 50.7 million in bovine-product premiums, especially in Corsica.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S tax burden as a proportion of GDP fell sharply in 2002 to 35.8% from 37.3% in 2001, confirming the UK as among the lightest taxed jurisdictions in the European Union (EU). The contrast is especially marked with its key competitors Germany (40.2% in 2002), France (44.2%), and Italy (41.7%), according to the latest available comparative figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has undermined moves by Austria and Greece to block sales of GM maize and oilseed rape (respectively) which possess prior European Union (EU) market approval. EFSA concluded the countries have “no new scientific evidence, in terms of risk to human health and the environment”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REQUIREMENTS on national telecommunications regulators within the European Union (EU) to analyse a list of specific markets to see if controls are required on a dominant operator are to be frozen for 18 months. The European Commission had been due to review this so-called ‘ex ante’ recommendation last month, but has postponed this until December 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is flirting with potentially huge daily recurring fines from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by failing to implement three ECJ rulings, one on some of the European Union’s (EU) oldest water legislation. Paris, claims the European Commission, has failed to adopt pollution reduction programmes required by the 1976 directive on discharges of dangerous substances to water, such as heavy metals, pesticides and chemicals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITHIN the newly expanded European Union (EU), Poland is the cheapest country in which to buy a car, although under current trends that honour may not last long. According to the latest European Commission figures, Polish car prices are on average 9% cheaper than those in Finland, the cheapest country using the single European currency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Greece with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), over its alleged failure to implement European Union (EU) legislation on solvency margins for non-life and life insurance companies. These rules had been written into EU insurance ‘winding-up’ directives and were supposed to have been transposed into Greek law by last September 2003.…

BY MARK ROWE
During the time of the Soviet Union, museums in the satellite states of Eastern Europe routinely kept short working hours, closed without notice and were all too frequently dowdy, musty and inaccessible.

With the accession of 10 new states (including eight in eastern Europe), into the European Union, the future for museums from Lithuania to Malta, and from Slovenia to Slovakia is much brighter.…

Keith Nuthall
THE GREEKS may be champions in European football, but they are bottom of the league for tax honesty, a European Commission report has concluded, with more than 20% of work by value being undeclared. The paper ‘Undeclared work in an enlarged Union’ shows that Britain is much more honest, with only 2% of its GDP being concealed from the tax authorities, second only to Austria (1.5%).…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE WORLD is a small place when it comes to business these days. Increasingly, multi-nationals, as well as medium-sized companies are setting up shop in all four corners of the world. Outsourcing work and creating offices in developing countries is de rigueur to cut costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEK government has been censured by the European Court of Justice for not properly installing an urban waste water collecting system for the Thriasio Pedio area, near Athens. The court found in this way and by subjecting this water to mere secondary treatment before it is discharged into the neighbouring and environmentally sensitive Gulf of Elefsina, Greece has broken the 1991 urban waste-water treatment directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have approved an agreement with west Africa’s Guinea Bissau, which will guarantee access to its fishing grounds for Italian, French, Greek, Portuguese and Spanish fishermen until June 2006. The deal involves the Guinea Bissau government being granted Euro 7.26 million a year in financial compensation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given Greece a ‘reasoned opinion’ final warning threatening legal action at the European Court of Justice, telling it to abolish exclusive rights enjoyed by its state-owned Public Power Corporation (PCC) regarding lignite mining, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of Greek electricity generation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EVERYONE knows commercial fraud costs business millions and millions of dollars and euros, but no one really knows how much. The United Nations is going to investigate, following a successful international seminar staged in Vienna. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given Greece a ‘reasoned opinion’ final warning threatening legal action at the European Court of Justice, telling it to cease the state-owned Public Power Corporation’s (PCC) practice of rolling the cost of extracting lignite – its key source – into its accounted generation costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has visited Syria, pressing its government to reform its gas infrastructure and regulation so it can play a key role in creating a Middle East-to-Europe network. The European Commission sees Syria as a key link, notably in the so-called Arab pipeline, linking Egypt to Syria and the Lebanon through Jordan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NOBODY likes to be on a blacklist, especially one written by the American government. But every year, the US state department issues a comprehensive rogues gallery of countries involved in the narcotics trade and related criminal problems. One surprising entrant: the United States.…

