The investment to build the interconnector will amount to EUR2.8 billion, with the EIB set to contribute up to EUR400 million for the financing construction of the section within the European Union (EU).  Other financiers include the UK Infrastructure Bank, which will focus on the stretch within UK maritime and land territory, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).…

London-based Haloodies (https://haloodies.com/), which claims to be “one of the UK’s most trusted suppliers of Halal meats”, has fought against challenges posted by the Covid-19 outbreak and Brexit though expanding its online sales and reshoring production to Britain. Now, its co-founder and CEO says the company is ready to tap global markets.…

Malaysia is expected to launch in January a detailed (although voluntary) halal certification for medical devices in an innovative regulatory move, making the country a world leader in this segment.

Its government published a halal medical device standard in September 2019, known as MS2636, but the halal division of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) agency has since been enhancing “their online system” and staff, since the new “scheme for halal medical devices must comply with other requirements”, Johari Ab Latiff, senior assistant director at JAKIM’s Malaysia Halal Council Secretariat, told Salaam Gateway.…

BRITAIN’S halal food market maybe growing, but the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) in January 2020 has been impeding the sale, production and export of such products, and the regulatory headaches may get worse in future.

Speaking to Salaam Gateway, Rizvan Khalid, managing director, of Euro Quality Lambs, a major England-based producer and exporter of halal sheepmeat, said trade red tape imposed since the UK quit the EU has imposed GBP500,000 of annual regulatory costs on his business.…

Ireland’s burgeoning medtech sector has supported changes in the latest Irish government budget, announced on October 12, which could boost investment and start-ups in this globally important Irish industry. The Fianna Fail-Fine Gail-Green coalition unveiled reforms to the country’s Employment Investment Incentive (EII) scheme, which grants tax exemptions to investors in industries such as medtech.…

INTRODUCTION

Think of finishing and some consumers may conclude that integrating chemicals with or within fibres will always be the most effective way to create a performance or protective textile. But the reality is that applying coatings to textiles and yarns is anything but superficial as a finishing technique.…

INTRODUCTION

Financial crime is a minefield for the international textile and clothing industry. With extended international supply chains extending into jurisdictions where the rule of law and a reliable independent judiciary may have a weak hold, if they exist at all, textile and clothing brands and manufacturers must take care.…

The question of when and whether lobbying is ethically questionable or even a criminal bribe is a complex issue, with rules varying according to jurisdictions. Often, actions that are politically embarrassing, are definitely not bribes, or indeed unlawful in anyway. For example, on September 15, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney survived a no-confidence vote in the Dáil Éireann over his handling of the appointment of former minister for children Katherine Zappone as his country’s ‘Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Opinion and Expression’.…

The question of when and whether lobbying is ethically questionable or even a criminal bribe is a complex issue, with rules varying according to jurisdictions. Often, actions that are politically embarrassing, are definitely not bribes, or indeed unlawful in anyway. For example, on September 15, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney survived a no-confidence vote in the Dáil Éireann over his handling of the appointment of former minister for children Katherine Zappone as his country’s ‘Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Opinion and Expression’.…

INTRODUCTION

TEXTILES and clothing manufacture and sales are all about leveraging resources, from creative talent to quality materials and sophisticated technology. So, enterprise resource planning programmes (ERP) have been attractive for the past 20 years or more and have become an increasingly important tool of manufacturers and brands.…

Last November (2020), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that cannabidiol (CBD) liquids for e-cigarettes that were lawfully produced in a European Union (EU) member state are not narcotics and can be sold in any other EU country. The ruling was welcomed by the EU CBD sector, which has said it helps open-up the European market to products that often fall into a legal grey zone due to their origins in hemp, or cannabis with little or no intoxication effects.…

Tunisia’s garment manufacturing industry is actively encouraging British brands to visit this key North African near sourcing hub to discover the quality and real potential of its workwear.

The campaign is building on a December 2020 webinar when Tunisian producers connected with potential British buyers within the workwear segment, to create new trading partnerships.…

The European anti-fraud office (OLAF) and European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) have struck a cooperation agreement to ensure their future work dovetails. They have agreed to exchange information; set guidelines on reporting and transferring potential cases; and deciding how to mutually support each other’s investigations.…

INNOVATIVE paints and coatings companies, and their suppliers, can from this month (July) explore applying 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 needing to form international consortia developing research on paints, coatings and chemical ingredients to have the best chance of securing funding.…

The May (2021) acquisition by Irish animal health products firm Bimeda, of Seattle, USA-based AquaTactics Fish Health was low profile, but significant in highlighting Irish ambitions in the global aquaculture industry. The sector is growing globally, with production increasing to replace declining wild fishery stocks, in many cases fished to their maximum sustainable levels.…

EUROPEAN dairy experts say that the European Union (EU) climate law’s target to cut carbon emissions at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, compared to “between 50% and 55%” in the original proposal (1) and just 32.5% by 2030 in the 2018 law (2), will be a challenge, but one they can meet.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has authorised its EUR181 million anti-fraud programme for 2021-27, with a regulation mandating this spending coming into force on April 29. The new seven-year programme will see EUR114 million spent on preventing and combating fraud, corruption and other financial crimes that can damage the overall EU budget.…

Over the past year, the European Union’s (EU) dairy industry has weathered two storms: the departure of Great Britain from the EU single market and customs union, during the unprecedented lockdown measures adopted to contain Covid-19, all while EU lawmakers haggle over a major shakeup of agricultural regulations.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) institutions have agreed to tighten measures that encourage lobbyists to put their information on a public register before they meet politicians and high-ranking officials. But researchers and campaigners say stronger enforcement and better monitoring are necessary to prevent graft.…

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.…

CUSTOMS forces can benefit from new sensor kit, enabling them to scan containers to ensure contents are as declared on docket – but to use these techniques to fight trade-based money laundering, they need to be integrated with accurate financial intelligence.…

Environmental regulation is becoming increasingly tight for textile companies and this of special concern for the higher-tech side of the industry where new fibres, chemicals and processes are delivering a cutting edge. This is especially the case for innovative segments such as performance and outdoor materials.…

INTRODUCTION

NEW technology can deliver effective maintenance strategies to clothing and textile manufacturers, helping them go beyond reactive and proactive maintenance, moving into the more sophisticated world of prediction. The goal is to deliver an optimum maintenance strategy that enables manufacturers to get the most value out of their plant and equipment by spending the least amount of time, resources and money to deliver effective performance.…

INTRODUCTION

Accounting software is crucial for any company wanting to expand on a sustainable basis, adding diversity in supply and customer relationships as they grow. The clothing and textile industry is particularly complex regarding its inputs and outputs. Production is also complex when manufacturers handle spinning, weaving, cutting and finishing.…

In 2021, when the UK has thrown away its most precious diplomatic asset, its membership of the European Union, for dubious democratic gains, burning major European civil rights enjoyed by Britons and causing likely economic long-term damage, it is maybe time to recall when Britain followed more enlightened international policies.…

In 2021, when the UK has thrown away its most precious diplomatic asset, its membership of the European Union, for dubious democratic gains, burning major European civil rights enjoyed by Britons and causing likely economic long-term damage, it is maybe time to recall when Britain followed more enlightened international policies.…

THE UNITED Kingdom’s definitive exit from the European Union (EU) on December 31, 2020, after an 11-month transition period, will severely disrupt the UK and European can manufacturing industry, experts have told CanTech International. That said, industry figures acknowledge however that, by avoiding blanket tariffs and a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, the UK/EU Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA) (1) signed on Christmas Eve did head off economic disaster. …

THE 11TH-HOUR trade deal UK and European Union (EU) negotiators struck last Christmas Eve reassured many dairy traders, but British cheesemakers now face major challenges. New expensive and complicated bureaucracy for UK-EU trades is fouling-up overseas dairy sales, and even pricing smaller companies out of the EU market.…

In the modern textile industry, coating, surface modification and laminating are the key means to tailor textiles and nonwovens to create functional products for specific, often high-performance, applications.

Such techniques have offered the sector potential advantages as it entered uncharted terrain in 2020, being at the forefront in humankind’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.…

Detailed rules of origin have been approved within the new European Union-UK Brexit trade deal specifying what manufacturing processes should be applied to textile products covered by the agreement’s duty-free provisions.

A key benefit of the text is that goods sold between the EU and UK should not attract import duties, but such products must have been substantially transformed either within Britain or remaining EU member states.…

Detailed rules of origin have been approved within the new European Union-UK Brexit trade deal specifying what manufacturing processes should be applied to quality natural and man-made fibres and fabrics covered by the agreement’s duty-free provisions.

A key benefit of the text is that goods sold between the EU and UK should not attract import duties, but such products must have been substantially transformed either within Britain or remaining EU member states.…

THE COATINGS industry within the European Union (EU) and the UK will be awaiting the outcome of additional consultations over the exchange of technical information on chemicals as the Christmas Eve EU/UK trade agreement is rolled out.

These are provided for within the 1,256 page text, which has sparked concerns from the British Coatings Federation (BCF) about major costs for UK manufacturers as they gather data to comply with a new UK REACH chemical control system.…

Detailed rules of origin have been approved within the new European Union-UK Brexit trade deal specifying what manufacturing processes should be applied to nonwovens products covered by the agreement’s duty-free provisions.

A key benefit of the text is that goods sold between the EU and UK should not attract import duties, but such products must have been substantially transformed either within Britain or remaining EU member states.…

WHEN governments talk about how to reduce the risk of terrorism, the most oft-voiced policies are security-based: detecting and cracking down on extremist cells and targeting online propaganda.

But the reality is that a more effective way of reducing societies’ exposure to criminal groups seeking to achieve political ends through violence and fear is simply to make regular life more interesting.…

THE NEW trade and cooperation agreement struck on Christmas Eve by the European Union (EU) and the UK will preserve significant cooperation on anti-fraud matters. The 1,256 pages long agreement includes detailed provisions on exchanging criminal records, evidence, fingerprints, vehicle registration records and more.…

While the new European Union (EU)-UK trade deal delivering the post-Brexit trading relationship between Britain and the EU has preserved a good measure of free trade for food and drink, the agreement introduces fresh red tape that maybe costly.

The deal allows for quota and duty free trades in food and drink between the EU and the UK.…

WHILE the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) will bring significant change to civil aviation across Europe, extensive air industry provisions within the 1,256-page EU/UK trade and cooperation agreement agreed on Christmas Eve, means that significant disruption has been avoided.…

THE NEW trade and cooperation agreement struck on Christmas Eve by the European Union (EU) and the UK will preserve significant cooperation on anti-fraud and anti-money laundering matters. Keith Nuthall reports.

CRIME prevention managers and security officials within major companies will be relieved that there has been any agreement at all between the UK and the EU, as the transition period binding Britain to European law expired on January 1.…

THE EUROPEAN and British dairy sectors are holding their breath, waiting to see if their producers can cope with the rules of origin, plus sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) red tape requirements required for UK-European Union (EU) dairy trades under the new EU-UK trade agreement.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission on Tuesday (December 1) launched the first component of its behind-schedule IT system for registering certified medical devices, but an ongoing regulatory bottleneck could render many products impossible to certify for some time.

The first of six modules of its EUDAMED system will assign a ‘single registration number’ (SRN) to each medical device manufacturer, producer of procedure kits, importer, and a European Union (EU)-based representative of non-EU manufacturers.…

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.…

Two studies unveiled before members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on November 19 in a joint meeting of the constitutional affairs and legal affairs committees have concluded that the European Union (EU) needs an independent ethics body. In his EP commissioned study ‘Strengthening transparency and integrity in the EU institutions by setting up an independent EU ethics body’, (1) Austrian management professor Dr Markus Frischuut suggested the body should have around seven ruling members and 50 staff. …

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.…

EUROPE’S confectionery and sweet bakery association CAOBISCO has been pressuring the European Union (EU) to resolve a long-running trade dispute with the USA over aircraft manufacturing subsidies causing Washington to impose tariffs on European food exports. These include 25% duties on exports from the EU (including the UK) of raspberry, strawberry, apricot, peach and other jams; cherries and peaches; sweet biscuits from Germany; waffles and wafers from Britain and Germany; and an additional 25% on these jams when exported from Germany and France.…

The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated revenues at many Irish small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) but it could also prove a crucial period in the embrace of digital technology by firms. Irish SMEs are facing a collective annual revenue shortfall (where income fell below expenditure) of between EUR10.3 and EUR11.7 billion in 2020 due to the virus, according to research by the Central Bank of Ireland.…

The Covid-19 pandemic is set to drive a near threefold surge in the antiviral coatings market as researchers and developers say they now realise how little they know about effective materials combatting such threats.

The search for more universal antiviral materials “should be continued with even higher intensity”, said Professors Ken Ostrikov and Ziqi Sun from Queensland University of Technology, in Australia, in their September (2020) report, ‘Future antiviral surfaces: Lessons from COVID-19 pandemic’, featured in the publication ‘Sustainable Materials and Technologies’.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) finance ministers today (Nov 4) gave support to plans to create an EU-wide anti-money laundering (AML) supervisor and harmonised EU laws to tackle the crime.

The European Commission announced in May that it plans to create “a single EU rulebook” to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing, with more reliance on a mandatory regulation than more flexible directives and a new coordination mechanism for national Finance Intelligence Units (FIU).…

The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is proposing a revision to Britain and Ireland’s auditing standards to require auditors “to obtain reasonable assurance” that a client’s financial statements “are free from material misstatement due to fraud”. The proposals to revamp the 16-year-old International Standard on Auditing (UK) (ISA (UK) 240, from December 15, 2021, would also beef up professional scepticism requirements so that audits are not biased towards obtaining corroborative facts and exclude contradictory evidence.…

With the Irish economy facing an uncertain 20200 final quarter, accountants are agreed that the government’s wage subsidy scheme has helped keep many clients afloat during the Covid-19 crisis. But they worry a revised version of the scheme applied from September may not be enough for some companies.…

Member states of the European Union (EU) have for the first time been fined by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for tardy implementation of European Union anti-money laundering legislation.

The ECJ has fined Romania EUR3 million (USD3.4 million) and Ireland EUR2 million (USD2.3 million) for implementing the European Union’s 4th anti-money laundering directive (4AMLD),more than two years past a June 26, 2017 deadline.…

EUROPEAN sugar users’ association CIUS has warned about slow progress within the talks between the European Union (EU) and the UK over a permanent relationship after the current transitional Brexit period expires on December 31. The CIUS wants this period extended – a step that the British government is currently refusing to take.…

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. …

While it is too early to assess the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the UK personal care product sector, industry experts expect strategic changes to its supply chain, a growth towards innovative digital strategies and changes in consumer behaviour that will shape the industry in the long run.…

The fact that auditors are struggling to conduct due diligence at companies during the Covid-19 crisis, given a lack of access to documents, offices and staff, is highlighting a key debate that was launched before the pandemic hit – just what standard auditors should target when seeking to prove accounts do not hide wrong-doing or crime.…

The world’s fast-growing digital banking and payments sector requires regulatory compliance software that is as scalable as the fast-growing number of users. Some digital banks are developing systems inhouse, which has certain risks, while others have outsourced regulatory solutions.

These financial institutions – which had 2.4 billion users in 2020 according to UK-based Juniper Research – are also known as neo- or challenger banks, and are characterised by being totally digital, operating through a website and smartphone app and having no physical branches, such as the UK-based Monzo and Revolut.…

GIVEN the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by banks on fighting money laundering, fears that trade-based money laundering (TBML) remains widespread, as stressed by FATF, the APG (http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/methodsandtrends/documents/trade-basedmoneylaunderingtypologies.html), and most recently, the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/supranational_risk_assessment_of_the_money_laundering_and_terrorist_financing_risks_affecting_the_union_-_annex.pdf), are of serous concern. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) said that in 2018, global merchandise exports were worth USD19.48 trillion, so there is plenty of place for laundered money to hide.…

Only five European Union (EU) member states out of the current 27 have fully and properly complied with a requirement to set up public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) registers by January 10 (2020) under the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD), according to research by campaign group Global Witness.…

Joe O’Regan is a busy man, and busier than ever because of Covid-19, the novel coronavirus that has upended global life on an unprecedented scale.

“These past few weeks have been a complete game changer for all of us,” says O’Regan, FCCA, the director of Harvard University’s Global Support Services (GSS), a relatively new organisation within the university that supports students, faculty, and staff overseas — from responding to overseas emergencies to repatriating university affiliates in times of crisis.…

WITH Britain having finally bowed out from the European Union (EU) on January 31, Ireland has lost its allied English-speaking Atlantic-oriented member state, with which it has fought battles within the EU Council of Ministers against proposals for greater harmonisation of EU tax rules.…

THE USE of paint and coatings by airlines is far more than the choice of an elegant trip for tail fins and fuselages. High tech coatings help aircraft operate efficiently and play an increasingly important role in helping planes fly smoothly, reducing drag and hence carbon emissions.…

WORRIES about the future of manufacturing in Europe are certainly not being applied to the continent’s nonwovens industry, which has been growing steadily in recent years. Indeed, last year, the overall production of nonwovens in Europe in 2018 grew by around 1.3% year-on-year to reach 2.76 million tonnes, (the most recent Europe wide figures released by industry association EDANA).…

FOR rural landowners in England and Wales, the UK quitting the European Union (EU) on January 31 maybe the most important market driver in 2020. Uncertainty over Brexit has held up investment, sales and purchases, constitutional change is coming, landowners can plan with more clarity.…

THE TEXTILE finishing chemical sector in the UK and its customers are facing administrative disruption and additional costs now Britain has exited the European Union (EU)’s REACH chemical control system, from January 1. The entire EU system has now been transplanted in law onto the British statute book, and a UK REACH system will now apply for chemical manufacturers and importers within Great Britain.…

THE UK’s departure from the European Union (EU) on January 31 could lead to the development of a UK REACH, operating alongside the EU chemical control system, experts have predicted to Polymers Paint Colour Journal (PPCJ). Ongoing negotiations between the UK government and EU authorities would lay the groundwork for such a system whose goal would be to prevent disruption in a European chemical product market that is increasingly integrated.…

WHISTLEBLOWER laws may not be new, but they are becoming stronger and being implemented in an increasing number of jurisdictions worldwide – with progress being notable in Europe. The European Union (EU) has ensured in a new directive, approved last October (2019), that all 28 member states within the union last year – ahead of Britain’s January 31 exit from the EU – acquire whistleblowing laws with teeth through a new directive approved by EU ministers last October (2019).…

To create a more balanced and sustainable economy, Ireland would benefit from having more entrepreneurs, especially outside the business hotspots in the capital Dublin, development experts say. Government can play a key role, Senator Pádraig Ó Céidigh said in a November seminar at the National University of Ireland, Galway, especially by better connecting the dots between various development schemes for entrepreneurs.…

E-cigarette manufacturers in the United Kingdom pondering a Brexit from the European Union (EU) that is currently scheduled for January 31 are hoping to benefit from looser rules than currently apply in the EU, if the UK does quit the EU.…

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.…

METAL cans play an important role in enabling aid agencies to deliver food and drink to needy people in disaster zones and areas of food scarcity – being sturdy, stackable, and recyclable. The scale of some of these operations and hence their demand for canned food and drink is huge.…

IRISH farming accountants will not only be monitoring Brexit as a current important European Union (EU) policy change, they will be scrutinising potential reforms to the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), now under discussion for remaining member states, like Ireland. They will be advising their agricultural clients to be prepared for potential shifts in CAP subsidies.…

AFTER 20 years of negotiations the European Union (EU)-Mercosur trade deal, which has boosted hopes for increased textile trades with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay is at risk of being blocked ahead of its ratification.

Furious about ongoing deforestation and wildfires in Amazonia, EU countries, including influential countries France and Ireland, have warned that they are ready to block the deal because of alleged breaches by Brazil of its international environmental commitments.…

The new so-called European Union (EU) sixth anti-money laundering directive that harmonises penalties for money laundering across the bloc is a key back up to the EU’s existing AML legislation. While dubbed the sixth anti-money laundering directive (6AMLD), Directive (EU) 2018/1673 on combating money laundering by criminal law (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2018/1673/oj…

COMPANIES using offshore tax jurisdictions need to assess whether their strategies can be branded unethical, as well as illegal, causing them reputational as well as financial damage. They need to assess whether the risk is worth taking. Poorna Rodrigo reports.

The series of data dumps, such as the Panama Papers, and the recent Mauritius Leaks have continued to tarnish the reputation of offshore tax havens, but experts stress that properly used, a positive case can be made for offshore tax policies.…

AFTER 20 years of negotiations the European Union (EU)-Mercosur trade deal, which has boosted hopes for increased can and associated materials trades with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, is now at risk of being blocked ahead of its ratification.

Furious about ongoing deforestation and wildfires in Amazonia, EU countries, including influential countries France and Ireland, have warned that they are ready to block the deal because of alleged breaches by Brazil of its international environmental commitments.…

Clothing brands from the USA who are switching purchasing to Vietnam from China because of the trade war need to smarten up – and understand how business with Vietnamese trading partners differs from working with their old Chinese suppliers. “The main issue is that many US buyers expect to do business in Vietnam the way they have been doing in China, but the business culture is very different and many find it impossible to work in Vietnam because they do not understand or accept the differences,” said Frank Vossen, who runs Seditex, a Ho Chi Minh City-based based sourcing consultancy, focused on quality control. …

A FRENCH court has fined Google almost EUR1 billion in a tax fraud case that set a legal precedent for other tech giants operating in France. The EUR945 million (USD1 billion) settlement over tax fraud allegations, brings to a close investigations that French authorities started in 2015.…

INTELLIGENT materials make for packaging with better functionality and security, and innovative producers worldwide are developing better protection for personal care products.

Market researcher Smithers Pira, in a January 2018 report The Future of Active & Intelligent Packaging to 2023, notes potential uses for cosmetics manufacturers includes greater levels of engagement with customers, more personalised products and enhanced security and tracking features.…

IRISH accounting executives are busy advising clients on how to benefit from a new wave of Chinese investment that is moving into Ireland. At a party staged at the Convention Centre Dublin this September to mark 40 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Ambassador He Xiangdong said Chinese investors “are in a good mood” about Ireland, with Chinese foreign direct investment into the Republic exceeding EUR128 million from this January-June, up 75% year-on-year.…

The lack of oversight over funds given by Ireland’s Health Service Executive to potentially unworthy charitable organisations, such as the scandal-ridden suicide charity Console (now closed), has caused much political tumult over the past decade. And a series of debates over Irish charity executive pay has dented public confidence.…

Irish small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could make more use of the country’s R&D tax credits to stimulate innovation according to a recent KPMG study which found only 55% of SMEs surveyed had claimed R&D tax credits. Also, only half of respondents were aware of a ‘knowledge development box’ tax relief offered by Ireland’s Revenue Commissioners to encourage more spending on research and development activities.…

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.…

PROMISING a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, energy cost-savings, sustainable manure management and a diversified revenue stream, the number of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants producing renewable biogas on dairy farms is growing globally. When upgraded to natural gas it can be sold to local utilities companies and used as transportation fuel as well as generate on-farm combined heat and power (CHP) – this biogas can be an important source of income.…

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.…

THE NEW CO2 standards approved by European Union (EU) legislators for cars, vans and trucks being driven in its territory will lead to more electric vehicles (EVs) and alternative drivetrains including hybrids and fuel cells, experts have told wardsauto.

On April 18, the European Union (EU)’s elected legislative body the European Parliament, approved the first EU regulation on emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles.…

THE GLOBAL demand for lactic acid is growing, with the world market forecast to reach USD1.75 billion by 2020, on the back of an 8.6% annual gain for polylactic acid, according to data from international nutrition group Glanbia Ireland. So, it is encouraging to hear about the launch of the company’s first-of-its-kind bio-refinery project, that will turn low value by-products from the dairy processing industry into sustainable lactic acid among other by-products, and finally turn Europe to a net exporter of lactic acid.…

THE LEGALISATION nationwide of recreational cannabis in Canada last October (2018) was a groundbreaking move – a first for a major western country – and from this coming October 17, at the latest, one that may have significant implications for the beauty business.…

IRISH accountants will be on the frontline of a major investment challenge facing Ireland – how to improve the country’s weak water supply system, without boosting its energy consumption to levels that may fuel climate change.

Combining non-financial with financial reporting is an essential part of making the fine investment judgements that will be needed as Ireland’s government and utilities seek to reform a water system that loses over 40% of its supplies from the national pipe network before it flows from taps.…

HONG Kong accountants may see an increase in demand for non-financial assessments, with the HK Stock Exchange consulting on proposed new environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. It is proposing introducing mandatory disclosure requirements to include board statements considering ESG issues; and what reporting principles are used to develop company ESG reports.…

The European Parliament has backed a ground-breaking directive that would protect whistleblowers European Union (EU)-wide by 591 votes in favour and 29 against. Currently only 10 of the EU’s 28 member states (France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK) have national legislation that effectively protects whistleblowers, according to the European Commission.…

IRELAND’S whistleblowing regime is to be strengthened to comply with a new European Union (EU) whistleblowing directive that was approved in April (2019) by the European Parliament. Reforms must be in place by 2021 and will build on Ireland’s Protected Disclosures Act 2014 – itself a step forward legally for Irish whistleblowing, according to Professor Kate Kenny, of the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI).…

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.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission today (March 18) gave competition law approval for France’s VINCI Airports to take over control of London Gatwick Airport from current owner Ivy Topco Ltd, a Cayman Islands registered company.

The European Union (EU) executive, acting as the EU’s senior competition authority, approved the deal which would see VINCI acquiring 50.01% of the issued share capital of Ivy Topco.…

While the confectionery industry is traditionally associated with high sugar levels and unhealthy indulgence, market research indicates that efforts to also appeal to consumers with a growing interest in health and wellness trends are paying off. According to UK-based market researcher GlobalData, in 2016 alone USD3.7 billion worth of confectionery with functional or fortified attributes was sold globally.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) should make more use of forensic accountants to combat fraud within its institutions, experts have underlined to Accounting & Business. The cost of fraud to EU spending programmes and revenue collection is eye wateringly high – costing more than EUR9 billion (USD10 billion) between 2002-2017 according to a January 2019 Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project report).…

Few issues give Irish politicians as much grief as the health service. Perennial budget overruns and waiting lists have ruined several ministerial careers. But what should have been a good news story, the building of a new National Paediatric Hospital, in Dublin, has done perhaps the most damage.…

With their large financial services industries and open economies, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland are conspicuously exposed to money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks.

Tough anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) policies are at the heart of their respective financial services regulations, yet both countries are regularly forced to fend off criticisms that they are not doing enough to tackle these problems.…

Beef Plan – a movement put together by Irish suckler and beef farmers to fetch them better prices and more autonomy – is gaining momentum, the group’s spokesperson has told GlobalMeatNews.

The project that kicked off last September (2018), outside the structures of traditional farming organisation, and projected to last until 2025, is all about “getting control back to farmers” from the big beef buyers, empowering them to make good business decisions, said Beef Plan spokesperson Eamon Corley.…

TRADING partners with the European Union (EU) are concerned about the EU cutting the size of low duty import quotas once Britain quits the bloc, which it is scheduled to do on March 28.

The EU has released detailed plans to reduce the amount of some goods it allows into the EU, to take account of Britain exiting the single European market.…

It may not have been widely noticed internationally, but Dublin has become a key cog in the Russian economy’s financial system. That exposure – while profitable for the city’s accountants and lawyers – also risks becoming a liability due a lack of transparency over the source and use of funds.…

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

AS the British House of Commons prepares to vote on the European Union (EU) withdrawal agreement negotiated by UK Prime Minister Theresa May, the Irish beef sector has been warning that a no deal Brexit would cause chaos and dramatically undermine Ireland’s beef exports.…

THE DRAFT UK/European Union withdrawal agreement released yesterday (Wednesday, November 14), could create separate national food regulators for Northern Ireland that are based in a remaining EU member state. A technical annexe to the deal says that “national reference laboratories” with responsibility for advising on a wide range of food legislation in Northern Ireland “shall not be read as including the reference laboratory in the United Kingdom”.…

THE DRAFT UK/European Union withdrawal agreement released yesterday (Wednesday, November 14), could create separate national food regulators for Northern Ireland that are based in a remaining EU member state. A technical annexe to the deal says that “national reference laboratories” with responsibility for advising on a wide range of food legislation in Northern Ireland “shall not be read as including the reference laboratory in the United Kingdom”.…

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.…

THE DRAFT Brexit agreement that has caused political controversy in the UK, but which the European Union (EU) insists is its final offer, would – if approved – see many EU environmental regulations stay in force within Britain, for the foreseeable future.…

The recent sight of a Chinese internet celebrity in a milking parlour in Limerick could be a hint of what the future holds for Ireland’s increasingly international dairy industry. Xiao Lu Yu, one of the ‘influencers’ who monetise Chinese social media (see https://m.weibo.cn/status/4279583182420503…

AMERICAN confectioners may suffer from the latest tit-for-tat tariff exchange between the USA and China, with retaliatory duties from China targeting US confectionery exports. Many of these duties are high – at 25% – imposed from September 24 on US-made sugar; cocoa powder; milk powder; honey; jams; and more; plus 20% duties on US-made confectionery without cocoa; chewing gum; some chocolates; and more.…

“Group think”, an “intolerance of dissent and difference” as well as an “inordinately high value on relationships rather than rules” have prevented a culture of whistleblowers from taking root in Ireland, boosting cronyism and weakening regulation, economists and regulators were warned earlier this month (October).…

TIME was when dairy farming in Ireland was a family affair, with smallholdings and local dairies predominant. But those days are long gone. The Irish dairy sector is now big business, not just on Republic of Ireland’s 4.8 million population, but also overseas, with big brands targeting foreign markets.…

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. …

The UK and Australia are poles apart geographically but share the aim of becoming leaders in using or selling hydrogen for energy. The scheduled unveiling in November (2018) of a conceptual design to convert an eighth (8.3 million) of the UK’s population to 100% low-carbon hydrogen gas between 2028 and 2035 matters.…

THE CONTINUED vulnerability of European Union (EU) revenue collection and spending to fraud has been brought into sharp relief by a new European Commission statistical analysis on financial crime.

That said, a working paper noted that in terms of revenue through external import duties (called ‘own resources’ in EU jargon) detected fraud cases involving EUR10,000 or more alone in 2017 indicates losses have been falling – but still to EUR76 million.…

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.…

NEW European Union (EU) rules on whistleblower protection proposed by the European Commission will help the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, EU experts have told Money Laundering Bulletin.

The proposals unveiled on April 23 for a directive ‘on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law[*], “will strengthen the enforcement of the fourth anti-money laundering directive [4AMLD], complementing the directive’s existing rules [Article 61] on whistleblower protection, aligning them with the common high standards of protection,” a Commission official said.…

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.…

LARGE motorway service areas have become a recent feature of the Irish landscape, with plaza-type facilities incorporating fuel, food and grocery retailers under one roof.  However, the key players in the forecourt market, which is increasingly held by Irish firms Maxol and Applegreen, along with Canadian newcomer Couche-Tard – are now racing to reposition themselves given the Irish government plans by 2030 to end sales of petrol and diesel vehicles.…

An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose such registers on its OTs by this deadline, if the local administrations have not created their own. The UK currently has the world’s only public beneficial ownership register – but it only covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – see http://ownershiptransparency.com/…

CONCERNS continue to grow about capacity in anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems, with managers being urged to take advantage of the AML profession’s openness to change.

A Dow Jones/ACAMS (Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists) global anti-money laundering survey focusing on retail and commercial banking, private banking/wealth management and investment banking, released April 2016, showed 60% of respondents cited increased regulatory expectations as the greatest AML compliance challenge (http://files.acams.org/pdfs/2016/Dow_Jones_and_ACAMS_Global_Anti-Money_Laundering_Survey_Results_2016.pdf…

UK and remaining European Union (EU) food producers are becoming increasingly anxious about the prospect of Britain crashing out of the EU single market without a replacement trade deal. It is a scenario that could leave British manufacturers facing crippling tariffs, border delays and reams of red tape.…

As Ireland approaches full employment, (unemployment is currently just 6.3%), companies facing higher labour costs and competition for staff are improving their workplace environment to become more attractive as employers. They also hope that a new generation of high-spec office spaces – some being unveiled by accounting firms – will boost productivity.…

Paul Simmons, Chief Financial Officer, Marriott International Middle East and Africa, provides a glimpse into running the finances of the region’s largest international hotel operator.

The Middle East – particularly the countries of the Arabian Gulf – is known for its impressive skyline of luxury hotels.…

A VOTE by the UK parliament to insist that Britain’s overseas territories introduce publicly available beneficial ownership registers by December 31, 2020, has sparked anger and dismay within these autonomous, mainly small island, jurisdictions.

An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose such registers on its OTs by this deadline, if the local administrations have not created their own.…

INDIA’S information technology hub of Bengaluru (Bangalore) is equipping its Kempegowda International Airport with a new biometric-based passenger authentication system while undertaking a major expansion with a new terminal and a second runway.

The security check will utilise India’s nationwide unique ID ‘Aadhaar’ database, which has collected finger prints and iris scans from almost all the country’s adult population – more than 1 billion people, and which already authenticates bank accounts and telephone subscribers.…

Dairy product manufacturers on both sides of the Irish border are becoming increasingly concerned about possible changes border arrangements between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which could interrupt ingredients supplies, once the UK leaves the European Union (EU).

According to Dairy Industry Ireland (DII), the body that represents the interests of the Republic of  Ireland’s primary and secondary dairy processors, replacing the existing open border with a hard border after a planned Brexit transitional period to December 2020 could sever supply chains for some highly popular dairy-based exports: this could include Irish cream liqueur and Irish cheddar.…

The prospect of significant hikes in taxes and administrative red tape on Irish exports and imports travelling through the UK to and from the rest of Europe once Britain leaves the European Union (EU), has prompted Irish exporters to seek more options for direct maritime trade.…

Irish meat and livestock exporters could soon bypass the UK by shipping products directly to continental Europe, in a bid to avoid increased costs and customs checks at British ports, once the UK leaves the European Union (EU).

According to the Irish Exporters Association (IEA), around 67% of Irish exporters currently make use of the UK land-bridge to access continental markets.…

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 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.…

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has signalled that the British government wants to seek associate membership of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) if the country quits the European Union (EU), as planned, on March 29, 2019. In a speech at the Mansion House, London the PM said: “We would, of course, accept that this would mean abiding by the rules of [EASA] and making an appropriate financial contribution.”…

Meat producers and exporters in Britain and Ireland have called on policy makers to come up with more alternatives for a post-Brexit trade settlement between the UK, Northern Ireland and the EU.

The demands follow the publication by the European Commission on Wednesday (28 February) of a 120-page draft Brexit withdrawal agreement by the European Commission, which spelled out plans for Northern Ireland to remain within the EU’s customs union after December 31, 2020.…

THE CHALLENGES facing Britain as it deals with the consequences of the June 2016 referendum vote to quit the European Union (EU) are manifold. However, unpicking British involvement in joint anti-crime arrangements with the EU maybe the toughest of all. Keith Nuthall reports.…

IRELAND has been fighting to preserve the tax advantages it offers US firms who base their European headquarters in the country, with the Trump administration’s tax reforms creating new incentives for American firms to repatriate jobs, profits and intellectual property.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law last December (2017) by President Donald Trump exceeded the expectations of many in its significance, believes Harry Harrison, FDI Tax Partner, PwC Ireland, who points to its “many fundamental changes” to the US tax system.…

Meat producers and exporters in Britain and Ireland have called on policy makers to come up with more alternatives for a post-Brexit trade settlement between the UK, Northern Ireland and the EU.

The demands follow the publication by the European Commission on Wednesday (28 February) of a 120-page draft Brexit withdrawal agreement by the European Commission, which spelled out plans for Northern Ireland to remain within the EU’s customs union after December 31, 2020.…

THE BULL run in the British rural land market is over, or at least has slowed to a trot. After rising by 149% over the 10 years to 2016, research by the property consultancy Carter Jonas indicates that that the value of British (UK, excluding Northern Ireland) farmland fell by more than 8% last year.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced its latest funding for helping European Union (EU) member states fight animal diseases, such as bovine tuberculosis, rabies, bovine brucellosis, African swine fever and lumpy skin disease, by allocating more than EUR140 million for 2018.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has told UK and European Union (EU) food companies that they will be able to trade food products freely across EU and UK markets into 2021, following Britain’s planned 2019 departure from the EU. A draft withdrawal agreement released yesterday (Wednesday Feb 28) gives reassurances over placing food on the EU market during and after the proposed transitional period – to December 2020.…

DAIRY products sold in Europe, a regional market where high standards of food safety apply, continue to be contaminated with plastics, glass, chemicals, biological matter and other materials. This is despite the fact that European food producers and authorities have zero risk as their ultimate goal, sector experts and the European Union (EU) regulators admit.…

CONSTRUCTION was a pillar of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom that brought wealth to the country before the global financial crisis hit in 2008. Now, 10 years on, the Irish building sector is once again fuelling economic growth, with construction activity having “significantly increased” in the past 14 months, according to Jamie O’Hanlon, an accountant and managing director, of Dublin and Portlaoise-based Avid Partners.…

ACCA is pressing for clarification on some key outstanding issues regarding Britain’s impending departure from the European Union (EU), as the European Commission consults on a draft withdrawal agreement released on February 28.

Of key interest to Chas Roy–Chowdhury, ACCA’s head of taxation, is the length of time that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will retain jurisdiction over elements of British tax law, following the UK’s planned departure date on March 29, next year (2019).…

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 murder of graft-busting journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta on October 16 focused the world’s attention on the tiny Mediterranean tax haven and its failure to combat money laundering and corruption. 

But even before the murder, Malta was under fire for its shortcomings in tackling money laundering.…

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend EUR350 million to DAA PLC (formerly Dublin Airport Authority) to fund around half the cost of projected major improvements at Ireland’s Dublin Airport. This includes the structural overlay and rehabilitation of the airport’s existing main and secondary runways; introducing new baggage screening systems; upgrading associated infrastructure; simplifying airside flows; increasing aircraft parking stands; constructing a parallel taxiway; terminal building improvements; and constructing landside office space.…

FINANCIAL fraud, as all practitioners know, has become increasingly international, a trend that will doubtless continue. For law enforcers based on national units of theoretically sovereign countries, this poses challenges, and one particularly tough nut to crack are procedures to extradite suspects to face trial in the country where their alleged victims reside.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released its long-awaited plastics strategy, which – claims the European Union (EU) executive, will “transform the way products are designed, produced, used and recycled in the EU”. 

Brussels has now declared (on January 16) that it wants to ensure that all plastics packaging put on the EU market will be recyclable by 2030; the consumption of single-use plastics will be reduced; and the intentional use of microplastics – plastic particles smaller than 5mm, for example microbeads in exfoliating products – will be restricted.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers today (December 5) adopted a money laundering blacklist, bringing widespread criticism because the listing – designed to prevent tax fraud and evasion – only covers countries outside the 28-nation bloc. Despite the European Commission screening 92 jurisdictions worldwide, the final list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in taxation matters only contains 17 jurisdictions: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam (another US territory), South Korea, Macau (a China special administrative region), the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).…

The promise of the European Union (EU) agriculture and rural development Commissioner Phil Hogan to give dairy and other farmers “a fair share of the pie” from food industry revenues and to protect them from the power of big retailers has added tension to an already vexed issue.…

After a bleak decade of boom-to-bust, debt and hotel closures, Ireland’s hotel sector is again in what it hopes is a sustainable growth mode as the economy rebounds. A 2017 Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) survey of hotel members showed that 91% are planning investments in capacity with 43% planning to invest in guest technology, such as broadband.  …

IF Brexit did not pose a sufficiently large external threat to the Irish economy, another potentially major disruption is in the offing, via planned changes to European Union (EU) taxation rules on e-commerce.

Faced with the politically toxic reality that major American high-tech multinationals such as Google, Facebook and PayPal pay far less tax than might be expected given their huge profit, the European Union (EU) has been considering reforms to increase revenues from these giants.…

IF Brexit did not pose a sufficiently large external threat to the Irish economy, another potentially major disruption is in the offing, via planned changes to European Union (EU) taxation rules on e-commerce.

Faced with the politically toxic reality that major American high-tech multinationals such as Google, Facebook and PayPal pay far less tax than might be expected given their huge profit, the European Union (EU) has been considering reforms to increase revenues from these giants.…

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.…

MEAT and livestock producers in the European Union EU), especially smaller farmers, will be watching Brussels closely early next year, now that EU agriculture and rural development Commissioner Phil Hogan has promised to protect them against the market power of major retailers.…

SOUTH AFRICA MULLS REMOVING OVERSEAS WORK TAX EXEMPTION

The South African National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) have proposed a 2017 Draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill that would remove a tax exemption for South African residents working overseas for more than 183 days (at least 60 days continuously).…

DUBLIN-based accountancy firm BDO is planning to start a new EUR100 million investment fund to assist fast expanding mid-sized Irish companies in unlocking further growth opportunities. This will be the successor fund to an already existing BDO Development Capital Fund (DCF) worth EUR75 million.…

IRELAND prioritises its counter-terrorism measures, but could do more to tackle the financing of such criminal activities, a new report published this month has found.

The latest assessment of Ireland’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was adopted at its June plenary meeting.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally confirmed an order that the Belgian government should not have allowed three airlines to benefit from reduced fees when flying to and from Brussels Airport. The Commission said the benefits broke European Union (EU) state aid rules.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to hold a special meeting with European Union (EU) ministers and food safety authorities over the ongoing scandal about fipronil-contaminated eggs to gather information on how to manage such crises in future. The EU executive will stage the meeting on September 26, it told just-food today, allowing time for more information to emerge.…

THE OUTGOING director general of the European Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF has stressed how his agency will continue to proactively fight fraud once the new European Public Prosecutors Office (EPPO) is established.

Giovanni Kessler, writing in the last OLAF annual report in his seven-year mandate, has stressed that his agency’s role will be important, now that just 20 out of 28 EU member states have decided to work with the EPPO.…

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Climate Treaty will not halt moves to cut fossil fuels or reduce decarbonisation requirements on the non-energy minerals sector and other industries, say experts.

Trump called for a new “fair” deal that would not disadvantage US businesses and workers and claimed that China and India had “no meaningful obligations” placed on them by the agreement.…

TWENTY European member states agreed to set up a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) under an ‘enhanced cooperation’ regulation agreed at the June 8 Justice Council after the EU as a bloc failed to gain the necessary unanimity on a European Commission proposal. …

DAIRY robots might seem like science fiction, but their use has increased dramatically in Europe over the last 20 years. Ireland’s Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre (Teagasc) predicts 20% of cows will be milked automatically by 2020, with other reports citing a 50% rate in northwest Europe by 2025.…

WITH the UK having triggered Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, starting the two-year countdown to its exit from the EU, maybe no group outside the UK has more at stake than Irish farmers.