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 PHILIP FINE

GREECE’S Olympic Airways has been ordered to pay US$1.4 million by an American court after a man died in 1998 from an asthmatic reaction to on-board cigarette smoke. The judges ruled airline attendants had negligently failed to heed his request to move to a smoke-free zone.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MAJORITY of cotton growing subsidies in the European Union (EU) will from 2006 be de-linked from production – mostly paid as single direct payments to growers – the EU Council of Ministers has decided at a special meeting on Common Agricultural Policy reform.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RELIABLE statistics are of course vital to any insurance company’s assessment of risk, and nationally produced figures in countries such as Britain and the USA can usually be counted upon in actuarial calculations. But what about comparing countries when managing international policy portfolios?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called on the organisers of this year’s Olympic Games in Greece to ensure that any sports footwear used by athletes has been manufactured under International Labour Organisation (ILO) codes, especially those banning the use of child labour.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMONGST all European Union (EU) countries, Finland has the highest number of nurses and midwives per head of population, – 2,181 per 100,000 inhabitants – according to the recently released and latest available comparative figures. EU statistical agency Eurostat said that these 1998-2000 figures showed Portugal as having the least nurses and midwives (379 per 100,000) and Greece the second worst performer (391).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BELGIUM is the EU salmonellosis hotspot says the latest comparative figures from Eurostat. In 2001, 104 cases were recorded in Belgium per 100,000 people, compared with Britain’s 29 cases and an EU average of 40.6. Greece had fewest infections (2.9/100,000).…

Keith Nuthall
INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) policies towards borrower countries will henceforth be influenced by their capacity to implement Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations on fighting money laundering. IMF directors have agreed these assessments “do not contravene the prohibition of the Fund to exercise law enforcement powers”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FUTURE sale of Greece’s Olympic Airlines is being threatened by a formal state aid investigation launched this week (Wed 17-3) by the European Commission, which has stressed its determination that the privatisation of the airline should go ahead without any illegal state aid being paid by the Greek government.…

BY MARK ROWE
MENTION Albania and money, and the image that comes to mind is of the extraordinary pyramid schemes that gripped the country in the mid-1990s as the country stepped out into a post-Stalinist dawn. Albanians poured their assets into the schemes, with an enthusiasm that was as remarkable as it was misguided.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THEY’RE not to everybody’s taste, we quite agree, but there’s no doubt that flavoured cigars have a very devoted band of followers and can no longer be dismissed as a passing fancy. Indeed after speaking to a number of the big players it is easy to gain the impression that the flavoured, (or aromatic), segment has (along perhaps with filters) been the only one to buck the cigar sector’s trend of falling or stagnant sales in recent years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given Greece two months to say how it will scrap the exclusive rights enjoyed by its state-owned Public Power Corporation (PCC) for the mining of lignite in the country, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of its electricity.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BELGIUM is the European Union’s (EU) salmonellosis hotspot according the latest comparative figures collated by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency. In 2001, 104 cases were recorded in Belgium per 100,000 people, with other high figures being recorded in Germany (94 cases), Luxembourg (83) and Austria (81).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN has been given a relatively clean bill of health in the latest Transparency International corruption rankings, being viewed as joint-11th least-corrupt country in the world, sharing its billing with Canada and Luxembourg. Finland was the most honest place in which to do business said the pressure group’s survey, followed by Iceland and the Denmark plus New Zealand at joint third.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GREECE is being threatened with legal action by the European Commission over its failure to abide by European Union (EU) rules insisting on international open tendering for its schoolbook production. The Commission has warned Greece of European Court of Justice action for allowing the national Organisation for the Publication of Schoolbooks to order supplies from between 80-90 Athens-area publishers and printers every year, without launching a tender.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has called on its developed country governments to do more to encourage broadband rollout, saying particular emphasis was needed on expanding services to remote and rural areas. Its detailed report said government’s needed to encourage as many technical means as possible to achieve this end, treating different technologies neutrally.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ABUSE of drugs and alcohol in the workplace may be a growing concern in European Union (EU) countries but there seems little evidence that the relevant authorities are unduly alarmed by it. An informal survey by Occupational Health of organisations and government departments suggests that little attempt has been made so far to assess the scale of the problem, still less to devise legislation aimed at workers, as distinct from society in general.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament agriculture committee has called for European Union (EU) member governments to have the freedom to link up to 70 per cent of tobacco growing subsidies to production, which would demolish the European Commission’s plans to phase out these supports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REVISIONS to a European nuclear energy liability convention will increase the total accident compensation available from operators in 15 countries to Euro 1.5 billion, up from Euro 350 million. Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey have now signed the Protocols to amend the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and the Brussels Convention Supplementary to the Paris Convention.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BELGIUM is the EU salmonellosis hotspot says the latest comparative figures from Eurostat. In 2001, 104 cases were recorded in Belgium per 100,000 people, compared with Britain’s 29 cases and an EU average of 40.6. Greece had fewest infections (2.9/100,000).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REVISIONS to a European nuclear energy liability convention will increase the total accident compensation available from operators in 15 countries to Euro 1.5 billion, up from Euro 350 million. Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey have now signed the Protocols to amend the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and the Brussels Convention Supplementary to the Paris Convention.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THERE is a significant risk that Europe’s summer of blackouts could be repeated after 2008, unless effective investments are made in power generation and distribution plant, the Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE), has warned.…