“Brexit presents the most serious threat to Irish farming and our agri-food sector in the history of the state.…

Singapore will review its 80 bilateral agreements on avoiding double taxation to ensure they do not help companies avoid paying tax where relevant business activity took place. This follows its signing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD)-sponsored Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.…

THE BANK of Ireland, one of the country’s major commercial banks, has been fined EUR3.15 million for persistent breaches of Irish anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) rules over more than three years.

These penalties have been imposed by the Central Bank of Ireland because of 12 offences under Ireland’s Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 between the year the law was enacted, most continuing on average until 2013, some until 2015.…

A LARGE new office block near the National Concert Hall in Dublin could be the ultimate statement that Ireland’s medical technology (medtech) industry has come of age. With large windows set into sandstone-coloured walls, the building will house the headquarters of Medtronic, the US giant which moved its headquarters to Ireland in 2015 as part of a USD42.9 billion acquisition of rival Covidien, also based in Ireland but from a similarly American corporate background.…

THE CENTRAL Bank of Ireland has fined Allied Irish Banks (AIB) EUR2.275 million for breaches of Ireland’s 2010 Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act. The offences have been admitted by AIB. This follows a central bank inquiry that concluded commercial and retail bank AIB broke this anti-money laundering (AML) law for three years after it came into force, (in July 2010) on average – with breaches continuing until July 2014.…

EUROPEAN and French meat industry organisations are preparing to respond to China’s decision to lift its embargo on French exports of de-boned beef for animals. China is the second largest importer of beef worldwide: “We welcome the move in principle,” European Union (EU) farm body Copa-Cogeca’s secretary general Pekka Pesonen told GlobalMeatNews.…

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.…

THE CONTINUED success of Europe’ major technical textile fair, Techtextil, Frankfurt, (the next event runs from May 9 to 12) illustrates how the continent’s technical textile sector is thriving on its innovation.

“We don’t know what the future brings. We only know where it will be exhibited.…

THE UNITED States authorities have lifted an embargo on French beef imports after 19 years, the French agriculture ministry has said, and European meat producers are delighted.

France is the fourth European Union (EU) country, after Lithuania, Ireland and the Netherlands, to have its beef re-admitted to the US market after a January 1998 ban imposed because of fears over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) XP-DITE accelerated checkpoint design integration test and evaluation project has enabled the creation and approval of the world’s first combined EU and United States pre-clearance checkpoint. Its goal is to create a regulatory system that gives the designers and operators of airport checkpoints more freedom to choose how they build and run these systems, making them more effective and maybe cheaper, but at the same time guaranteeing a high level of security.…

WITH President Donald Trump having consigned the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal to the dustbin of history, focus is now switching to his intentions over the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) that has been under negotiation since 2013.

If completed, this could be one of the biggest trade deals ever signed – uniting the economies of the USA and the European Union (EU), which will still be huge, even if Britain makes good on its 2016 referendum result to quit the bloc.…

CHINA’S central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), has issued a new anti-money laundering and terror finance reporting requirements for all financial institutions inside the country. The rules come into force July 1. They cover banks, brokers, foreign exchange, online and mobile payment systems and insurance companies, who will have to file reports to the central bank, via their headquarters or via representative institutions, if a client requires daily cash transactions exceeding Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY50,000 (USD7,261) or a larger amount of USD10,000’s worth in foreign currency.…

THE HONG Kong and Pakistan government have signed a comprehensive agreement on avoiding double taxation. Pakistani tax paid by Hong Kong companies will be credited against Hong Kong taxes on the same profits, with the reverse applying for Pakistan companies. Pakistan’s withholding tax rates for Hong Kong residents on royalties and fees for technical services (both currently 15%) will be capped at 10% and 12.5% respectively.…

2016 – Winners and losers

RETAILERS & BRANDS

WINNERS

US-based sportswear brand Under Armour delivered its 26th consecutive quarter of 20%-plus revenue growth in the third quarter of 2016, with sales increases across all divisions. Net sales were up 22% in the third quarter to USD1.47bn.…

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.…

ONE of the wealthiest countries in the world, Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was estimated at USD73,653 in 2015, according to the World Bank. Close to 85% of the country’s 2.5 million population are expatriates and this has influenced the skincare products on offer, while high levels of disposable income continue to drive consumption.…

EU E-COMMERCE VAT REFORMS PROPOSED BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION

REFORMS to European Union (EU) e-commerce VAT rules have been proposed by the European Commission which include a clear declaration VAT should be paid in the member state of the final consumer.…

EU E-COMMERCE VAT REFORMS PROPOSED BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION

REFORMS to European Union (EU) e-commerce VAT rules have been proposed by the European Commission which include a clear declaration VAT should be paid in the member state of the final consumer.…

A PRECAUTIONARY approach should be used when cooking beef burgers or minced beef, European Union (EU) experts have suggested at a meeting of a network on microbiological risk assessment hosted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) at its Parma, Italy, headquarters.…

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.…

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

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.…

THE PAINT mixing segment is a competitive world with companies constantly seeking a technological edge to generate additional sales. Of course, the segment is diverse – spanning the development of mixers helping paint and coating companies make their products, and aiding users to apply these lines.…

AS the British government starts the complex process of considering the form of the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Union (EU), one issue will be foremost in the minds of exporters – tariffs.

These have not existed for UK exports to other members of the EU since 1973, when Britain joined what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC).…

The European Commission’s decision on August 30 to order United States (US) tech giant Apple to repay Ireland a record-breaking EUR13 billion in back taxes will make waves in the tax and accounting world, experts have told Accounting & Business Ireland.…

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.…

A EUROPEAN Commission ruling that Ireland must recover up to EUR13 billion in back-taxes (plus interest) from Apple has signalled a tough approach from Brussels over alleged European Union (EU) competition law breaches associated with sweet taxation deals by member states.…

THE PERSONAL care product sectors of the European Union (EU) and Japan have welcomed the agreement in principle of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the two jurisdictions, saying it will promote and ease trade.

Dubbed by the European Commission as “the most important bilateral trade agreement ever concluded by the EU”, the deal will fully eliminate mutual duties on all cosmetic products, an industrial sector the Commission notes as “very competitive”.…

THE opening of Paddy Power bookmaker shops in provincial Romanian cities such as Cluj in the past year is the latest show of international ambition from an Irish corporation which has become a market leader and has shaken up the European gambling industry.…

With the Irish government focused on attracting multinationals to the Republic of Ireland, it is often overlooked that Irish family businesses remain resilient.

Indeed some of the best known names in Irish business started out small and private. Ryanair was launched by the Ryan family of county Tipperary.…

DISAGREEMENTS over the meat sector are holding up a deal between the European Union (EU) and the United States for a comprehensive, ambitious Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade deal by end 2016. Entrenched attitudes concerning a risk- (EU) or science-based (US) approach to meat trade will make this difficult to achieve.…

Branded food manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result.…

Europe in 2016 has been witness to significant milestones passed in deployment of new, full-scale demonstration and commercial tidal stream and wave energy projects.

This is encouraging for the European Union (EU), which wants clean, renewable ‘ocean energy’ to provide a tenth of its power by mid-century.…

HAVING a strong reputation for sustainable practice is increasingly a strong marketing card, for the confectionery sector as much as any other consumer industry. But with its extended international supply chains, demonstrating a high regard for environmental good practice is not always easy for the confectionery sector.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has urged members of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) to remember that they are citizens too and can make complaints about maladministration, as well as their clients.

O’Reilly explained to Accounting & Business that as European Ombudsman since July 2013, she deals with complaints about maladministration in the EU institutions, bodies and agencies from any person, business or non-governmental organisation (NGO) in the EU.…

The US deodorant and antiperspirant market is in good shape, experiencing and projecting steady growth year after year in a largely saturated market where innovation is key to driving sales. Euromonitor International, the London-based market research firm, released a report in April 2016, which says the US deodorants market tends to grow “solidly” but “rarely dramatically”. …

The goal of uniting Europe under a single sky of system-wide ATM interoperability, once an improbably futuristic idea, was given a tangible push forward at the SESAR Global Demonstration held in Rome on June 8 and 9. The two-day event, which took place at the Prototype Systems Centre of Italian civil aviation authority ENAV (Ente Nazionale per l’Assistenza al Volo), spotlighted the ways that System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) can simultaneously and seamlessly streamline ATM operations.…

LARGE European Union (EU) energy companies and their major customers are now required to undertake energy audits under the EU’s energy efficiency directive (directive 2012/27/EU). They were supposed to have started assessing their energy usage and output by last December (2015) and must now complete such a study every four years.…

SHOULD the United Kingdom (UK) elect to exit the European Union (EU) in the referendum on June 23rd [CHECKED], the tax impact on Ireland would be considerable, claimed managing director at Hughes Blake, a leading chartered accountants firm in Dublin.…

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 ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has released detailed data on global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in 2015, noting these increased by 25% to USD1.7 trillion, their highest level since 2007. And while financial and corporate restructuring accounted for part of the increase rather than productive investments, FDI inflows within OECD member states almost doubled compared to 2014.…

When analyst firm Stratecast (part of consultant group Frost & Sullivan) last year (Feb) identified Infonova as one of its ‘Top 10 to Watch’ in global telecoms operations and monetisation, they had strong reasons for doing so.

Infonova managing director Gerhard Greiner explained how his Austria-based telecoms firm has developed an innovative digital metering system that can be used by a wide-range of industries that measure services electronically.…

KNITWEAR manufacturers used to plan production a year in advance, but the advent of fast fashion has changed all that. Today, suppliers are being asked to supply goods in some cases weeks in advance of a product line going to market.…

How to remain competitive in the face of falling meat consumption is the main challenge facing the meat and livestock industry today, Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of European Union (EU) farmers’ organisation Copa-Cogeca, has told GlobalMeatNews.

In an exclusive interview held as the EU body launched its #livestockcounts #enjoyagrifood campaign, promoting quality European meat consumption, Pesonen said: “We must ensure the added value of eating high quality meat as part of a balanced diet is communicated effectively to the consumer.”…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has made its first formal call for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), to help finance key European Union (EU) energy infrastructure projects. In this round of subsidies, EUR200 million will be made available for projects designed to eliminate structural bottlenecks impeding the flow of energy between EU countries.…

Wholesalers and their suppliers are overwhelmingly in favour of the UK remaining within the European Union (EU) despite frustrations over issues including corruption and overweening red tape from Brussels’ bureaucracy.

As the UK’s June 23 in-out referendum on the EU approaches, minds have been focussing on how the key areas of cost, labour mobility and common regulation might affect the overall wholesale picture – as well as supply segments including food, drinks and tobacco.…

The attack at Brussels Zaventem airport will spark new discussions on the security of landside facilities at European airports as the European Union rolls out reforms from its European Agenda on Security Strategy (EASS).

It was launched last April (2015), and was the latest in a series of security policy developments undertaken by the EU since the September 11 attacks on the USA.…

MEPs have voted to adopt a European Union (EU) regulation harmonising animal welfare rules, with a key goal toughening up the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The measures will place an increased onus on farmers to practice good husbandry that helps prevent disease outbreaks.…

IF anything is clear about the vital decision that must be made by the British electorate on June 23 about whether their country should stay within or quit the European Union (EU), it is that the pharmaceutical industry – largely – wants the UK to stay put.…

MEAT and livestock sector specialists have warned that a possible British exit from the European Union (EU) could pose a significant threat to the industry in Ireland, should a Brexit restrict trades across the UK’s only land border. Overall Irish meat and livestock exports were worth EUR3.7 billion in 2015, according to the Irish Food Board (Bord Bia).…

The Netherlands meat sector is delighted that its beef and veal industry has won US government approval to export to America, after being blocked since 1998, when Washington imposed a ban on all European Union (EU) beef and veal exports because of BSE.…

Plans to establish a European Union (EU) industry, non-governmental organisation and regulatory advisory group, called an ‘EU Platform on animal welfare’ have been criticised by European farmers’ union Copa-Cogeca. This was despite the support given to the idea at yesterday’s (Monday Feb 15) EU Council of Ministers for agriculture, which debated the plan and released a communiqué saying the platform could boost co-operation between EU member states on animal welfare and broader sharing of information and best practice.…

DETAILS have been released about tariffs to be scrapped regarding food and drink products exported and imported between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) under a trade deal struck last August (2015). The full text has now been released and shows how Vietnam’s emerging market of 89 million people will be opened to the EU’s food manufacturers.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a detailed reform plan designed to choke off the supply of money to terrorist organisations, including amending the recently agreed European Union (EU) fourth anti-money laundering directive (4AMLD). These proposals say that the EU should early this year adopt a blacklist of high risk third countries deemed deficient in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.…

A COMPREHENSIVE legislative initiative launched by the European Commission on January 28, designed to restrict tax avoidance – especially by multinationals within the European Union (EU) – is likely to be influenced by the raw politics of the upcoming UK in-out referendum on EU membership.…

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.…

CHINA’S central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), has issued a new anti-money laundering and terror finance reporting requirements for all financial institutions inside the country. The rules come into force July 1. They cover banks, brokers, foreign exchange, online and mobile payment systems and insurance companies, who will have to file reports to the central bank, via their headquarters or via representative institutions, if a client requires daily cash transactions exceeding Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY50,000 (USD7,261) or a larger amount of USD10,000’s worth in foreign currency.…

If the 2013 and 2014 were all about the rise of South Korean personal care product brands in China, then 2015 was the year that regional currency wars and weaker economic sentiment at home dictated how Chinese consumers spent on cosmetics and toiletries.…

Financial experts struck off for misconduct from professional bodies, such as the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), should be actively barred from working as accountants, a Brussels conference on ‘Fighting Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing: The Role of Accountants and Finance Professionals’ has heard.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has given its political support for strong action by the European Commission in the coming year to propose and implement concrete actions to create an ambitious Energy Union. Its goal is to freely trading power between the European Union’s (EU) 28 member states.…

The European Commission has launched a review of whether subsidies promoting electricity generating and distributing capacity breaks European Union (EU) state aid rules. These are designed to make sure member states do not give their industries an unfair advantage in the EU’s single market.…

European Union (EU) beef farmers have called for help finding new markets to make up for the loss of exports to Russia in the wake of the crisis over Ukraine.
Jean Pierre Fleury, chairman of EU farm and livestock producer association Copa-Cogeca’s beef working party, has issued a plea to the European Commission, calling on it “to take urgent action to improve the EU beef market situation.”…

IN a fast-growing emerging economy such as Bangladesh, companies and consumers alike can sometimes play fast-and-loose with the truth to hide financial wrongdoing and commit frauds, but they will have to reckon with Bangladesh’s Comptroller and Auditor General Masud Ahmed and his staff.…

THE IRISH government has predicted to globalmeatnews.com that American beef exports to the European Union (EU) will be limited by quotas in future, even if the EU and USA successfully negotiate a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership deal.
An official for Ireland’s department of jobs, enterprise and innovation explained: “The position of beef as a sensitive sector for Ireland is well known by the government and the EU Commission.…

Hangzhou, China-based infant formula manufacturer Beingmate is to buy 65% of stocks in the Meilijian Group’s subsidiary in Dunhua, Jilin province, northeast China. According to an announcement, the deal will costs about Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY117 million (USD18.7 million). The Meilijian Group, also based in Hangzhou, has its own dairy farms, and manufactures infant formula as well as other dairy products, including milk and condensed milk.…

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.…

East Africa is emerging as an attractive sourcing alternative for apparel and textile producers around the world as costs in Chinese outsourcing centres rise especially. With cheaper labour and resources, the region has already attracted foreign investment, particularly from Asia.

International apparel and textile producers are looking hard at Ethiopia as an attractive production and sourcing destination.…

PLASTIC banknotes have been in circulation since their introduction in Australia in 1988 and their use is expanding. Counterfeiters beware. Alan Osborn, in London; Kitty So, in Ottawa; and Lee Adendorff, in Byron Bay, Australia, report.

FAKING banknotes is considerably more difficult on plastic than on cotton-based paper, and while printing technology improvements may aid forgers, central banks seem happy to avail themselves of the competitive advantage.

A GREEN paper on creating a European Union (EU) Capital Markets Union (CMU) has sparked consultation on whether the EU should create and maybe mandate a simplified, common and high-quality accounting standard for smaller companies listed on certain trading systems. The EU does not insist that small private companies use international financial reporting standards (IFRS), and the green paper accepted that such a move would be a “source of additional cost.”…

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.…

As they looks at the rewards of shale gas production seen over recent years in the US, European producers are edging closer to commercial shale gas production. However, it faces a wide range of challenges, and the debate within Europe over shale gas is intensifying.…

There is something of the fairy-tale about the luxury Atlantis The Palm hotel in Dubai. An impressive and elegant palatial structure, built next to the warm waters of the Gulf, this is a real signature building and business, with 1,537 bedrooms.…

Plastic banknotes have been in circulation since their introduction in Australia in 1988 and the consensus so far seems to be that they do an excellent job of a key requirement – reducing counterfeiting. It may be that forgers will gain more expertise in time – faking is considerably more difficult on plastic than on cotton-based paper – but the initial reports from larger countries that have taken this route, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have persuaded the UK’s Bank of England to follow them.

There is something of the fairy-tale about the luxury Atlantis The Palm hotel in Dubai. An impressive and elegant palatial structure, built next to the warm waters of the Gulf, this is a real signature building and business, with 1,537 bedrooms.…

MILK will remain “white gold” for Europe’s food sector during the next 10 years, despite the current market difficulties, according to the European Commission’s annual assessment of the industry’s prospects. The report was launched at a one-day conference in Brussels on Friday, December 5.…

Plastic banknotes have been in circulation since their introduction in Australia in 1988 and the consensus so far seems to be that they do an excellent job of a key requirement – reducing counterfeiting. It may be that forgers will gain more expertise in time – faking is considerably more difficult on plastic than on cotton-based paper – but the initial reports from larger countries that have taken this route, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have persuaded the UK’s Bank of England to follow them.

A EURO EUR7.8 million, largely European Union (EU)-funded research project is analysing anonymised clinical data from nearly 2,000 epilepsy sufferers to work towards the personalisation of medicine for the condition. The goal is to create genome-based biomarkers to indicate potential success for epilepsy medicines, and the development of diagnostic tests.…

THE BRITISH government has been accused of trying to block agreement over European Union (EU) legislation curbing lightweight plastic bags usage to favour a UK plastics company with close links to the country’s ruling Conservative Party.

A Danish Green member of the European Parliament (MEP) Margrete Auken made the claims ahead of an important ‘trialogue’ meeting on Monday (November 17) between representatives of the parliament, European Commission and the EU Council of Ministers, to agree the directive.…

DOCUMENTS obtained by Confectionery Production from the European Union (EU) indicate that Ukraine has lost up to USD126 million’s worth of confectionery export sales to Russia this year, because of Russian trade restrictions.
EU briefing papers note that Ukraine has been complaining to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since October 2013 about alleged “unjustified barriers to trade caused by the measures of the Russian Federation, in particular, on Ukrainian confectionery products.”…

As a matter of urgency, the European Union (EU) should get involved in the common purchase of gas, Maroš Šefčovič, newly installed European Commission vice-president for energy has told an international meeting of experts in Brussels.

The meeting was called to discuss energy policy and competitiveness, topics claimed as one of the top ten priorities of the new Commission of president Jean-Claude Juncker, and policies that Šefčovič is charged with coordinating, with new energy and climate action Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete.…

IRELAND has been especially hard hit by the latest expansion of Russia’s ban on European Union (EU) meat exports, figures released today by the European Commission reveal.
Moscow has expanded its existing import restrictions to cover beef offal and beef fats.…

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).…

The European Commission today cleared the acquisition of the Corialis Group, a European supplier of aluminium extrusion services and aluminium doors and windows, by Advent International Corporation, a US investment firm. A Commission communiqué said the deal “would not raise competition concerns as Advent is not active in any market in which Corialis is active” at present, notably the aluminium sector.…

THE AMERICAN government has complained of delays by the outgoing European Commission that leaves office on November 1 regarding the authorisation of new bio-tech food products and ingredients for use in the European Union (EU). In a strongly worded message to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) disputes settlement body, the US said that the EU had failed to leave decisions to regulatory committees acting on European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) advice.…

THE NEW European Union (EU) agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has promised to start preparing to abolish milk production constraints as a matter of urgency when he takes up his post on November 1. At a confirmation hearing in Brussels on October 2, he promised European Parliament agriculture committee members that small farmers with limited incomes would be particular beneficiaries of the planned end of the dairy quota regime from March 2015.…

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.…

The US, Germany, Britain and Switzerland are the only countries among 41 signatories to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) 1997 Anti-Bribery Convention to vigorously investigate and prosecute firms that bribe foreign officials.

So says anti-corruption organisation Transparency International in the latest update of Exporting Corruption, its tenth such annual report, covering the years 2010 through 2013.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has extended a probe on tax rulings practice in Luxembourg and Ireland to cover all EU member states. Brussels officials will ask governments especially to confirm whether they provide tax rulings, and, if so provide a list of all companies receiving a ruling from 2010 to 2013.…

International airports worldwide are working hard to install biometric border controls that they hope will speed passenger movement, while maintaining, or even enhancing security.

A key example of such new installations has been at Ireland’s biggest hub Dublin Airport, where since April 2013, travellers arriving at the 74-year old airport – which handles more than 20 million passengers per year – have had the option of passing through biometric identification gates in the airport’s immigration hall.…

A NEW software and sensor system designed to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs by 20% in airports is being trialled at Rome’s Fiumicino and Milan’s Malpensa airports. This new CASCADE system has been developed through a EUR2.6 million European Union (EU) research project.…

THE CONCLUSION of a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the US could have serious adverse consequences for the EU suckler cows sector, European experts claim. A new study presented yesterday (Wednesday) in the European Parliament in Brussels argues US-sourced beef imports could increase in volume and fall in price.…

Kevin McCarthy, the recently appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Microsoft’s Consumer Channels Group, is planning to use his expertise in manufacturing and managing consumer space to spin energised growth into what is, as he puts it, is “already an amazing business model.”…

BRITAIN might not be reliant on Russian gas to keep warm, but British utilities are only too well aware that if Moscow turns off the taps this winter, there will be significantly increased demand for alternative gas supplies.

As a result, utility executives will have been keeping a close eye on talks in Berlin this weekend, where the European Union’s (EU) energy commissioner Günther Oettinger has been trying to broker a deal with Russia and Ukraine to head off a supply freeze.…

THE IDENTITY of the new European Union agriculture commissioner, who will be responsible for phasing out sugar quotas within the EU, was unveiled today. He is Phil Hogan, 54, of Ireland, who has been an environment minister in his country.

In a letter to the Irishman, the incoming Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, tasked Hogan with immediately reviewing EU subsidy systems – asking him to assess the “potential for further simplification in … direct payments,” as well as EU food quality policies.…

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.…

Kevin McCarthy, the recently appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Microsoft’s Consumer Channels Group, is planning to use his expertise in manufacturing and managing consumer space to spin energised growth into what is, as he puts it, is “already an amazing business model.”…

As farms and agricultural organisations face changing accounting demands from legislatures and financial institutions around the world, accountants face greater pressures to develop specialised agricultural knowledge.

Indeed, accounting services provided to the farming industry within the European Union (EU) are becoming increasingly important, notably because of reforms to the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), experts have told Accounting & Business.…

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

THE LATEST European Commission annual report on European Union (EU) anti-fraud measures has highlighted concerns that member states may be doing far too little to detect EU-related financial crime. Keith Nuthall reports.

A 2013 Report on the Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests noted that some member states reported “very low numbers of fraudulent irregularities” – but the Commission does not believe this is because they are clean.…

European Union (EU) meat production is projected to start growing in 2014, according to the European Commission, as Europe’s economic recovery solidifies. This could be up 0.7% year-on-year for beef, veal, pigmeat, poultry, sheep and goat meat. However, exports might fall for pigmeat and poultry, with Russian import bans especially causing problems for pigmeat.…

IRELAND’S beef sector is facing tough times – slim profits and poor prices are hurting farmers, industry experts say. Declining beef prices have already cost Irish farmers EUR106 million (USD144.1 million) this year so far, Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) general secretary Eddie Punch told globalmeatnews.com.…

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.…

THE LATEST European Commission annual report on European Union (EU) anti-fraud measures has highlighted concerns that member states may be doing far too little to detect EU-related financial crime.
Brussels’ 2013 Report on the Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests noted that some member states reported “very low numbers of fraudulent irregularities”.…

MOVEMENTS of refugees can involve millions of people – all of whom are potential consumers – but tapping their purchasing power can be difficult for knitwear companies, even though their products are clearly useful for displaced people in poor accommodation.

The conflict in Syria has forced 2.5 million refugees to flee to the neighbouring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.…

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.…

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.…

A European Commission investigation into Fiat’s tax arrangements in Luxembourg has put the spotlight on alleged backdoor subsidies received by Europe’s automobile manufacturers and comes at a difficult time for the sector.

At the heart of the probe is the suggestion that Luxembourg authorities gave Fiat finance and trade an unfair advantage over other companies in a 2012  “tax ruling” that calculated the company’s taxable profits.…

Compliance experts believe the sanctions imposed thus far by the USA and European Union (EU) on Russia over the Ukraine crisis will have a mixed effect. One of the biggest criticisms is that the sanctions were publicly discussed before being implemented giving targeted individuals time to get their finances to a safe haven.…

Compliance experts believe the sanctions imposed thus far by the USA and European Union (EU) on Russia over the Ukraine crisis will have a mixed effect. One of the biggest criticisms is that the sanctions were publicly discussed before being implemented giving targeted individuals time to get their finances to a safe haven.…

RUSSIA is challenging the European Union’s (EU) third energy package at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), claiming its requirements for market access and unbundling break EU WTO commitments for open trading with other countries. Moscow is concerned the law will, for instance, allow competitors access to infrastructure such as the South Stream pipeline it wants to build across the Black Sea.…

NORWAY’S meat and poultry industry federation meat (KLF – Kjøtt- og fjørfebransjens Landsforbund) has requested urgent talks with the country’s ministry of agriculture amid fears that the government’s present policy to charge full duty on imported meat may provoke a beef shortage in Norway.…

THE BRITISH Meat Processors Association (BPMA) has welcomed the launch of a Euro EUR12 million EU research project to combat meat retail fraud, following last year’s horsemeat scandal. However, its director Stephen Rossides hoped the EU would make controls smart as well as comprehensive, reducing challenging audits that can burden producers.…

LONG-TERM support for the wave and tidal energy industries has been announced by the European Commission, which this spring said it intended to support “the rapid development of key ocean energy technologies at the European level”.

European Union (EU) energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said: “Ocean energy has a significant potential to enhance the security of supply”, adding that “a wide portfolio of renewable energy sources -including ocean energy” was necessary if non fossil fuels were to become “mainstream and integrated into the European energy system.”…

The European Union (EU) has ended nearly four years of speculation and uncertainty for auditors by agreeing a package of audit reforms that reflects major signs of compromise but which nevertheless will bring about big changes in the profession. The clear hope is that the changes will lead to a more competitive and effective audit profession, thereby helping prevent a repeat of the financial crisis of the last few years.…

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.…

WHILE the debate over British airport capacity and expansion has focused on the comparatively rich and crowded south-east England, regional airports across the UK have been increasing passenger numbers and footprint substantially. In each case, airport management has had to negotiate long-term expansion plans against the vagaries of the economic climate.…

INFORMATION services company Experian has concluded that British urban centre residents are being increasingly targeted by identity thieves and fraudsters. In its fifth annual Fraudscape report, written with UK fraud prevention service CIFAS, Experian said fraudsters had moved away from a strong 2009 focus on affluent UK households, especially in the suburbs or semi-rural locations.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) countries opting in to a new directive on a European Investigative Order (EIO) passed last Friday (March 14) by the EU Council of Ministers will have to carry out investigations at the request of another member state in the case of criminal proceedings.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to coordinate a second set of DNA tests across the European Union (EU) this spring, similar to those conducted last year following the horsemeat mis-labelling scandal, with results being published by the end of this July.

It would be the second time the Commission has organised DNA tests across the EU to find out if horsemeat is being fraudulently added to products labelled as beef.…

EUROPEAN accountants are looking to the negotiations for a free trade agreement between the USA and the European Union (EU) with the hope that it will make it easier for them to switch shores of the Atlantic to practice their profession.…

THE IRISH government has been threatened by legal action by the European Commission unless it reforms its taxation of ‘termination payments’ – lump sums paid to employees leaving a company. These are taxed at a lower rate for Ireland-based companies within a multinational group, than for group companies based elsewhere in the European Union (EU).…

MANY European Union (EU) countries are unsure whether imposing mandatory labelling requirements for the country of origin of meat used as ingredient in processed food products would bring benefits that justify the costs, a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels yesterday (24 March) revealed.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

THE UNITED Kingdom imports more than 50% of its demand for natural gas and this will exceed 85% by 2030 according to National Grid, which owns and operates Britain’s high pressure National Transmission System (NTS) for gas.…

THE UNITED Kingdom imports more than 50% of its demand for natural gas and this will exceed 85% by 2030 according to National Grid, which owns and operates Britain’s high pressure National Transmission System (NTS) for gas.

Increasing dependence on piped supplies from Norway and through interconnectors from continental Europe as well as imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are raising questions about the security of both supply and prices

As older nuclear plants and coal fired power stations close, the fact that large scale renewables take time to develop means gas will be needed more frequently to fire combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power stations to compensate, for example, for fluctuating output from offshore wind farms.…

Northern Irish beef farmers have welcomed Singapore’s decision to allow UK beef imports an “excellent marketing opportunity for their quality grass fed Northern Irish beef”. The province’s beef and sheep business is one of Europe’s most dominant regional sectors, comparing its turnover to other local industries.…

WINNERS AND LOSERS

RETAIL

WINNERS

ASOS

Fashion retailer ASOS showed online convenience and price are still a winning combination with shoppers. The UK-based online retailer continued its impressive trajectory this year, announcing pre-tax profit had reached GBP54.7m (US$88.3m) for the year ending 31 August, compared to GBP40m in the same period of last year, with retail sales jumping 40% to GBP753.8m, up from GBP537.9m last year. …

THE CREATION of a single telecommunication market in the European Union (EU) should build on the foundation of existing liberalising legislation, promoting healthy competition between telecommunication companies and cable operators, says Matthias Kurth, executive chairman at Cable Europe.

Speaking to European Communications, in an interview at his Brussels office, he explained: “The new legislation should complement and not overturn the existing regulatory framework,” said Mr Kurth, noting that it should allow network providers to grow, compete and invest.…

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.…

REGULATORY change, shifting security risks, technical advances and airport operational requirements present a complex landscape for developing passenger and cabin luggage screening.

For example, the European Civil Aviation Conference’s (ECAC) detection standard 1 is the prevailing regime but the ECAC standard 2 becomes mandatory for European Union (EU) airports after 2019.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik today revealed the EU’s long-awaited plan to reduce the 8 billion plastic bags that the European Commission believes are “littering” Europe today.  He has proposed altering the EU’s packaging and packaging waste directive so member states have a commitment to reduce consumption of single-use plastic bags.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian oil exporters are to benefit from a new free trade deal struck between the EU and Canada. Once the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been ratified (probably in 2015), it will lead to all existing non-food duties imposed on goods traded between the parties being scrapped.…

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?…

THE ESTABLISHMENT of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) will proceed with a limited number of countries, after 11 of them lodged disagreements about its establishment by an October 28 deadline. The countries which will not sign onto the EPPO are Britain, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden.…

ONCE upon a time, an overly curved cucumber could not be labelled ‘cucumber’ in the European Union (EU) because it did not comply with ‘official’ definitions of the fruit, which included limits on curvature. The European Commission eventually modified the rules: ugly and misshapen fruit and vegetables now sell freely under their own time-honoured names.…

A major international survey of education standards has found serious weaknesses in the EU countries when compared to levels in other parts of the world. In spite of the heavy investment in higher education in recent years in the EU, the study suggests that a fifth of the working age population has worrying low literacy and numeracy skills and a quarter of adults lack the digital skills needed to effectively use ICT.…

EUROPEAN AND Canadian meat traders are looking to boost overseas sales after today’s formal announcement of the widely anticipated Canada-European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Speaking in Brussels, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said: “We were able to strike a very good balance between our offensive and defensive interests [in agriculture],” while noting that this area was particularly sensitive during the negotiations.…

TECHNICAL and security experts have gathered at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to consider how to roll-out developing automated border control (ABC) systems, which offer hard-pressed airports the ability to better process surging passenger numbers.

Staged at ICAO’s headquarters, in Montréal, Canada, from October 22 to 24, the agency’s ninth symposium and exhibition on MRTDs [machine readable travel documents] biometrics and border security debated ABC developments such as newly-emerging technologies; trust issues; reliability; non-intrusiveness; biometrics; effective inspections tools; trusted traveller programmes; challenges to border integrity and ways to address them.…

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%.…

Scientists are developing new nano-gas storage systems that may allow automotive engineers to build more cars that can operate more efficiently on gas-based fuels. The storage systems are built out of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) that can store more gas (such as methane, hydrogen or CO2) than empty cylinders.…

Leading European offshore wind companies are examining how reducing the steel in turbine foundations could help to reduce by 40% the cost of power from this renewable energy source.

Denmark’s DONG Energy revealed late last week that it has been the lead industry partner since August 1 for PISA (Pile Soil Analysis), an 18-month offshore wind cost-reduction R&D project involving an academic consortium of three leading European universities.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) food and feed safety rapid alert network (RASFF) has warned of a spate of problems involving salmonella contamination of imported meat and meat products. In some instances, consignments were exported from outside the EU, and others, within it.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission proposed yesterday (Wed) the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), a move described as historic by the European Union (EU) justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. Its exclusive task will be to investigate and prosecute crimes affecting the EU budget, although that includes import duty evasion as well as EU spending, because these tariffs are earmarked as income for EU institutions.…

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 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.…

Not enough emphasis is placed on teaching as opposed to research in many of Europe’s top universities concludes an EU high-level group set up to improve higher education in Europe. Its central recommendation is that by 2020 “all staff teaching in higher education institutions should have received certified pedagogical training.”…

A PUSH by the G8 group of the world’s seven most industrialised nations plus Russia to improve extractive industry transparency and openness can help industrial minerals companies manage the payments they make in developing counties, as they will only have to follow one set of rules, according to Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh.…

THE CANADIAN industrial minerals sector has told its government how it wants upcoming extractive industry transparency rules to be written. Its advice follows a promise by the country’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper to table legislation fighting mining industry corruption, made at the recent G8 summit in Northern Ireland.…

THE LEADERS of eight of the world’s leading economies have pledged to crack down on misuse of companies and legal arrangements to evade tax and launder money.

It raises the prospect of national registries of beneficial ownership for companies and trusts in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, USA, and in the UK, which had already announced plans to force registration of beneficial ownership at Britain’s Companies House registry.…

may be a big concept, but the road to making personal care product packaging greener is made of small incremental steps that can both provide green marketing benefits and reduce costs.

Recent innovations include reducing the size of containers, while maintaining the volume of product they hold, alongside innovations in using renewable resources and keeping packaging waste out of landfills.…

SUSTAINABILITY may be a big concept, but the road to making personal care product packaging greener is made of small incremental steps that can both provide green marketing benefits and reduce costs.

Recent innovations include reducing the size of containers, while maintaining the volume of product they hold, alongside innovations in using renewable resources and keeping packaging waste out of landfills.…

A EUROPEAN Commission-promoted pharma industry cooperation group has launched a series of initiatives devoted to boosting the supply of medicines across Europe. The ‘Platform on Access to Medicines in Europe’ has been created under a ‘Process on Corporate Responsibility in the field of Pharmaceuticals’ launched in 2010 by European Union (EU) industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani.…

UNIVERSITIES worldwide are developing so-called ‘massive open online courses’ (MOOCs) in pharmacology where students worldwide can work with researchers and academics in interactive learning and studies. The USA’s University of Pennsylvania has launched a fundamentals of pharmacology MOOC course; another American institution Vanderbilt University is operating a MOOC course in clinical research data management; Ireland’s Sligo Institute of Technology is helping run a mass online course in industrial pharmaceutical science; and Dublin Institute of Technology is teaching a pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies course online.…

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.…

the wall for multinationals using current international tax laws to reduce their fiscal exposure. Speaking at the eighth meeting of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development) Forum on Tax Administration, hosted by Russia’s federal tax service from May 16-17, experts noted that public anger was building over cases such as the low level of taxes paid by Google, Amazon and UK energy company NPower.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) long term budget for 2014-2020 (called the multiannual financial framework (MFF) in Brussels’ famously complex jargon) is currently in limbo following a vote by the European Parliament last month (March) to reject the deal. The political deadlock is not likely to last, nor are the actual figures, agreed by EU heads of government in February, likely to be much changed, though.

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.…

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.…

IRELAND has the most higher education graduates per head of population in all 27 countries of the European Union (EU), a report from EU statistical agency Eurostat has revealed.

Looking at the proportion of people aged 30-34 who had completed tertiary education, Eurostat said in 2012, 51.1% of Ireland residents had degrees.…

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).…

THE EUROPEAN Commission will ask all 27 European Union (EU) member countries to test representative samples of beef meet products to see if they contain any horsemeat, following the recent frozen food scandal.

“The idea is to have the DNA testing over the month of March and to publish the results on April 15,” EU health and consumer policy commissioner Tonio Borg said during a press conference in Brussels last night (Wednesday) after an emergency meeting with agriculture ministers of the seven EU countries affected by the horsemeat scam – the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Sweden and France.…

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has declared it is ready to investigate the contamination of beef products with horsemeat, because it raises issues of false labelling, food quality and traceability in the European Union (EU) food chain. Although there is no evidence at the moment of any food safety issues, risk managers from EU countries are already conducting extensive tests of meat products to assess their components.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, IN CAPE TOWN

WHEN the South African government signed contracts in early November with 28 independent renewable energy providers, the moment marked a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to reduce its reliance on coal-fired plants for power.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S new airport policy network Airpol has started showing its operational worth, helping coordinate a two-day operation targeting 28 airports in 15 European counties, where 10 smugglers of cash, drugs and counterfeit goods were arrested. Airpol was launched late 2010 and has since developed operations as a coordinator of European network police.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

With book buyers set to deliver another bumper Christmas to online retailers, a European Commission study found 75% of a sample of websites selling e-books, games, videos and music in the European Union (EU) did not comply with consumer protection rules.…

BY CARMEN PAUN IN BRUSSELS

At a time when Europe needs smart grids and storage capacity for electricity produced by renewable energy sources, investors could be expected to sink money into the potential decarbonised future of utilities. Not so much, a Eurelectric report on investments in the liberalised electricity market has showed.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

ELCORE GmbH, a German maker of fuel cell micro-CHP (FC mCHP) units currently has only a few being put through their paces in homes in its domestic market. It has high hopes, though, of selling plenty on a fully commercial basis from late next year before spreading its wings into other European markets.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

SMALL and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union (EU) complain they cannot get finance from banks, or not on reasonable terms. Banks counter that there is just not that much demand.

Politicians have responded with schemes to improve the flow of finance to SMEs.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

Precision Castparts Corp. (PCC), a worldwide US-based manufacturer of complex metal components sought approval from the European Commission yesterday (Nov 14) for its plan to acquire control of fellow American’s, Dallas-based Titanium Metals Corporation (Timet). It produces titanium melted and mill products, while Oregon-headquartered PCC manufactures structural investment castings, forged components, and airfoil castings for aircraft engines and other applications in various industries.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

FOR multinational businesses, comprehensive and precise financial reporting is critical for a company’s success, and such good practice is also essential for companies striving for profits within emerging markets.

Earlier this year, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) released a report ‘Being the Change: Inspiring the Next Generation of Inclusive Business Entrepreneurs Impacting the Base of the Pyramid’, which highlights the IFC’s ‘inclusive business models’ strategy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FINANCIAL fraud flourishes where books are opaque and complex – so imagine how bad it can be if there are no books. Amazingly, until now, the spending of European Union (EU) funds by national governments has been affected by that problem.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

STATE-of-the-art fraud detection and prevention tools are being developed worldwide, but while these work overtime to generate fraud alerts and flag suspicious behaviour, investigation and case management is struggling to cope with these new sophisticated technologies.

Douglas Russell, director of UK-based fraud and security risk management consultancy DFR Risk Management Ltd, agreed if there are insufficient skilled personnel to follow up alerts, then the full benefits of these systems cannot be realised: "While appropriate responses will vary depending upon what has been highlighted by the systems, best practice includes not only prioritising…high value/high volume fraud categories but also those incidents which may be considered novel or previously undetected," he said.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

THE European Parliament’s special committee on organised crime is considering whether to recommend a European Union (EU)-wide definition of mafia-related crimes. Other draft anti-mafia proposals going through committee include finally pushing ahead with long-standing proposals to create an EU public prosecutor coordinating the defence of member states’ financial interests.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THERE is no more need to test healthy livestock in Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Spain to be 95% sure they are not affected by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), a scientific report from by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has recommended.…

BY MARK GAO, IN BEIJING

THE LEADER of China’s meat industry has told the country’s annual national meat conference that his sector is starting to consolidate and move away from its past reliance on small businesses. China Meat Association (CMA) secretary general Chen Wei noted that only 20% of the country’s 10,000-plus slaughter houses were large in scale, with the rest "artisanal or unmechanised."…

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 has signalled competition concerns at Dublin Airport have made it likely to halt or demand conditions regarding the planned takeover of Ireland’s Aer Lingus by Ryanair. Brussels has announced an in depth probe into the merger plans by Ryanair of its publicly listed competitor, of which it already owns 29.82%.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; AND WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

A BOOST in export sales for European knitwear brands might be on the horizon, as a result of a projected free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Japan, with formal negotiations expected to begin by the end of the year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered the Irish government to recoup unfairly earned revenues from airlines dominating Irish airports after ruling illegal a departure tax penalising flights serving destinations 300km or more from Dublin. Passengers for these slots have been charged Euro EUR10 since 2009, while flights to destinations closer to the Irish capital have attracted just EUR2 in tax.…

BY POORNA RODRIGO

Niyaz Ibrahim

* May 2011 to present – Auditor General of the Maldives

*May 2010 to present – member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

*August 2010 to present – Lecturer Villa College, the Maldives

*March 2010 to May 2011 – Chief Internal Auditor – Maldives Ports Limited

*November 2008 to January 2009 and June 2009 to February 2010 – Deputy Director General of Audit – Maldives Auditor General’s Office (AGO)

*September 2008 to Nov 2008 – Assistant Director General of Audit – AGO

*July 2004 to Sept 2007 – Assistant Auditor – Audit Office

*October 2000 to Sept 2002 – Accounts Officer Trainee – Audit Office

*July 2004 to Sep 2007 – Manager – Gothic Construction Private Limited

*July 2004 to present – Private practising (Auditing, accountancy, financial and management services)

*January 2009 to June 2009 – ACCA Professional Examinations: (FTC Kaplan, Singapore)

*September 2007 to September 2008 – MSc.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; MICHAEL KOSMIDES; AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEBATE about whether compulsion or voluntarism best aids energy efficiency is one of the oldest in the electricity sectors: do we save more energy by being ordered to switch off the lights; or by being advised our bills will fall if we do?…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

WHILE delegates at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting in Beijing remained concerned about the impact of the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme (ETS) on global aviation, there was general consensus that the industry is growing healthily.…

BY KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA

BRITISH nurses are not alone in receiving wider prescribing powers that would include special classes of government regulated drugs, considered prone to greater potential for abuse: Canadian nurses are also gaining similar responsibilities.

The UK government changed legislation in April, to expand the prescribing and drug mixing powers of pharmacists and nurses to cover ‘controlled drugs,’ which the government falling under two legislations: the Medicines Act, managed by the UK Department of Health, and the Misuse of Drugs Act, which is controlled by the Home Office.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS, AND ROB STOKES

CRITICS of European Commission proposals for sweeping changes to audit practice and market regulation probably have a year or so to influence the final outcome.

This emerged in The CA’s interview with Jonathan Faull, the Commission’s director general for internal markets & services, about the so-called ‘Barnier proposals’ put forward by the European Union’s (EU) internal market Commissioner Michel Barnier.…

BY JOSEPHINE MCKENNA, IN ROME

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN’S National Fraud Initiative (NFI) has reported a 25% increase in fraudulent applications for government services across England, with the recession apparently increasing dishonesty. The NFI said it had identified fraud, overpayments and errors totalling almost GBPounds GBP229 million for 2010/11, compared with GBP 189 million in 2008/9.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has released a detailed report on how taxes are paid and structured in its 34 member countries, noting they rose in 26 countries during 2011. Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovakia taxpayers were among those hardest hit, with taxes falling in the USA and New Zealand.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

ALGAE have been heralded as the universal raw material of the future for biofuels, agricultural feed, nutritional supplements, biochemicals and cosmetics. They gobble up CO2, can clean up waste water, and many will thrive in seawater when the fresh variety is usually limited to the sunnier climes where algae can be grown more cheaply.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

ALGAE have been heralded as the universal raw material of the future for biofuels, agricultural feed, nutritional supplements, biochemicals and cosmetics. They gobble up CO2, can clean up waste water, and many will thrive in seawater when the fresh variety is usually limited to the sunnier climes where algae can be grown more cheaply.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN EDINBURGH

TO listen to many researchers, the ‘wonder material’ graphene will metaphorically transform base metal into gold. But what is in it for plastics manufacturers and what does the road ahead hold in store?

On the face of it – the material is impressive: graphene is a sheet of carbon, just one atom thick, around one hundred-thousandth of the width of a human hair, 200 times stronger than steel, and with the atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern.…

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 ALAN OSBORN

A 2010 report by the European Commission on the early operation of the European Union’s (EU) cash control regulation (1889/2005) which came into force in 2007 said implementation of the measure had been "generally satisfactory" but the jury is still out regarding its usefulness as an anti-money laundering (AML) tool.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

AN INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency (IEA) and Institute for Industrial Productivity (IPP) report released yesterday (April 17) has advised that utility customers are more likely to improve their energy efficiency if government conservation schemes are consensual rather than mandatory.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, in Brussels

REPRESENTATIVES of energy companies, nongovernmental organisations and European parliamentarians signed yesterday in Brussels a joint declaration calling on the European Union and its member states to pass laws and budgets underpinning the construction of a ‘Supergrid’ by 2050.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IT is easy to think of the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a more or less total rip-off when you read that a majority of the 27 member countries were asked to pay back some Euro EUR578 million of farm subsidies provided by the European Commission in 2010 (the last year for which figures are available) because of irregularities in spending, including lack of adequate control.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project commanding a budget of Euro EUR1.4 million is to develop a portable device able to detect minute contamination within pharmaceutical manufacturing lines. Of course, keeping these spotless is of critical importance to the pharma sector to prevent the contamination of medicines.…

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

DEMAND for chromium could receive a boost from European Union (EU)-funded research that has used nanotechnology to help fix chrome finishes onto plastic materials to make auto parts look classy, while reducing vehicle weight, has been hailed as a success.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed the development by a European Union (EU)-funded research project of a novel drug delivery method based on mini-spheres in capsules. These contain active pharmaceutical ingredients that are solubilised as an emulsion, microemulsion or suspension and coated either by conventional or novel coating technologies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s plans to lavish Euro EUR9.1 billion on developing energy transmission networks that link the energy systems of the European Union’s (EU) 27 member states go to the heart of the EU’s raison d’être: that Europe’s compact countries can achieve more in concert than in competition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project that has used nanotechnology to help fix chrome finishes onto plastic materials to make auto parts look classy, while reducing vehicle weight, has been hailed as a success. The EU executive the European Commission has released a report on the benefits of the Ecsam project, which is being followed up with studies into other ways of attaching metallic finishes to plastics.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN EDINBURGH

INVESTORS want to make the United Kingdom the hot spot for new gas storage projects in the European Union (EU). The UK tops the EU’s league table of projects either applied for or with official consent: 11.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of space compared with 4.6bcm of current operational capacity.…

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 PETER DA COSTA and KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND’s Electric Supply Board (ESB) has secured a Euro EUR235 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to improve the performance of national energy networks. Signed on November 17, the agreement is designed to enable Irish power lines to better transmit coastal wind energy to populated areas, to introduce smart metering and develop re-charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

NATIONALISM and the energy industry have made uneasy bedfellows throughout history, yet Scotland is attracting substantial international investment in renewables despite having, since May and for the first time, a majority government committed to winning independence from the UK.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

SIERRA Leone has had a tough time in the past 20 years, with a savage civil war bringing misery and dislocation, but since 2002 peace has largely held and the economy has started to develop – a good example being the recent improvements to the Freetown-Lungi International Airport (FNA).…

BY MARK GODFREY

SOFT loans from a cash-rich bevvy of state banks; direct payments to help build manufacturing bases; and tax breaks for firms using local components – these are all forms of state support currently helping China’s wind turbine and solar panel makers capture global 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 KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a Euro EUR1.5 million study into concerns that European Union (EU) animal welfare and food safety rules could harm the global competitiveness of EU meat and other livestock sectors.

Brussels has asked research teams to bid for a major study comparing compliance costs for EU and non-EU country meat producers.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

INFORMATION technology innovations and especially the Internet have certainly changed the anti-money laundering and compliance officials share, store and access information, but as high-tech solutions become more streamlined and interconnected, one concern that still arises is security. Such concerns are increasingly being voiced as regards cloud computing, whose bulk remote digital muscle is regarded as attractive by financial institutions in boosting their work against money laundering and terrorist financing.…

BY NEIL CALLANAN

THE CHOICE of The Shelbourne Hotel on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green for Ireland’s first major post-recession property auction could not have been better. The grand dame of Irish hotels in many ways serves as a microcosm of the boom and the bust of the Irish property market over the last decade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research team claims to have developed fabric incorporating nano-materials that can kill super-bugs such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), without the safety concerns associated with nano-silver. Its migration into the environment has sparked health fears, but the BioElectricSurface consortium involving the universities of Limerick, in Ireland; Wroclaw, in Poland; and Comenius University, in Slovakia; claims to have solved this problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

POP science reports have been raving about how towels, clothes and sheets impregnated with tiny nanoparticles can kill germs and wipe out body odour. A good example is nano-socks, containing nano-silver, which apparently stop feet smelling, no matter how sweaty.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

IN print production, inspection has traditionally taken place at the very end of the converting chain, once an entire batch of processed material has come off the presses. Errors are commonly found at this final stage in the printing process, and because of this, printers have traditionally produced a surplus of printed material to deal with the inevitable erroneous products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is developing an innovative business model which can allow consumers to design and choose their own clothing online, with manufacturers shipping remotely-controlled bespoke work. The Euro 5.17 million Open Garments project aims to create a secure and practical electronic communications system delivering customer requirements to manufacturers, who can act on them swiftly.…

BY LEE ADENDOORF, KEITH NUTHALL and MJ DESCHAMPS

EUROPEAN Union (EU) governments are facing a political crossroads on a key question whose answer will have an important impact on the EU knitwear sector – both manufacturers and retail. That is the issue of rules of origin and whether there should be an EU-wide law that says clothing and accessories (plus a wide range of other manufactured goods) should be sold with labels saying which country they are made in, if they are imported from outside the EU.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL

THERAPY dogs can be a great nursing aid, but new European Union (EU)-funded research has shown how pure bred dogs can be powerful resource for investigating the sources of disease in human patients. The fact is that dogs suffer from many of the same diseases as their two-legged owners, and it is a lot easier to investigate the genetic causes of such illnesses in pure bred dogs.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Maverick airlines push forward on e-cigarette sales

Major low-cost airlines in Europe are consolidating their e-cigarette sales to passengers. But the taboo against public smoking makes smokers shy of ‘lighting up’ in the cabin – they dive into the toilets if they smoke on board.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

IT sounds like every child’s dream job – chocolate testing: something out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But it is of course a deadly serious business – not just to ensure chocolate tastes good and is healthy – but also to comply with laws on chocolate composition.…

BY MARK ROWEAND ZLATKO ?ONKA?

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE REFORM of the European Union’s (EU) sector was supposed to be good news for its confectionery industry – lowering prices, while guaranteeing supplies. But it did not work out that way, said a report from the EU’s financial watchdog, the European Court of Auditors.…

By Keith Nuthall

With the British general election looming this week and the prospect of a change in government, one issue seems to electrify UK electors and politicians above all others, and that is immigration. In a sense, this is not surprising.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE REFORM of the European Union’s (EU) sector was supposed to be good news for its confectionery industry – lowering prices, while guaranteeing supplies. But it did not work out that way, said a report from the EU’s financial watchdog, the European Court of Auditors.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

As governments wake up to the need of establishing an infrastructure of charging points for electric vehicles (EVs), commercial players are offering anything from the expertise to set up the network down to the individual chargers. Some innovations will clearly make life a lot easier for those with the job of making the EV marketable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the takeover by Unilever of Sara Lee’s body and laundry care businesses, on condition it sells off the US company’s Sanex brand and related business in Europe. Following an inquiry as the European Union’s (EU) lead competition authority, Brussels concluded there were particular concerns regarding Unilever’s future dominance of some EU deodorant markets.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

WINTER always beings jitters to European utilities. Will Russia cut off gas to a neighbouring country because of a payment row? Until major new pipeline routes are in place, such as Nord Stream or Nabucco, this concern will continue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

18

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the takeover by Unilever of Sara Lee’s body and laundry care businesses, on condition it sells off the US company’s Sanex brand and related business in Europe. Following an inquiry as the European Union’s (EU) lead competition authority, Brussels concluded there were particular concerns regarding Unilever’s future dominance of some EU deodorant markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The reform package for the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) released today has been so unpopular, it begs the question – is Europe really the best level of government to control food production subsidies?

The CAP has always been at the heart of the EU – part of the grand bargain that underpinned its launch in the 1950s between Germany and France.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS sector has long been the focus of some the most direct market intervention by the European Union (EU), and it would seem that the EU still has an appetite for such initiatives, consulting on new guidance on third party access to fixed networks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TARGETED investments aimed at improving energy self-sufficiency and efficiency maybe the key result of a grand European Union (EU) ‘Energy 2020’ strategy, released this month (November 10) by the European Commission. Building on existing reforms to liberalise and green EU energy production and delivery, the policy paper proposes ensuring energy efficiency is a criteria of public procurement by member states, and also that energy efficiency certificates are created to encourage sustainable energy investment by industry.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ASSET recovery is increasingly being regarded as an important law enforcement tool in Europe, with techniques becoming more sophisticated and integrated with prosecutions and investigations. The fundamental approach here is not new. ‘Go after the money’ has been a commonplace of law enforcement in the financial sector since at least the time of Al Capone.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

IF those responsible for the numerous ‘ghost’ and unfinished estates in the Republic of Ireland had been hoping that overseas property companies might be tempted to take them on, following a slight recovery in the Irish market, the news that Ireland has once more sunk into recession makes that now very unlikely for the foreseeable future.…

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 Lawrence J. Speer

Shrinking state budgets and financial shortfalls linked to the global recession are forcing universities to devise new means of raising revenue, notably through increased interaction with the private sector, according to participants at an international conference at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).…

BY MARK ROWE

INNOVATIVE packaging is transforming the drinks industry. Heavy tins and bottles are being replaced by lighter composite and biodegradeable materials; hi-tech cartons are being manufactured that tell consumers if the milk’s gone off; and RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are being embedded with temperature sensors.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

SUSTAINABILITY is becoming increasingly important in the beverage industry, and worldwide companies have been embracing environmentally conscious initiatives.

In the province of Ontario, in Canada, The Beer Store (TBS), a protected retailer under Canada’s highly regulated drinks sales system, collects empty packaging, and has boasted of a return rate of 94% between 2008 and 2009.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH,PAUL RIGG,LEE ADENDOORF,MAKKI MARSEILLES,E BLAKE BERRY,FLORENCE LABEDAYS,SYMON ROSS and KEITH NUTHALL

WATER utilities are maybe used to getting bad press. After all, we all need water, and we need and want it to be clean. When a water supplier fails, it is easy to make complaints and see them amplified in newspapers, television, radio and the Internet.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW European Union (EU) body coordinating around Euro EUR1 billion in food-related research from 20 European countries has started work. The ‘scientific advisory board for the EU joint programming initiative (JPI) on agriculture, food security and climate change’ will plan and manage national food industry research securing future supplies and reducing climate emissions.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH,PAUL RIGG,LEE ADENDOORF,MAKKI MARSEILLES,E BLAKE BERRY,FLORENCE LABEDAYS,SYMON ROSS and KEITH NUTHALL

WATER utilities are maybe used to getting bad press. After all, we all need water, and we need and want it to be clean. When a water supplier fails, it is easy to make complaints and see them amplified in newspapers, television, radio and the Internet.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR,KARRYN MILLER,ALAN OSBORN and KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY country had its own take on convenience stores. These retail traditions tend to be rooted in local cultures, making a certain combination of goods acceptable in one country, but not another. Rural Ireland, for instance, with its sparse population, has traditionally supported a bewildering array of convenience store offerings, mixing for retail with hardware, post offices, tobacco, newspapers, car repairs and more – and sometimes all at once.…

BY KARRYN MILLER,EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

BY KARRYN MILLER, in Washington DC, EMMA JACKSON, in Ottawa, and ALAN OSBORN, in London

CONVENIENCE stores are a dynamic part of the food retail sector worldwide. In short, as consumers gain wealth, they lose time – making convenience retail increasingly attractive.…

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 LITHUANIAN government has blocked sales of some German Biller’s naturkosmetik skin creams because they contained a chemical preservative methyldibromo glutaronitrile banned under the European Union (EU) cosmetics directive. Ireland has withdrawn from sale the US-made Marcia Teixeira branded hair lotion ‘Brazilian Keratin Treatment’ because of formaldehyde content deemed excessive under the directive.…

By Keith Nuthall, International News Services 

With the British general election looming this week and the prospect of a change in government, one issue seems to electrify UK electors and politicians above all others, and that is immigration. In a sense, this is not surprising. What could be more an issue of public policy that affects people’s daily lives that the management of who lives in a city, community, neighbourhood or even street?

We all interested in the culture, language, shopping needs, personalities and religion of our neighbours. How they live affects everyone. And when there is change in a community, that can be difficult to deal with – because new friends and acquaintances impact on daily lives.…

BY ERIC LYMAN

THE TRIAL of 11 international bankers and two officials from the City of Milan got underway on May 19 in connection with a series of 2005 bond issues in which the parties are accused of generating as much as Euro EUR100 million in illegal fees and interest.…

BY WACHIRA KIGOTHO

EAST Africa is developing as an important source of biofuels and biofuel feedstock, with governments keen to attract foreign direct investment for this potentially strategic rural development option.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Sudan, and Tanzania are countries where foreign companies are competing to acquire land for biofuel projects.…

BY SYMON ROSS

A DECISION over whether George Best Belfast City Airport, in Northern Ireland, can extend its runway may drag on towards 2011, after the matter was referred to Northern Ireland’s independent Planning Appeals Commission. It will probably hold an inquiry in September and give a decision in December – almost two years after a proposal was first formally presented to planners.…

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 MONIKA HANLEY

RIGA International Airport, located 13 km from the bustling Latvian capital is on the brink of undergoing major infrastructure changes. Its profile is high given it won the best airport in Scandinavia and the Baltic region at the prestigious 2009 OAG [Official Airline Guide] -Routes Airport Marketing Awards, beating the competition in richer countries such as Sweden and Denmark.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

THE BALTIC States and their eastern neighbours have long been viewed as a cheap supply of labour and goods to the rich countries within the European Union (EU), but now local companies and governments are looking to expand biofuel production to satisfy both growing domestic and export demand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PEER reviews have begun assessing the banking and tax transparency systems promoted by the G20 group of nations following the international contagion of financial problems sparked by the credit crunch. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information will undertake the process.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THIS summer will see the beginning of the promised introduction of smart metering across the UK. For the utility companies who are taking this step into the future, the key questions centre on interoperability and forthcoming European Union (EU) standards.…

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 EMMA JACKSON

THIS April, the long-awaited carbon reduction commitment (CRC) scheme will commence in the UK, bringing in the first phase of a carbon emissions trading programme unlike any other in Europe.

The programme covers virtually everything the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme (ETS) does not: any corporation, company or business – including transport and agriculture – which consumes more than 6,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year.…

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 EMMA JACKSON, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, PAUL COCHRANE and BILL CORCORAN

WEST Africa is becoming a key region in the booming trade of illicit cigarettes, counterfeit copies of premium brands and smuggled properly branded and manufactured sticks. So much money is being made by criminals using this often-chaotic region as a hub to receive illicit sticks and then distribute them throughout Africa that this trade is becoming a matter of serious concern to the United Nations and even NATO.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE BREAKDOWN of talks last week in Brussels to harmonise private copying levies has left collecting agencies bemused and disappointed, especially with information and communications technology (ICT) industry representatives. The levies, which are intended to compensate rights holders for private copies made legally on MP3 players and similar devices, are applied in most EU countries "though not in the UK or Ireland" and often differ markedly in rate and application.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH and ALAN OSBORN

LINES are being drawn for another titanic battle in Brussels between the tobacco industry and anti-smoking activists. And the weapon of choice is lobbying.

The first phase, forcing cigarette companies to sell their product in plain, unbranded packets without logos, has already started following the 31-page document of non-binding recommendations (not a directive) published last year by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers and which was briskly approved by the European Parliament.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA and Ukraine appear to have headed off an oil transit dispute that could have created a repeat of last year’s major disruption of European natural gas supplies. Moscow and Kiev have signed an agreement increasing by 30% the fees Ukraine charges on transporting Russian oil to the European Union (EU) – this alters a 2004 contract and the change had sparked a diplomatic tussle.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE EUROPEAN Commission has committed Euro 17.9 million to market dairy products over three years across the European Union (EU). The money will be spent by dairy industry organisations in 11 member states, who will also contribute funds, along with their national governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A YEAR of struggle would be the best way to sum up 2009 as far as the global clothing and textile industry is concerned. The depth and severity of the worldwide recession left many clothing and textile companies reeling, even impacting upon China, which had previously been dominating global markets.…

BY EMMA JACKSON and KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has earmarked Euro 275 million in its 2010 budgets to eradicate, control and monitor common diseases, giving priority to those which could be transmitted to humans who eat or come in contact with contaminated meat.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NOMINEES for a new European Commission taking office for five years from February have been released. Regarding the posts of importance to the pharmaceutical sector, they are Malta’s John Dalli, for health and consumer policy; and Ireland’s Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, for research and innovation.…

By Katherine Dunn, International News Services

The travails of Roman Polanski in Switzerland this autumn have offered some lessons to the world’s wanted over extradition laws and how to deal with them. The Polish director has of course been living in France, with little fear of extradition, since 1978, when he fled the USA facing statutory rape charges. Only now of course this autumn was he arrested on an American warrant on a visit to Switzerland, while movie stars and directors crowed for his release.

Now, he is out on bail, secured with the help of French president Nicholas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, who intervened on Polanski’s behalf. 

As Polanski languishes in Alpine house arrest in a luxury Swiss chalet, it’s clear that extradition is still, at base, a political decision – and to avoid it, one key is not supporting international causes unpopular with powerful governments.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

MEASURED by what’s been happening in the European cigarette market over the past 10 to 15 years, 2008 – and what we’ve seen of 2009 so far – hasn’t been that bad. It may not have been good, exactly, but considering the global recession few people will have been looking for uplift.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR European research project is to spend Euro 44 million on developing tiny components to help electric vehicles improve their performance, so that they can better compete with models powered with liquid fuels. The Fiat and Audi-backed E3CAR (Energy efficient electrical car) project will especially focus on emerging nanotechnologies as its researchers aim to boost electric cars’ often less than stellar driving abilities.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE RECOVERY of criminally-acquired assets is driven by two quite different considerations – first as a deterrent to financial crime and second as a means of compensating the victim through restitution. Clearly where the fight against money laundering in concerned, the first is the more important.…

By David Haworth, in Brussels

Next Monday, (19/10) Mrs. Catherine Day will deliver the most important speech of her life.

Who is she, you’ll probably ask. Indeed, for someone of immense influence this tall, blond middle-aged Irishwoman is a reclusive figure, shy – not writing very much, still less seeking out audiences.

But, as the secretary general of the European Commission, the lady is the power behind Commission president José Manuel Barroso’s throne.

She is the institution’s leaderene though hiding behind the good manners and discretion of a classic civil servant. Catherine Day is seldom heard and rarely seen.

In a few days, however, she will stand before a huge audience of colleagues to explain to them how the clumsily-titled ‘external action service’ is to be developed and how it will affect their working lives.…

By David Haworth, in Brussels

Next Monday, (19/10) Mrs. Catherine Day will deliver the most important speech of her life.

Who is she, you’ll probably ask. Indeed, for someone of immense influence this tall, blond middle-aged Irishwoman is a reclusive figure, shy – not writing very much, still less seeking out audiences.

But, as the secretary general of the European Commission, the lady is the power behind Commission president José Manuel Barroso’s throne.

She is the institution’s leaderene though hiding behind the good manners and discretion of a classic civil servant. Catherine Day is seldom heard and rarely seen.

In a few days, however, she will stand before a huge audience of colleagues to explain to them how the clumsily-titled ‘external action service’ is to be developed and how it will affect their working lives.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

BOTH the strengths and the weaknesses of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the anti-money laundering field derive from its role as the supreme interpreter of European Union (EU) law and its responsibility for applying that law consistently through the Union.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GENERAL Motors wastes Euro 9.8 billion’s worth of environmental and social costs compared to a notional industry average, a new international assessment on auto industry sustainability has claimed. This follows the largest such statistical exercise ever undertaken, carried out by experts from Queen’s University, Belfast, in Northern Ireland; the Euromed Management School, Marseilles, France; and the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT), Berlin.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, LEE ADENDOORF, E. BLAKE BERRY, SYMON ROSS, MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL

CONSUMER issues have been a key focus of European Union (EU) initiatives regarding utilities of late. The European Commission’s Citizens’ Energy Forum has been busy, recently focusing on improving billing practices, promoting good practice and calling for "clearer, more understandable and accurate bills".…

By David Haworth, in Brussels

By the time you read this, Ireland’s second attempt to ratify the Lisbon Treaty may have succeeded and thunderous pieties about the nation’s wisdom, maturity and farsightedness in reaching the “right” decision will be heard in all the continent’s chancelleries.

Thus the only European Union (EU) member to hold a referendum on this agreement will have been punched to the canvas by fear (the devastating recession) and loathing (the EU institutions and other capitals).

True, the Treaty’s legislative journey is not yet over.…

By Emma Jackson

A groundbreaking food safety centre will open at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, this month, to help local agri-food industries fight for shares of global food markets by underpinning their reputation for high health standards.

The £2 million Centre for Assured, Safe, and Traceable Food (ASSET), funded in part by Northern Ireland’s Department for Employment and Learning, will research new technologies to detect contaminants in food, which the province’s agri-food industries will implement in their facilities to ensure high standards of food safety.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HACHETTE Ireland was one of 12 publishers honoured this week at the first awards of the new European Union Prize for Literature (Monday Sept 28). The Dublin-based branch of the Hachette publishing empire was praised for producing one of 12 award winning books: ‘Longshore Drift’ (2006), by Karen Gillece.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ATTACK by France and Germany on the European Commission’s ‘health check’ reforms to phase out European Union (EU) dairy quotas by 2015 is gathering support, with 16 member states backing increased subsidies. Having failed to persuade the Commission to abandon quota liberalisation, a growing Franco-German-led alliance at the EU Council of Ministers is backing increased subsides while restrictive production quotas expand from 2010 and disappear in 2015.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ALL is not well with the European Union (EU)’s ambitious ‘water framework directive’ (WFD). The 2009 timetable has slipped. The 27 EU member states were required to establish their first river basin management plans (RBMPs) for all 110 river basin districts in the EU by the end of this year and include specific measures to ensure that all EU waters reach "good" status by 2015.…

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 MONIKA HANLEY

DESPITE being one of the regions hardest hit by the global financial crisis and its resulting recession, the cosmetics industry of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) is doing surprisingly well. Although local sales have been under pressure, companies have begun expanding abroad in the last year.…

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 EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has now approved revised fishing quotas affecting British fleets, include the right to catch 181,694 tonnes of mackerel from the Atlantic off the UK, Ireland, Norway, the Faroes, Greenland and international mid-Atlantic waters; 16,276 tonnes of horse mackerel from the same zones (except Norwegian seas); and 9,410 tonnes of cod off Norway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has asked to approve new revised fishing quotas affecting British fleets following talks on the management of north Atlantic stocks. These have involved officials from the EU, Norway, Russia, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THE POTENTIALLY tough issue of regulations on indoor air pollution and all the potential problems this could cause the paint and coatings industry just refuses to go away in Europe. This is despite the fact that 10 months after the groundbreaking EnVIE conference on indoor air quality, held in Brussels last September, there is still no sign of any new Green Paper that might mean a tough new regime for the paint industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Italy to the European Court of Justice for failing to implement the 2006 European Union (EU) statutory audit directive – approved following the country’s notorious Parmalat scandal.

Its implementation deadline was June 2008; its aim – boosting European audit quality.…

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

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 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, ALAN OSBORN, DAVID HAWORTH, RUSSELL BERMAN, MARK GODFREY and GAVIN BLAIR

INTRODUCTION

WHILE the drinks industry is undoubtedly an important sector in the global economy, the honest truth is that there are bigger players in town: the IT sector, steel making, and food, to name a handful.…

BY SYMON ROSS

THE SIPTU (Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union) in Ireland expressed concern this month (May) the country’s Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has inadequate resources to carry out workplace inspections.

The union said with 200,000 workplaces in the Republic of Ireland and only around 14,000 workplace assessments annually, a business could wait more than 14 years for a safety check from an HSA inspector.…

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

A MAJOR cigarette smuggling boom is being reported in Ireland by customs teams, with a record 135.2 million cigarettes being seized last year, almost twice the amount seized in 2007. Of these, 56.82 million were counterfeits, the country’s Sunday Independent newspaper has reported.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE AIRPORTS of Norway and Iceland are well suited to dealing with the impact of border-free travel with each other and many member states of the European Union (EU), having joined the EU’s frontierless Schengen-zone in 1999, abolished all border checks for travel to member countries in December 2001.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has drawn back from a robust collective response to the swine flu crisis, despite the disease spreading around Europe. Meeting on Thursday, the EU Council of Ministers for health rejected a French proposal for an EU-wide travel ban to Mexico, the source of the outbreak.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY recession has a silver lining: inefficient competitors are unmasked and forced out of business; and governments usually spend freely to pump prime an ailing economy. And for major essential industries such as the power sector, economic slumps can be good times.…

By Emma Jackson

A research team at Queen’s University Belfast, in Northern Ireland, has renewed a relationship with Aquamarine Power, a leading marine technology energy company. Together they may create the next generation of wave power converters that could someday be an alternative source of power for European maritime states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has concluded in a detailed report that a fully functioning European Union (EU)-wide single market in natural gas and electricity is far from complete. It spoke of a "mixed picture of the progress of completing the internal energy market".…

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 ANDREW CAVE

GREEN is the colour for many future oil and gas industry jobs, according to a recent study predicting that environment-friendly energy will not only tackle the world’s energy crisis but also create millions of new jobs worldwide.

Green Jobs, published by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington DC-based research organisation, says the renewable sector and its supplier industries already employ at least 2.3 million people worldwide, including about 300,000 workers in the wind power industry, 170,000 in solar photovoltaics and 600,000 in the solar thermal industry alone.…

BY SYMON ROSS

IRELAND’S largest bank Allied Irish Banks (AIB) has been accused of major accounting deficiencies by its former chief internal auditor, who has also attached the performance of the Irish Financial Regulator. In testimony to the Oireachtas [Irish parliament] joint committee on economic regulatory affairs this week (NOTE – TUESDAY) Eugene McErlean – the AIB group internal auditor from 1997 to 2002 – alleged years of overcharging of customers by managers under pressure to meet targets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE THUMBSCREWS are being turned on the world’s tax havens, preventing their banks hiding assets from tax investigators worldwide. A comprehensive communiqué from April 1 and 2s’ G20 meeting in London committed member governments "to take agreed action against those jurisdictions which do not meet international standards in relation to tax transparency."…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR the past 10 years, the message from the environmental movement has been "biofuels good, fossil fuels bad". And the search for alternatives has exercised many industries, not least the cosmetics sector, which widely uses mineral oils, but has increasingly been looking for ways to use bio-based oils and fats.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, in Paris; ANDREW CAVE, in Oxford; and SYMON ROSS, in Belfast

IT is a tough time in the European petrol retail market at present. High prices last year have been followed by a global recession. It is no wonder fuel sales are depressed.…

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 Alan Osborn

The failure of business to invest significantly in innovation projects remains the major weakness in the European Union’s (EU) research picture, says the European Commission. While there is "substantial progress" in some aspects of the EU’s innovation performance, investments by business in R&D and IT projects "are still relatively weak, especially if compared to the US and Japan," claims Brussels.…

By Katherine Dunn

The travails of Roman Polanski in Switzerland this autumn have offered some lessons to the world’s wanted over extradition laws and how to deal with them. The Polish director has of course been living in France, with little fear of extradition, since 1978, when he fled the USA facing statutory rape charges.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND’S Electricity Supply Board and National Microelectronics Applications Centre Ltd want partners for a Euro 1.39 million research project developing power grid fault monitoring systems. This is being coordinated by Europe’s Eureka research network and potential partners include Britain’s Electricity North West and Germany’s Tyco Electronic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) consumer safety alert service RAPEX has reported the withdrawal from sale in Belgium of a Democratic Republic of the Congo-made whitening cream – Topclaire Plus. Its use of hydroquinone breaks the EU cosmetics directive. RAPEX has also reported a withdrawal from sale in Ireland of China-made ‘GIRLZ’ children’s cosmetics sets.…

By Alan Osborn

An expert on entrepreneurship from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is to advise business leaders, politicians and academics in West Bengal on how this Indian state can improve its economic performance with the support of higher education.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MAXIMUM amount of duty-free or duty-paid tobacco that can be brought into the European Union (EU) from a non-EU country without paying EU excise duty can now be reduced to just 40 cigarettes. That is an option now offered to member states, which can maintain the previous 200 cigarette limit if they choose.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded Euro 4.6 million research project will develop new antibiotics to combat highly drug-resistant bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa. This accounts for a significant percentage of hospital-acquired infections. The AEROPATH project is led by the University of Dundee.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded Euro 4.6 million research project will develop new antibiotics to combat highly drug-resistant bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa. This accounts for a significant percentage of hospital-acquired infections. The AEROPATH project is led by the University of Dundee.…

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

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project commanding Euro 4.6 million in EU money is to develop antibiotics to combat highly drug-resistant bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa. This accounts for a significant percentage of hospital-acquired infections, noted the European Commission. The AEROPATH project includes university scientists in Britain and Sweden, working with German biotech companies Lionex and MFD Diagnostics.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

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

BY KARRYN MILLER

AS Japanese consumers seek out innovative cosmetics, homegrown beauty brands must continuously come up with novel products to keep their place within the industry and the use of bio-based oils and fats in formulations is an important part of that process.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS 2009 dawns, the European Union’s (EU) renewable energy sector knows that it has truly entered the mainstream of EU utility markets, its growth being sanctioned by ambitious legislation approved before Christmas.

After more than a year of debates, the European Parliament and EU ministers have approved a new EU directive imposing mandatory national targets for the 27 member states regarding the portion of their gross final consumption of energy in 2020 coming from renewable sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FREIGHT Transport Association (FTA) has challenged conclusions from the European Commission that the opening of Britain and other western European labour markets to workers from eastern European countries "has been positive on balance".

Brussels’ Employment in Europe 2008 report claims the influx of mobile labour from the 10 eastern European countries that have joined the EU "has not led to serious disturbances on the labour market."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared illegal under European Union (EU) competition law creating umbrella companies taking over food businesses with the expressed aim of reducing production of a particular foodstuff. The precedent-making ruling came with judges censuring the operation of Ireland’s Beef Industry Development Society Ltd (BIDS), formed in 2002 to unite most of the country’s beef processors.…

By Alan Osborn

The world is not over-full of specialist academics at universities and colleges teaching anti-money laundering (AML) methods – but these important experts are out there if you look for them. Their low profile is partly because the subject is often subsumed into financial crime generally and partly because genuine AML skills can command a useful premium to banks and other major financial institutions better able to support lavish salaries and back-up systems.…

BY MARK ROWE

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

BY MARK ROWE

ONE of the major elements of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union (EU) was its intended expansion to these new member states of the Schengen agreement, which phases out checks at shared borders and allows free movement for all within the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRISH consumer protection authorities have reported the withdrawal of American skin toning cream with vitamin E and sunscreen Clear-n-Smooth, saying its 2% hydroquinone concentration breaks the European Union’s (EU) cosmetics directive. EU product alert service RAPEX also noted the withdrawal from Irish cosmetics shops of Ivory Coast-made lightening body oil Peau Claire over illegal hydroquinone concentrations.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE FUTURE of the oils and fats sector globally may be shaped in the coming years by the emergence of synthetic biology, which is enabling scientists to create oils and fats with enhanced properties.

This new technology has been developed in the wake of advances in biofuel manufacture, as the United Nations, major energy companies, scientists and environmental organisations all seek to identify the sources of energy that will sustain a post-oil world.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) third money laundering directive should have been transposed into national legislation by December last year across the EU. But some EU member states and professional organisations have found its provisions difficult, particularly the introduction of a risk-based approach to the application of anti money laundering disciplines.…

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

In a sign that the credit crunch is not demolishing all long term thinking in the financial sector, France’s AXA insurance group has continued rolling out funding from a five-year Euro 100 million programme into innovative research exploring risk.…

By Alan Osborn

Many European academics and experts in the study of commercial crime are more than happy to discuss the state of play in the sector in an informal way with outsiders; others may be a little more cautious. But all are likely to suggest ways to gain further assistance.…

By Alan Osborn

Three young researchers, from Poland, Slovakia and Britain, were awarded the top prizes in the EU Contest for Young Scientists in Copenhagen on September 25th against competition from national scientific prize-winners from 39 European countries plus Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured Ireland for breaking the urban waste water directive by discharging dirty sewage in the communities of Bray, Howth, Letterkenny, Shanganagh, Sligo, and Tramore. Judges agreed with the European Commission that the Irish government should have subjected this waste water to secondary treatment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured Ireland for breaking the urban waste water directive by discharging dirty sewage in the communities of Bray, Howth, Letterkenny, Shanganagh, Sligo, and Tramore. Judges agreed with the European Commission that the Irish government should have subjected this waste water to secondary treatment.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE WORLD is not over-full of specialist academic experts at universities and colleges teaching anti-money laundering methods. This is partly because the subject is often subsumed into financial crime generally and partly because genuine AML skills can command a useful premium to banks and other major financial institutions better able to support lavish salaries and back-up systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled its operational programme for the European Fisheries Fund in Ireland, announcing that the European Union (EU) would be spending Euro 42.2 million on the Irish fishing sector from 2007-13. The EU spending is a significant reduction from the Euro 70 million spent in Ireland under the old Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance from 2000-2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN ADVOCATE general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared that an Irish initiative designed to reduce over-capacity in Ireland’s beef processing sector breaks European Union (EU) competition law.

In a formal opinion, Verica Trstenjak found illegal the operation of Ireland’s Beef Industry Development Society Ltd (BIDS), which was formed in 2002 to unite most of the country’s processors – accounting for 93% of beef sold in the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed increasing the minimum rate of excise duty payable on cigarettes sold in the European Union (EU) from the current Euro 64/1,000 cigarettes to Euro 90 by 2014. Brussels thinks the measure will reduce smoking by 10% in most member states over the next five years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN and Ireland have become the first European countries to sign an agreement creating a cross-border functional airspace block. The deal allows airlines to liaise with one set of air-traffic controllers when crossing Irish and British airspace, with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) working with Britain’s Air Traffic Control Service (NATS).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INCREASING dependence of the European Union (EU) on energy imports has been made crystal clear in the latest Eurostat report on the subject. The EU’s statistical agency said net imports into the EU increased by 2.4% in 2006, with overall energy dependence from non-EU sources rising to 54% from 53% in 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND has been censured by the European Court of Justice for failing to subject wind power generation projects to environmental impact assessments demanded by European Union law. Judges made the ruling over planning consents given for a wind farm at Derrybrien, County Galway – a controversial large project destroying 263 hectares of coniferous forest.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH government is being taken to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission for allegedly failing to comply with the European Union’s environmental liability directive. The UK is one of nine member states – also including Ireland – accused of not writing the law’s principles on polluters paying for damages caused by their actions into their national statute books.…

By Alan Osborn

The 27 EU member states will have to speed up their educational progress if they are to meet a range of self-imposed targets deemed necessary if the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs is to be successful by 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A REPORT from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has revealed that almost a half of OECD member countries (including many in Europe) have potentially dangerous nutrient and pesticide concentrations in drinking water sources.

Tests carried out in recent years (NOTE: CALLED MID-2000’S IN THE REPORT) on surface water and groundwater monitoring sites in agricultural areas show these pollutants often "exceed national drinking water recommended limits" said a new OECD report on the environmental impact of farming.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned that British beaches became dirtier in 2007, with a major increase in the number of bathing water sites failing to meet European Union (EU) hygiene standard. These numbered 20 last year, up from just two in 2006, and 10 in 2005.…

David Haworth, in Brussels

Outside Ireland, the recent passing of at 85 of Dr. P.J. Hillery – “Paddy” to his friends -was little noticed yet his achievements as a statesman were huge.

The son of a country doctor, he became a general practitioner himself but slipped, unobtrusively at first, into Irish politics.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

SCARCELY a week goes by without volumes of newsprint or prime broadcasting slots being devoted to new and ingenious ways of mitigating climate change.

Global warming is now widely regarded the single most important issue the world faces, so it is no surprise that it is exercising the minds of the world’s most creative scientists.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN governments have backed reforms to fight tax evasion and fraud. Importantly, the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has informally supported changes to the EU savings tax directive, to close a loophole where private citizens could protect bank account information by transferring money to accounts held by companies established to boost their privacy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling has swept away a European Commission block on Irish fishermen replacing ships lost at sea with larger and safer vessels. Brussels had been resisting plans of Ocean Trawlers Ltd, of Killybegs; Thomas Flaherty, of Mainster; and Larry Murphy, of Brandyhill; all in Ireland, to replace sunk vessels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMPROVED cooperation between fisheries authorities in the European Union (EU) and Russia is to be established, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Brussels and Moscow. The deal covers fishing grounds in the Baltic and the north Atlantic and involves better contacts between the European Commission and Russia’s state committee for fisheries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW improved computerised information system helping police the unified Schengen border system for most European Union (EU) countries (not including Britain and Ireland) has been received approval by the EU Council of Ministers. The system with "new technologies and added functionalities" will be rolled out in 2009 and its development will be funded by EU budgets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared illegal under European Union (EU) compulsory insurance laws, Irish regulations that fail to provide cover to all road accident victims entering a vehicle knowing its driver was uninsured. The ECJ said Ireland erred by not restricting that exclusion to passengers in a vehicle whose driver caused an accident.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the UK government that it intends to build a new generation of nuclear power plants stands out, not just because of the scale of the proposals, but because it is the first such comprehensive initiative in Europe for some years.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

SIGNIFICANT falls in heart attacks and strokes in France and Italy have indicated that the introduction of public smoking bans in Europe are having beneficial health effects, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has claimed.

In France, the National Sanitary Institute has just released statistics showing that the rate of admissions in emergency wards of patients with myocardial infarction and strokes has fallen 15% since French public smoking ban came into effect in January 2007, preventing smoking in restaurants hotels and casinos.…

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 MARK ROWE

SKY high prices for precious metals have prompted a rise in thefts of catalytic converters from a wide range of motor vehicles; the problem is so serious that the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) has linked up with the Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales and Northern Ireland (ACPO) to tackle the issue.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) has rejected a request by the UK for the annulment of an EU regulation setting out standards for the security features, including bio-metrics, to be carried on passports and other travel documents in the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) order could force the Irish government to improve and expand its mandatory training programmes for professional passenger and goods vehicle drivers. The European Commission has asked judges to rule Ireland’s current training system is too scant to meet the safety standards required by the European Union’s (EU) directive on training professional drivers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) order could force the Irish government to improve and expand its mandatory training programmes for road hauliers. The European Commission has asked judges to rule Ireland’s current training system is too scant to meet the safety standards required by the European Union’s (EU) directive on training professional drivers.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

PUBLIC place smoking bans are spreading like wildlife these days, with one country after another drawing up rules preventing tobacco use where it could expose non-smokers to second-hand smoke.

In the European Union (EU), this year, public place smoking bans have been introduced in England, Estonia and Finland, for instance.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

FOLLOWING the introduction on July 1 of public place smoking bans in England 240 million people worldwide were covered by public smoking restrictions, according to the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). (NOTE – THIS IS A FRENCH ACRONYM)

The movement towards such restrictions is becoming ubiquitous in the European Union (EU), with Estonia, Finland, Scotland and Ireland already have full public-place bans, while Italy, Sweden and Malta have partial bans, allowing smoking only in closed-off, separately-ventilated areas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEMBERS of the European Parliament have called for a "common-sense" easing of "complicated" spot-checks on food industry suppliers, required for the payments of European Union (EU) subsidies. These checks cover food health standards, livestock welfare, environmental production controls and others, but a parliament motion agreed that since they were introduced in 2003, they have "proved very complicated to manage", especially for local regulators and small-scale farmers.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHICHEVER way you look, the oil and gas sector is investing in biofuels. The larger energy companies – driven by an eye for a new and potentially lucrative market as well as shareholder concern and governmental and international political pressure – are investigating both first and second generation biofuels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has prepared for formal approval in December of an expansion of the borderless Schengen zone to the 10 new member states that joined the EU in 2004. Ministers accepted that these countries had sufficiently upgraded their airport frontier controls for flights from non-EU countries to allow the removal next March of immigration controls for flights to and from other EU member states (except Britain, Ireland, Bulgaria and Romania who remain outside Schengen).…

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

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

THE EUROPEAN Commission wants to spend the bulk of its Euro 5.1 billion available under its Trans-European Networks (TENs) budget for major transport projects from 2007-13 on inland waterways and railways, with new roads losing out. European Union (EU) transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot has announced that inland waterways would receive "maximum possible funding", receiving 11.5% of the total budget, while railways will get 74.2% of total funds, and roads just 2.7%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TACOGRAPH spotchecks by British highways officials and police have revealed continental van and lorry drivers are far more likely to break European Union (EU) working time rules on UK roads than Britons. Looking at newest available EU-wide comparative data 27,418 of offenders detected in 2004-4 on British highways were UK citizens, while 11,565 were from the much smaller pool of drivers from other EU member states.…

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

THE EUROPEAN Commission is pushing for Britain and Ireland to adopt the same rabies protection measures in place for other European Union (EU) member states – other than Finland and Sweden, which also have tougher controls. In a review of the EU’s current pet movement health checks mandated by EU regulation EC/998/2003, Brussels has concluded that "provided that protective immunity has been established and maintained by administration of an authorised vaccine…a valid vaccination should be the sole requirement for pets to travel to all member states".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TACOGRAPH spotchecks by British highways officials and police have revealed that continental lorry drivers are far more likely to break European Union (EU) working time rules on UK roads than Britons. Looking at newest available EU-wide comparative data 27,418 of offenders detected in 2003-4 on British highways were UK citizens, while 11,565 were from the much smaller pool of drivers from other EU member states.…

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 MARK ROWE

LORRIES are increasingly being stolen for their value as scrap and recycled materials, UK authorities have warned the road haulage industry. The rise in thefts of lorries has been blamed partly on the high prices now paid for scrap metal on the international markets – driven in part by China’s insatiable demand for metal – and on thieves who have realized that almost any part of a lorry, from wheel hubs to side panels, axles, catalytic converters, a plastic chair or the gold in the wiring looms has a recyclable value.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured the Czech Republic and Ireland for failing to implement key recent European Union (EU) regulations controlling the approval and testing of pharmaceuticals. The Czechs were found by the court failing to implement EU directive 2004/27/EC on the EU code relating to medicinal products for human use; and 2005/28/EC laying down principles and detailed guidelines for good clinical practice as regards investigational medicinal products for human use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

European Commission officials are deciding whether to launch legal action against 22 member states of the European Union (EU) who have failed to implement key legislation allowing researchers to move between EU universities. Because non-EU researchers have faced burdensome immigration procedures when undertaking research projects involving working at different European universities, the EU approved a ‘researchers’ visa’ directive in 2005, ordering member states to introduce a fast-track immigration system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MANY European academics and experts in the study of commercial crime are more than happy to discuss the state of play in the sector in an informal way with outsiders; others may be a little more cautious. But all are likely to suggest ways to gain further assistance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is pushing for Britain and Ireland to adopt the same rabies protection measures in place for other European Union (EU) member states – other than Finland and Sweden, which also have tougher controls. In a review of the EU’s current pet movement health checks mandated by EU regulation EC/998/2003, Brussels has concluded that "provided that protective immunity has been established and maintained by administration of an authorised vaccine…a valid vaccination should be the sole requirement for pets to travel to all member states".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action against the British government for allegedly failing to comply with a 2006 European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that it tighten national rules demanding environmental impact assessments of urban development projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PROPOSED ban on all commercial fishing in Atlantic waters near cool water coral reefs off western Ireland has been tabled by the European Commission. It follows a request for action from the Irish government. If European Union (EU) ministers agree, the ban would cover around 2,500 km2 of Atlantic waters: the Belgica Mound; the Hovland Mound; Northwest and Southwest Porcupine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed a cooperation agreement struck between the British and Irish governments to prevent illegal waste shipments across the land border between their two countries. Brussels was threatening legal action over the problem, because it broke European Union (EU) waste shipment rules, but with London and Dublin combining their forces, and tougher waste regulations being approved for Northern Ireland, the Commission has been satisfied.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PREPARES FOR MAJOR SHAKE UP OF COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing to announce on November 20 major changes to the way the European Union (EU) subsidises European food production through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).…

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.…

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

A US$10 million equity investment in Peru’s ethanol production is planned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank. The beneficiary will be Ireland-registered and Peru-based Maple Energy PLC, developing large scale sugar-cane ethanol production in Peru’s northern Piura region.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

FOOD prices in the UK and Ireland have reached Scandinavian levels according to the European Union’s (EU) statistics agency, Eurostat.
In 2006, Ireland-sold milk, cheese and eggs, for instance, cost 126% of the EU average, and they were 115% in the UK, compared with 104% in Sweden and 110% in Finland.…

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 BILL CORCORAN, in Dublin

THE REPUBLIC of Ireland’s economic growth over the past 15 years has been hailed as one of the success stories of the western world economies; however, in tandem with its economic growth commercial crime has also surfaced at an alarming rate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DRAFT standard being developed by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) could harmonise traditional sizing practices within the European clothing industry, enabling clothing retailers to sell clothing across Europe without changing designs or labels.
The proposals have created something of an uproar amongst right-wing nationalist tabloids in the UK, because the proposals would being to an end Britain’s comparatively rigid size 4 to 32 dress sizing system, based on fixed hip and bust sizes.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE PRICE of tobacco products in Britain is the highest in the European Union (EU) claims EU statistics agency, Eurostat. In 2006, British tobacco goods were priced at 205% of the EU average with only non-EU member, Norway out-pricing it at 227% within the European Economic Area.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEGAL action is being prepared by the European Commission against another three European Union (EU) countries over their minimum price systems for cigarettes. Brussels opposes these as an illegal restriction of trade, and recently forced Belgium into abandoning its minimum price system.…

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
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has admitted that support for a comprehensive unbundling of EU energy suppliers and producers is weak within the EU Council of Ministers, signalling that he may have to water down planned tough draft proposals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRELAND has been condemned by European Court of Justice again over shellfish waters, finding Ireland illegally excluded many shellfish beds from the pollution controls required by the directive European Union directive 79/923/EEC. Ireland had also failed to set compulsory pollution limits for organohalogenated substances and metals for controlled zones it had actually established.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND has been condemned by European Court of Justice again over shellfish waters, finding Ireland illegally excluded many shellfish beds from the pollution controls required by the directive European Union directive 79/923/EEC. Ireland had also failed to set compulsory pollution limits for organohalogenated substances and metals for controlled zones it had actually established.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has admitted that support for a comprehensive unbundling of EU energy suppliers and producers is weak within the EU Council of Ministers, signalling that he may have to water down planned tough draft proposals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRELAND has been condemned by European Court of Justice again for failing to keep its shellfish waters sufficiently free from pollution, as required by European Union directive 79/923/EEC. This time the court has found Ireland illegally excluded many shellfish beds from the pollution controls required by the directive, beyond its 14 officially designated shellfish zones.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has admitted that support for a comprehensive unbundling of EU energy suppliers and producers is weak within the EU Council of Ministers, signalling that he may have to water down tough draft proposals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has admitted that support for a comprehensive unbundling of EU energy suppliers and producers is weak within the EU Council of Ministers, signalling that he may have to water down tough draft proposals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government has received the latest in a long string of censures from the European Court of Justice for failing to comply with European Union (EU) environmental legislation. In this instance Dublin was condemned for not implementing directive 2003/4/EC guaranteeing public access to environmental information, which was supposed to have been written onto its statute book by February 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government has accepting Xenohaliotis californiensis is “endemic in existing H. tuberculata [abalone] farms in Ireland.”

This follows four outbreaks last year affecting 344,000 abalone in counties Cork, Galway and Kerry and a new infestation at a National University of Ireland, Galway, marine institute.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government has resigned itself to accepting the presence of Xenohaliotis californiensis in Ireland’s abalone farms, which it reported last year to the Aquatic Animals Commission (of the Office International des Épizooties). Ireland’s ministry of agriculture and food then confirmed four outbreaks affecting 344,000 abalone in counties Cork, Galway and Kerry.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A LENGTHY row over European Union (EU) energy policy is shaping up following the publication in April of a detailed independent study sponsored by the European Commission of the electricity markets in six EU countries.

The study – Structure and Performance of Six European Wholesale Electricity Markets in 2003, 2004 and 2005 – was drawn up by the consultants London Economics in association with Global Energy Decisions and focuses on the electricity wholesale markets in Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the UK excluding Northern Ireland.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE FRENCH tobacco market is astir and it’s quite possible that such iconic brands as Gitanes and Gauloise, part of the Franco-Spanish Altardis group with some 30% of the French cigarette market, will no longer be independently owned by the year-end.…

BY ANDREW CAVE
THE UNITED Kingdom and Irish Republic governments had anti-terror finance frameworks long before this issue climbed global agendas in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the USA. The fight against terrorism in Northern Ireland over the past 40 years saw to that.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCENTRATIONS of manure and fertiliser nitrogen run-off into watercourses in Wales and other livestock-focused areas of Britain and Ireland have been made starkly clear in a new European Union’s Joint Research Centre atlas on nutrient pollution. This shows the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark as being Europe’s hotspots for such contamination, although Wales and Northern Ireland perform poorly.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW fishing access deal has been negotiated between the European Commission and the Ivory Coast. Running six years from this June, the agreement is designed to replace an existing deal in place since 1990. The new deal will focus entirely on tuna, wIth European Union (EU) fishing rights being cut from an existing 9,000 to 7,000 tonnes per year, to be exploited by 25 seiners and 15 surface long liners, (down from 34 and up from 11 respectively under the existing system).The…

BY ANDREW CAVE
THE UNITED Kingdom and Irish Republic governments had anti-terror finance frameworks long before this issue climbed global agendas in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the USA. The fight against terrorism in Northern Ireland over the past 40 years saw to that.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MAJOR fight against salmonella contamination of food production has been launched by the European Commission, which has secured approval for a regulation forcing member states to reduce the prevalence of the disease amongst their broiler (poultry meat) flocks to 1% or less by 2011.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MAJOR fight against salmonella contamination of food production has been launched by the European Commission, which has secured approval for a regulation forcing member states to reduce the prevalence of the disease amongst their broiler (poultry meat) flocks to 1% or less by 2011.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCENTRATIONS of manure and fertiliser nitrogen run-off into watercourses across Europe have been made starkly clear in a new European Union’s Joint Research Centre atlas on nutrient pollution. This shows the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark as being Europe’s hotspots for such contamination, although Wales and Northern Ireland perform poorly.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE IRISH public place smoking ban has dramatically reduced air pollution in pubs according to a study from the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society in Dublin. Dr Luke Clancy, institute director and four associates measured pollution levels of 42 Dublin pubs and health levels of 73 Dublin bar staff before the ban and one year after the ban.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
WITH Sainsbury removing all plastic carrier bags from its checkouts for last Friday (April 27), handing out reusable paper bags made from 100% recyclable material, another nail is being hammered into the global reputation of this ubiquitous packaging.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has unveiled further data underlining the risk to human health posed by widespread contamination of broiler chicken flocks across Europe with the pathogen salmonella. In its latest figures, which back earlier alarming data about salmonella contamination within egg production systems, EFSA said that in 2005-6, almost a quarter – 23.7% – of EU broiler (meat) flocks were contaminated with salmonella.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BRITISH government is being threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over claims it has failed to ensure the correct implementation of the European Union’s (EU) landfill directive throughout the United Kingdom.

The directive imposes environmental and health standards on the operation and closure of landfills.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) working group on bribery has strengthened its criticism of Britain’s dropping a bribery investigation concerning BAE Systems and the Al Yamamah defence contract with Saudi Arabia. At a March meeting, the committee “reaffirmed its serious concerns” about the matter and alleged “continued shortcomings in UK anti-bribery legislation”, for instance over the liability of legal persons to foreign bribery charges.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government is being threatened with potential massive daily recurring fines of Euro 1,000s for failing to comply with European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings over European water quality standards. The European Commission has sent Dublin legal final warning letters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has dropped its long-running legal action against the Irish government over its previous authorisation of drift-netting at sea, which Brussels had claimed broke the European Union (EU) habitats directive. The Commission based its case on the impact of this fishing technique on wild Atlantic salmon, sending Ireland last year a final legal warning threatening a European Court of Justice (ECJ) case, with judges potentially ordering a drift-net ban.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MAJOR American golf clothing chain has failed to secure European Union (EU)-wide trademark rights to its name, because European Court of Justice (ECJ) judges found it insufficiently distinctive. Golf USA Inc franchises more than 100 golf clothing and equipment stores in 32 US states and 11 other countries: Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, South Korea, Mexico, Spain and Sweden.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IMPLEMENTATION of the European Union’s (EU) Third Money Laundering Directive by Trust and Company Service Providers (TCSPs) has given rise to a number of difficulties across the 27 EU member states, all of them related in some way to the key issue of identifying the beneficial owner of funds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DISEASE is maybe the seafood industry’s worst nightmare. Whole stocks, natural or farmed, can be wiped out overnight. And, with globalisation meaning disease is ever more likely to be transported by international shipping, cargo planes, chilled train wagons and lorries, it is increasingly important seafood businesses monitor disease outbreaks abroad, to protect themselves and their sticks against exposure.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EVER wonder how Steve Austin aka the Six Million Dollar Man was able to run at lightning speeds, jump at abnormal heights, see incredible distances and hear whispers from miles away without recharging his bionic batteries?

Personally, I do not recall Steve plugging himself in anywhere and while – as a TV goggling youngster in the 70s – I was too distracted by Mr Austin’s heroic feats to care where he got his electricity from, a new EU funded project prompted me to consider this mystery.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE STEEPNESS in the decline of British commercial fishing catches from 1995 until 2005 has been highlighted in a new report from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat. It shows that for the north-east Atlantic, North Sea and the Baltic, total British commercial catches fell from 905,678 tonnes in 1995 to 658,802 in 2005, a fall of 28%.…

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 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 DEIRDRE MASON
WRITERS IN the Republic of Ireland are celebrating a victory at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that will ensure that Irish libraries pay them when their books are borrowed.

Ireland, the ECJ ruled on January 11, went too far from the spirit of the 1992 European directive on lending rights when, in its Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, it exempted all public libraries from the need to pay public lending rights.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOVEMENT controls have been imposed on oysters from Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland, after laboratories confirmed the presence of Bonamia ostreae in local beds. The Aquatic Animals Commission (of the Office International des Épizooties) said there had been no oyster deaths associated with the disease, but that further investigations would be carried out, while tracing oyster movements and zoning stocks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOVEMENT controls have been imposed on oysters from Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland, after laboratories confirmed the presence of Bonamia ostreae in local beds. The Aquatic Animals Commission (of the Office International des Épizooties) said there had been no oyster deaths associated with the disease, but that further investigations would be carried out, while tracing oyster movements and zoning stocks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BALTIC States are the European Union’s (EU) boom-region for research spending increases, according to the latest R&D figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat, which show Britain’s performance as relatively static. Annual average growth rates in real terms research spending from 2001 to 2005 ranged from +18% in Latvia, +17% in Estonia, and +11% in Lithuania, (+15% in Cyprus).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BALTIC States are the European Union’s (EU) boom-region for research spending increases, according to the latest R&D figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat, which show Britain’s performance as relatively static. Annual average growth rates in real terms research spending from 2001 to 2005 ranged from +18% in Latvia, +17% in Estonia, and +11% in Lithuania, (+15% in Cyprus).…

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 IRISH government has been formally threatened with European Court of Justice (ECJ) action by the European Commission, over Ireland’s fixing of minimum and maximum prices of cigarettes. Brussels claims that such systems have already been declared illegal in previous similar cases by the court, which has found them breaching European Union treaty commitments protecting competition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has dismissed claims from the European Commission that fees demanded by the Irish government for participation in environmental impact assessments (EIA) are illegal. The court has ruled that because the fees are low (Pounds 20 for local authority and Euro 45 for Planning Appeals Board inquiries), they are not an illegal "obstacle to the exercise of the rights of participation" under the EU’s EIA directives 85/337/EEC and 97/11/EC.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has refused to block Polish company Montex from exporting Diesel-branded jeans from Poland to Ireland, where it has no trademark protection. Diesel argued it had the right to stop consignments crossing Germany, even though they were destined for Ireland, because it did control German trademark rights to the brand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

JEANS company Diesel has lost a case at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) where it was trying to block Polish company Montex from exporting Diesel-branded jeans from Poland to Ireland, where it has no trademark protection. Diesel argued it had the right to stop consignments crossing Germany, even though they were destined for Ireland, because it did control German trademark rights to the brand.…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS, in Port of Spain

TIME-WAS that food production in the Caribbean was dominated by commodities, with sugar and bananas being king and queen of island economies. Protected from the rigours of world markets by age-old ties to current or former colonial markets, these cash crop supplies remained largely unchanged for centuries.…

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

CONTRARY to expectations earlier this year, the drinks industry has been let off relatively lightly in the long-awaited ‘communication’ (policy paper) from the European Commission on alcohol. The paper sets out five policy priorities, emphasising the protection of young people and children and on the reduction of alcohol-related traffic accidents.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND has at last put in place pollution reduction programmes designed to protect key shellfish waters, following intense legal pressure from the European Commission. It secured in 2003 from the European Court of Justice a censure of Irish inaction in this regards, with judges saying 14 shellfish waters had been left at risk, breaking the European Union shellfish water directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) internal market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has warned the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) its oncoming small and medium-sized business (SME) standards had better be user-friendly, or Brussels will ignore them. He told a meeting of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Ireland, in Dublin, that the European Commission would actively engage in a public consultation following its issuing a of draft SME accounting standards.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE LONG-AWAITED communication from the European Commission on alcohol has been predictably well received by a drinks industry, which had feared Brussels would burden them with marketing restrictions. At times in recent months producers had frankly feared they would be forced to print health warnings on labels, to restrict or censor advertising and possibly even to accept higher taxes to reduce consumption.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND has installed pollution reduction programmes designed to protect key shellfish waters, says the European Commission. This follows a 2003 European Court of Justice censure saying 14 shellfish waters had been left at risk, breaking the European Union shellfish water directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRISH food health officials have been fighting the first ever outbreak of Xenohaliotis Californiensis in the Republic of Ireland, which has been detected in four abalone growing sites in the country’s south-west. Tests confirmed the presence of the pathogen from this summer at Bere Island and Cape Clear – County Cork; Claddaghduff – Galway; and Castlegregory – Kerry.…

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

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is moving towards supporting environment-friendly road transport, rather than dedicating resources to promoting public transport, a European Parliament debate organised by the Automobile and Society Forum, has heard. The European Commission is currently reviewing its 2001 transport white paper and its working papers have noted "disappointment" over the results of the EU’s pro-public transport policies.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Commission has drastically watered down a European Union (EU) alcohol abuse action plan, which health campaigners fear was in response to a powerful lobbying campaign earlier this year by the drinks industry. Earlier drafts from Brussels indicated that producers would have been forced to print health warnings on labels and restrict or censor advertising.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a common European Union (EU) labelling system for veal, albeit with enough flexibility to accommodate national traditions. Brussels wants a cap of 12 months for the age of calves whose meat is sold as ‘veal’ in a local language.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a common European Union (EU) labelling system for veal, albeit with enough flexibility to accommodate national traditions. Brussels wants a cap of 12 months for the age of calves whose meat is sold as ‘veal’ in a local language.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved Irish government plans to spend Euro 65.5 million on capital investments in six small regional airports in Ireland. The money will be spent 2006-10 on expanding facilities and improving safety standards at Donegal, Sligo, Knock, Galway, Kerry and Waterford.…

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

A BID by a Glencore aluminium subsidiary to shelve a European Commission order it repay an Irish government excise duty exemption on heavy fuel oils has been rejected by the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Balderson, Ontario

STRONG family links and a dislike of European Union bureaucracy was what brought David James, 62, to Canada to start over again. In 1998, the James family, including wife Ann, 61, daughter Debra, 39, and son-in law Rob, 39, packed up their belongings and moved to a small farming community called Balderson, roughly 50 miles from Canada’s capital, Ottawa.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOTHING manufacturers without trademark rights to a brand in a particular European Union (EU) country, cannot rely on such rights in another EU state to prevent a rival transporting goods carrying this mark across its territory. This legal principle has been recommended for adoption by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by an ECJ advocate general, who has said that "in the absence of uncertainty" that the rival manufacturer has no plans to sell such branded clothing in the transit country, EU law does not allow an original manufacturer to use local trademark rights to block such transports.…

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 LIVESTOCK and Meat Commission for Northern Ireland will benefit from the latest European Commission grants for promoting food sales within the EU. Brussels will subsidise a Northern Irish meat marketing and information campaign with Euro 207,365 over one year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN is expected to help lead an increase in gross production of cattle in the European Union (EU), reversing a decline in slaughtered stock and live exports that has continued since 2003, says European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IRELAND has been told by the European Commission to exercise better control over its use of drift nets to catch wild salmon on the grounds of nature conservation. Brussels based its complaint on the EU’s Habitats Directive which, amongst other things, protects wild Atlantic salmon and the major freshwaters where it spawns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NATURAL gas prices rose steeply in the European Union (EU) during 2005, a report from EU statistical agency Eurostat has confirmed: up 16% for domestic customers and 33% for industrial users. There were significant variations between member states: for instance for households, prices rose by 30% in Slovakia; 27% in Luxembourg and the Czech Republic; and 25% in Ireland, while prices remained nearly stable in Estonia and increased just 5% in Denmark and 8% in Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOTHING manufacturers without trademark rights to a brand in a particular European Union (EU) country, cannot rely on such rights in another EU state to prevent rivals transporting goods carrying this mark: this principle has been recommended to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by an ECJ advocate general saying "in the absence of uncertainty" that rival manufacturers will not sell such brands in the transit country, EU law stops original manufacturers using local trademark rights to block transports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOTHING manufacturers without trademark rights to a brand in a particular European Union (EU) country, cannot rely on such rights in another EU state to prevent rivals transporting goods carrying this mark: this principle has been recommended to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by an ECJ advocate general saying "in the absence of uncertainty" that rival manufacturers will not sell such brands in the transit country, EU law stops original manufacturers using local trademark rights to block transports.…

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

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 EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a list of priority projects that will draw in EU funding and diplomatic support under its 2007-13 trans European network (TENs) energy programme. Agreed with the European Parliament, the schemes are designed to fulfil the EU’s energy policy goals of improving security of supply, especially from outside member states, and underpinning Europe’s internal market in gas and electricity.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

WHEN asked about corruption in Belgium by Commercial Crime International, a government official held his nose in the time-honoured gesture. But was he being fair? Some recent high profile cases have brought the nation some lurid publicity.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

FIGURES from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat have shown how sharply some populations in Europe will fall by 2050, potentially creating serious excess capacity in higher education institutions. Germany and Italy illustrate this most starkly. Eurostat projects that Germany’s 2005 population of 82.6 million will fall to 74.6 million in 2050; and while there were 58.2 million Italian residents in 2005, there will be just 52.7 million in 2050.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

FIGURES from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat have shown how sharply some populations in Europe will fall by 2050, potentially creating serious excess capacity in higher education institutions. Germany and Italy illustrate this most starkly. Eurostat projects that Germany’s 2005 population of 82.6 million will fall to 74.6 million in 2050; and while there were 58.2 million Italian residents in 2005, there will be just 52.7 million in 2050.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

YOUNG adults in Germany – long seen as Europe’s technological powerhouse – are turning away from science and engineering, with just 16% of tertiary educated professionals in these fields being aged 25-34. The figures are the worst in the European Economic Area (EEA), and show that without change, Germany could face a shortage of engineers and scientists in the medium term.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND has been censured by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for using the United Nations Law of the Sea’s dispute settlement procedure to tackle Britain’s pollution of the Irish Sea via the Sellafield plant. The court ruled that in European Union (EU) territorial waters, it had exclusive jurisdiction, and Dublin should have asked it to censure Britain, not the UN.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

OPPOSITION is being voiced within the European Union (EU) to the growing trend of banning smoking in bars and pubs, says an opinion poll by EU pollsters Eurobarometer. While across the EU, 61% of citizens polled support these bans, there were majorities against them in significant countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE IRISH government is being taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over refusing public compensation to blameless but uninsured road accident victims whose crash was caused by the driver of another vehicle without insurance. The European Commission claims Ireland is breaking the European Union’s (EU) second motor insurance directive.…

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.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the subsidising by GBPounds 10.4 million from the British and Irish governments of Derry City Council-funded capital development projects at the City of Derry airport. These are a runway safety scheme, allowing more aircraft types to land, and helping the council finance previous improvements’ cost overruns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed reforms to the scientific basis and transparency of decisions on approving or banning genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foodstuffs. This follows concerns from member states that too many GM products are being approved for sale in the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has ruled efforts to squeeze Ireland-based creditors from Bank of America-inspired insolvency proceedings of a Dublin-based subsidiary of Italian food giant Parmalat could be blocked by Irish courts. The ECJ confirmed the theoretical role of Italian liquidators, but in reality an Irish liquidator will probably handle the case.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) may have helped Italian courts control any insolvency proceedings of a Parmalat subsidiary in Ireland, Eurofood. Control of winding-up this financing company for the Parmalat group has been claimed by both Italian and Irish courts and the ECJ was asked about how European law affects the choice of jurisdiction over such matters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CADBURY Schweppes may scupper an attempt by Britain’s Inland Revenue to levy GBPounds 8.6 million taxes from an Ireland-based subsidiary. It wanted to charge Cadbury Schweppes Treasury International (CSTI), alleging it was a shell for dodging higher British tax rates.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

CADBURY Schweppes may scupper an attempt by Britain’s Inland Revenue to levy GBPounds 8.6 million taxes from an Ireland-based subsidiary. It wanted to charge Cadbury Schweppes Treasury International (CSTI), alleging it was a shell company for dodging higher British tax rates.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

WIND power is Europe’s big growth area for electricity generation, according to the latest comparative figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat, with capacity growing by 154% between 2000 and 2004. Its report noted wind power "is responsible for more than half of the new generating capacity" in these years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers and the European Parliament have approved a new fishing agreement with Morocco, despite controversy over its covering waters off the disputed territory of the Western Sahara. The Polisario Liberation Front has since 1975 been fighting Morocco for self-determination over the largely desert territory.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) may have helped Italian courts control any insolvency proceedings of a Parmalat subsidiary in Ireland, Eurofood. Control of winding-up this financing company for the Parmalat group has been claimed by both Italian and Irish courts and the ECJ was asked about how European law affects the choice of jurisdiction over such matters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has taken another step towards securing valuable fishing rights for its fleets in the Pacific, with the EU Council of Ministers approving an access agreement with Micronesia. For nine years, Spanish and Portuguese longliners along with Spanish and French freezer seiners will be able to fish the archipelago’s rich tuna fishing grounds north of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CADBURY Schweppes may beat off an attempt by Britain’s Inland Revenue to levy GBPounds 8.6 million taxes from an Ireland-based subsidiary. The tax collector wanted to charge Cadbury Schweppes Treasury International (CSTI), an in house finance company. It alleged CSTI’s presence in Ireland was to dodge higher British tax rates, and claimed money under a UK law on ‘controlled foreign companies’ allowing taxation of British-owned subsidiaries based abroad.…

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.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that efforts to squeeze Ireland-based creditors from Bank of America-inspired insolvency proceedings of a Dublin-based subsidiary of Italian food giant Parmalat could be blocked by the Irish courts. Although the ECJ ruling in principle also confirms the theoretical rights of Italian liquidators to have a role – noting that "the right of creditors or their representatives to participate" in insolvency proceedings "is of particular importance" – the effect in this case will be to guarantee the rights of a publicly appointed liquidator in Ireland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A BID by the Spanish government to secure more North Sea and Baltic Sea access rights for its fishermen has been thrown out by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). After Spain joined the European Union in 1986, it was given some special transitional access to these waters (from 1996), but these expired in 2002, leaving Spanish vessels – claimed Madrid – with unfairly limited quotas.…

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

AS Alexander Lukashenko exploits his contested mandate as president of Belarus to crush his country’s opposition, the European Union and the Nordic Council of Ministers have pledged Euro 2.78 million to help a Belarusian university in exile survive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHARP decline observed in European butterfly populations by an international study has raised parallel concerns about worsening environmental conditions in general. The report published in the Journal of Insect Conservation says that butterflies "are very good candidates to build biodiversity indicators".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled imminent plans to abolish the European Union (EU) system of pre-financing export refunds for food, widely used in the past to manipulate EU beef sales. Because of this, EU agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel has told the EU Council of Ministers that the system would be replaced with direct beef export controls.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRELAND has been censured by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to comply with a year 2000 European Union (EU) directive imposing limits on working time in the civil aviation sector. This enshrined in law an agreement struck by the Association of European Airlines (AEA), the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), the European Cockpit Association (ECA), the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) and the International Air Carrier Association (IACA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has released plans to lend money covering half of the debt incurred by the Northern Ireland Roads Service in five construction projects. These include improvements to the M1, A1 and A4/A5 trunk roads, involving bridge pier strengthening; dualling the A1 from Beechill to Cloghogue; A1 junction improvements and M1 communications changes.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

ONGOING recruitment of South African nurses to the UK is pushing South Africa’s already hard pressed public health system close to the brink of collapse and putting patient care at risk, the country’s lead nursing union and health experts have warned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PRACTICAL and regional initiative to remove barriers in trading electricity between neighbouring European Union (EU) countries has been launched by the European Regulators’ Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG). It is grouping states’ regulators and utilities together to focus on regulatory and technical difficulties impeding cross-border sales of electricity for countries sharing frontiers.…

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 EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared illegal a refusal by the European Commission to pay Euro 154,892 interest on the refunded portion of a Euro 8.8 million fine earlier levied against Ireland’s Irish Sugar, now owned by the Greencore Group plc.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank is lending GBPounds 61 million to a private-public partnership upgrading sections of the M1 and M2 motorways near Belfast, involving local contractors John Graham (Dromore) Ltd and Northstone (NI) Ltd.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH government financial controls will be examined by a special European Parliament committee of inquiry into the near collapse of Equitable Life, and the slashing of its pensions. The parliament has launched its probe following complaints from policy-holders, especially the around 15,000 non-British clients, mainly from Germany and Ireland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRISH natural gas company Finavera Ltd claims a technical evaluation of its Lough Allen natural gas field, in the northwest Irish Republic and Northern Ireland has revealed 9.4 trillion cubic feet gas reserves.

ENDS…

BY MARK ROWE

EXPORTS of Lithuanian beer rose by 51.4% in 2005, according to the Lithuanian Breweries Association, to 1.518 million dekalitres – exceeding the combined volumes of the neighbouring Estonian and Latvian beer markets. Domestic consumption was more modest but still saw a healthy growth of 4.5% – though according to a spokesman for brewer Gubernija, the domestic market is loyal, with up to 97% of the domestic market divided between Lithuanian breweries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has demonstrated that there are limits to the authority coastal states may have over its fishing fleets in international access deals by refusing to renew a protocol with Angola. Indeed, the European Commission has asked EU ministers to denounce a 1989 agreement underpinning a series of access deals, after refusing to accept a new Angolan law on ‘biological aquatic resources’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SCOTTISH meat producers are receiving grants from the European Commission to sell within the European Union. Over three years, Brussels will spend Euro 1.4 million on Quality Meat Scotland programmes. It will also spend Euro 145,093 on one year’s Livestock Meat Commission of Northern Ireland marketing schemes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment of three national subsidy schemes for the European Union (EU) food sector, using its powers to block or approve state aid schemes to ensure a level EU commercial playing field. It has allowed the payment of GBPounds 2.25 million by the UK government on the Meat Generic Advertising Scheme for Wales, from April 2006 to March 2007.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission is to provide euros 25.5 million – half the total cost – of 25 programmes to promote agricultural products in 14 EU countries. These are meant essentially as information/publicity projects, highlighting quality, food safety, regional specialities, organic produce and animal welfare as well as underwriting participation in fairs and agricultural shows.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has declared illegal a refusal by the European Commission to pay Euro 154,892 interest on a refunded fine levied against Irish Sugar, now owned by Ireland’s Greencore.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the Irish Industrial Development Agency (IDA) to grant Euro 48.25 million to help Centocor Inc. build a biopharmaceutical production plant on a greenfield site at Ringaskiddy, County Cork, Ireland. Brussels approved this state aid saying it would not distort competition within the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) construction companies could have to follow tough harmonised planning rules in districts prone to flooding, if a proposed EU flood directive is approved. The European Commission is trying to force all EU member states to have a high standard of anti-flood programmes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is trying to force all European Union (EU) member states to have a high standard of policies and programmes to prevent floods, while dealing with damage caused when that is not possible. It has proposed a directive that would order national governments, including Britain, to follow a detailed blueprint for their anti-flood policies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SPANISH government has failed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to free itself from some fish stocks conservation rules administered by the European Commission, notably restricting its fishing fleet’s catches in the Irish Box. Spain alleged at the court that these rules amounted to national discrimination, illegal under EU treaties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission wants to force all European Union member states to have a high standard of flood prevention and mitigation programmes. Its proposed directive would order national governments to stage a preliminary flood risk assessments of river basins and coastal zones.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
IRELAND’S Celtic Tiger economy may have lost a little of its bounce recently, with double-digit annual growth figures no longer predicted. However, the beast is still in fine fettle, as a recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) observer report notes: “The economy has bounced back.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured Ireland for failing over many years to communicate crucial fishing data by computer to the European Commission. Judges said that by delaying until this year the installation of computer data equipment that was supposed to be in place by 1999, Ireland had "failed to fulfil its obligations" under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

IRELAND’S Celtic Tiger economy may have lost a little of its bounce recently, with double-digit annual growth figures no longer predicted. However, the beast is still in fine fettle, as a recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) observer report notes: “The economy has bounced back.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN has been given a generally positive report on its environmental performance by a detailed and long-term European Environment Agency (EEA) report. Overall, the EEA said that the UK was "fortunate to have implemented a series of structural economic changes in the recent past that have brought environmental improvements".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH European Commissioner tasked with ridding the European Union (EU) of national regulations that hinder trade, has called for EU member states to have a free hand, at least as regards taxation. Declaring keen support for tax competition between the 25 EU countries, the former Fianna Fail finance minister Charlie McCreevy told a KPMG meeting in Naas, Ireland: “There are some who argue that lower taxation in one member state than in another doesn’t give a level playing field.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ON July 31 this year the European Union’s (EU) Tobacco Advertising Directive came into effect, making it illegal to advertise tobacco products in the print media, radio and over the Internet within the EU. Also banned was tobacco sponsorship of cross-border cultural and sporting events.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is holding a legislative bonfire, releasing details of proposed fishing measures it will abandon under a drive by its current regime to simplify European Union (EU) laws and lessen their impact on industry. Most of the proposals earmarked for the shredder have encountered political opposition from the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, making it difficult for the Commission to get them passed into law.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVE report on the behaviour of European Union (EU) consumers has shown that Britain’s recent deflation of prices in retail clothing is far from typical, with only six other member states in the 25-country bloc having the same experience.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE AMOUNT of municipal waste being handled by British local authorities is projected by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to increase by 30% from 2000 to 2020. This is exceeds the predicted average for the old 15 member EU, which is 20-25%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations’ International Seabed Authority has delayed agreement of new regulations governing how metal ore mining companies would explore and exploit deep seawaters for hauls such as polymetallic sulphide nodules and cobalt-rich crusts. These mineral resources are rich in copper, iron, zinc, silver, gold and cobalt; sulphides are found around volcanic areas and crusts on oceanic ridges.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT is probably true, as some anti-tobacco campaigners claim, that if the European Union (EU) had had the statutory authority to act in the public health area in recent years, then the legal crackdown on smokers would have been far tougher than it has been.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRELAND has become the latest country to ask the United Nations to extend its economic control over the continental shelf bordering its coastline beyond the usual 200 nautical miles. It has asked the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for mineral and other rights over the Atlantic seabed abutting the ‘Porcupine Abyssal Plain’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRELAND has become the latest country to ask the United Nations to extend its economic control over the continental shelf bordering its coastline beyond the usual 200 nautical miles. It has asked the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for oil, gas and other rights over the Atlantic seabed abutting the ‘Porcupine Abyssal Plain’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN IRISH company’s plan to help 1,600 meat and dairy producers in Latin America adopt technology capturing and disposing of methane, creating saleable carbon credits, has been supported by a US$10 million International Finance Corporation loan. AgCert International plc wants to spend US$150 million on rolling out these systems.…

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
AN IRISH company’s plan to help 1,600 meat and dairy producers in Latin America adopt technology capturing and disposing of methane has been supported by a US$10 million loan from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). AgCert International plc actually wants to spend US$150 million on rolling out these systems over the next three years, especially in Brazil and Mexico.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
IT may never equal the four-fold rise in the price of a barrel of crude oil that took place between 1973 and 1974, but this year’s hike to more than US$60 a barrel has given all those industries dependent on the stability of fuel prices a severe shock, and the aviation industry is one of those reeling from the increases.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE BRITISH government is confident that it will avoid legal action from the European Commission at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has formally warned the UK and five other European Union (EU) about not implementing a key accounting directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government is facing yet more rounds of legal action from the European Commission over its failure to abide by European Union (EU) environmental legislation. In one instance, Ireland has been given a final warning of a likely request it be heavily fined by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for ignoring an earlier ECJ order to better protect the ozone layer.…

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 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.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government is facing yet another round of legal action from the European Commission over its failure to abide by European Union (EU) environmental legislation affecting fish farming. The Commission has now decided to take Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failing to stage sufficiently rigorous environmental impact assessments on fish farms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH and Swedish governments are being targeted for legal action over alleged insurance legislation infringements in European Commission’s regular summer round of litigation. It is formally threatening Ireland with a referral to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over national rules preventing the payment of any compensation, whatever the circumstances, from the Irish Insurance Bureau to drivers in an accident where all vehicles involved are uninsured.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A RECENT Irish study has found that whilst nurses responded to a hospital campaign to increase hand-washing, almost half of affected doctors still failed to take this basic cleanliness precaution. According to the Oxford-based Journal of Advanced Nursing, only 51% of Ireland hospital staff surveyed followed hand-washing guidelines before a hygiene campaign was launched.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BELGIUM has joined the growing list of European Union (EU) member states censured by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to properly police EU fishing rules in its waters. And again, as with France, Ireland, Denmark and others, the Belgians have been found breaking the Common Fishing Policy (CFP) in a number of ways over the years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is developing an information technology system that will provide real time advice to emergency services on reducing the damage from maritime disasters involving natural or man-made pollution. The DISMAR, or Data Integration System for Marine Pollution and Water Quality system is now being tested.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRELAND customs officers have blocked an unauthorised shipment of the banned GM maize Bt10, the first discovery of a contaminated consignment arriving in the EU since Brussels approved measures to prevent such illicit imports.…

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
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to press the European Commission to provide a written response to its question on whether it had been satisfied that Lloyd’s of London had been “properly and effectively regulated” between 1978 and 2001.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COUNTRIES that are members of the European Union’s (EU) Schengen open borders system will be able to access each other’s driving licence data in future, the EU Council of Ministers has decided. The decision is aimed at preventing the re-registering in different EU member states of stolen vehicles, allowing checks to be made following re-registration applications.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW European Commission report has raised concerns that while efforts are being made by European Union (EU) institutions, not enough done to raise people in work out of poverty. It says that while “low pay is obviously an important risk factor…being low-skilled and remaining in unstable and often part-time employment, can also lead to poverty”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government has been censured again by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over lax pollution controls of its lakes, rivers and sea inlets, many exploited by fish farms. The ECJ said Ireland had failed to comply with a 1976 European Union directive on ‘discharging dangerous substances into the aquatic environment’, by not controlling enough pollutants or protecting enough lakes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has found Ireland to still be in breach of the 1976 European Union (EU) directive 76/464/EEC on discharging dangerous substances into the aquatic environment. The ECJ said Ireland’s failures included not controlling all polluting substances listed in the legislation and only protecting 65% of its lakes.…

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 Union’s (EU) anti-fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas has called on other cigarette manufacturers to make smuggling crackdown agreements with the EU and its member states, mirroring that already struck with Philip Morris International. Speaking at the opening of a European Parliament exhibition on cigarette smuggling, Kallas said he hoped the agreement would “serve as a model for other manufacturers who are willing to commit the necessary resources to combat illegal trade of their products and to work with us to combat that trade”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to make large low interest loans to two British utilities, to fund major capital works schemes. In Northern Ireland, the publicly-owned European Union (EU) bank wants to lend the province’s Water Service up to GBPounds 88 million to help improve the quality, quantity and security of its treated water supplies to 781,000 customers, ensuring compliance with the EU drinking water directive.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ACCORDING to global consumption figures, Israel is the world capital of teenage soft drink demand, with hot weather combined with a competitive market to create something of a utopia for drinks companies. An international survey of soft drinks consumption published by the Economist by 15 year olds of both sexes suggests that Israel has the world’s biggest teenage consumers of carbonated and still drinks, colas, sodas, juices and the like on a per capita basis.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government is being taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over its failure to order environmental impact assessments of pig rearing units before they are set up. The result of this, said the European Commission, which has launched the action is that “the public and the environment may suffer nuisance and harm”.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commissioner charged with forging high cross-border standards in financial reporting has likened published accounts to “bikinis: much more interesting for what they conceal than for what they reveal -regardless of more exacting accounting standards”.

Ireland’s European Union (EU) internal market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy told a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants’ qualification conferring ceremony in Dublin, accountants should better rely on commercial horse sense.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament and the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers have compromised on the final shape of a directive reducing sulphur content in marine fuels. The result is legislation that permits higher sulphur usage than the parliament wanted, cutting its marine fuels content to 1.5% by 2007, for all vessels in the Baltic, the North Sea, and the English Channel, and passenger ships in all EU seas and oceans.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured the Irish government for committing what it calls “general and persistent breaches of the (European Union) waste directive”. Judges said Dublin’s failure to introduce an effective permit system for waste handlers had sparked uncontrolled dumping, to which it sometimes turned a blind eye.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance has rejected a bid by Spain’s Duarte y Beltrán SA to secure European Union (EU)-wide trademark rights to sell cosmetics, soaps and perfumes under the brand ‘INTEA’. Judges backed the EU’s Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs) -OHIM – in supporting the complaint of Italian rival Mirato SpA.…

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
TASMANIA’S metals industry is enjoying a welcome resurgence, with non-ferrous metals leading the charge, nickel, copper and tin being the main players. Miners in the Australia island state are reluctant to call it a ‘metals rush’ but it is the most significant set of resource finds for more than 100 years in the island.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
TASMANIA’S non-ferrous metals industry is enjoying a welcome resurgence with strong production targets for the next five to ten years.

Miners in Australia’s island state are reluctant to call it a “metals rush” but it is the most significant set of resource finds for more than 100 years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COLLECTIVE bargaining remains dominant for settling pay and working time conditions in European workplaces, covering around two-thirds of workers in the European Union (EU). This contrasts with one-fifth of the Japanese workers and only one-eighth of American workers, said a report from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.…