Search Results for: Latvia

The comprehensive set of reforms to the European Union (EU) AML/CFT system the European Commission proposed July 20 through a package of four legislative initiatives (1) could eliminate weaknesses in the fight against dirty money, but success will still hinge on implementation in the member states, experts have argued.…

Growth in demand for and production of renewable diesel is set to disrupt the global liquid fuels sector, with major increases in refining capacity being developed now. Renewable diesel has major potential as a transitional alternative energy source, because, unlike standard biofuels, in its highest quality form, it is chemically identical to fossil fuel diesel. …

THE FINNISH can manufacturing industry has been growing, with new production coming online in the past 10 years to diversify a sector that is able to draw on effective access to raw materials and a highly skilled workforce.

Both Rexam (now part of Ball) and Poland-based Canpack operate efficient Finnish can-making plants.…

EUROPEAN energy experts say the European Union (EU)’s green energy targets within a new climate law to cut carbon emissions at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels will be challenging but achievable. It is a significant steepening of ambition compared to the EU’s existing legislation, reducing emissions by at least 32.5% by 2030 from 1990 levels.…

EUROPE’S FATF-style body Moneyval has raised serious concerns about AML/CFT standards among 19 of its members, with its 2020 annual report concluding their average compliance is “below satisfactory”. The jurisdictions assessed were Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Gibraltar, Hungary, Israel, the Isle of Man, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.…

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

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.…

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

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) financial watchdog has stressed how the EU needs to simplify its spending systems, which would make fraud is tougher to commit and easier to detect. The EU Court of Auditors has formally issued an ‘adverse opinion’ on the audited expenditure during 2019 of the 27-country union.…

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

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) continues to struggle to clamp down on fraud within its revenue collection and spending programmes – making progress, but with major scams still emerging within the EU’s complex international decision-making systems.

In its latest annual ‘fight against fraud’ report (1) (2), covering 2019, the European Commission reports that 939 discovered irregularities were reported as fraudulent (8% of the number), involving EUR461.4 million in lost money (28% of that affected by irregularities).…

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.…

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

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

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has set out plans for a future trading relationship with the UK after the current transitional period, where Britain follows EU rules, expires on December 31 – it includes unfettered free trade in food and drink products, without tariffs and without restrictive quotas.…

THE MALAYSIAN government has issued a Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIB) Framework, which tells financial institutions of importance to Malaysia’s wider economy to hold minimum levels of reserves to protect themselves against troubled times. Mandatory ‘higher loss absorbency’ (HLA) requirements for listed systemic banks, ranging between 0.5% to 1.0% of risk-weighted assets, will come into force from January 31, 2021.…

Money laundering and due diligence failings led the European Central Bank (ECB) to revoke the licence of one of Austria’s oldest financial institutions with immediate effect last week (on November 15). The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA – Finanzmarktaufsicht Österreich), which had recommended the move to the ECB, announced that the European Union (EU) institution had revoked the licence of Anglo Austrian AAB Bank AG, which was known as Bank Meinl until June. …

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.…

THE WOOL sector is part of an increasingly complex and global supply chain and, as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and buyers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

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.…

WITH the Carbon Trust defining energy management as the use of technology to improve energy performance of an organisation within their holistic management processes, the need to tap data banks of expertise can only help in framing and operating such policies.…

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.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector has an increasingly complex and global supply chain and as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and retailers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

THE BALTIC States, being European Union (EU) member states adjacent to Russia and Belarus have been exploited by Russian criminals as a gateway for their illicit funds into the EU and beyond.

This is despite that as EU member states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must implement EU anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance legislation.…

THE INDUSTRIAL minerals mining and processing sector and its customers has an increasingly complex and global supply chain and as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and retailers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

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

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

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

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

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. …

EASTERN Europe remains a highly diverse market, where major beauty brands must think strategically to achieve economies of scale and a regional presence that really deliver profits. This is also a region where some markets are significantly bigger than others – with Russia and Poland being key targets.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has agreed to establish disputes settlement panels to rule on whether retaliatory duties imposed by Canada, China, and Mexico on US meat exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

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.…

A SALES and Services Tax (SST), replacing Malaysia’s now abolished goods and services tax (GST), has come into force (from September 1), via the new Sales Tax Act 2018 and the Service Tax Act 2018. The SST is a single-stage tax, a sales and services tax imposed on manufacturers and service providers rather than end customers, as with the 6% GST.…

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drafted plans to lend EUR70 million to Latvia’s Riga International Airport operator Starptautiska Lidosta Riga VAS to help finance improvements and capacity expansions scheduled for 2018-23. The operator wants to extend landside terminal facilities; build a new rapid exit taxiway and cargo apron; acquire new explosive detection systems (EDS) equipment meeting European Union standard 3 requirements; rehabilitate airside pavement areas; reconstruct storm water drainage systems; and upgrade airside lighting systems.…

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.…

A SALES and Services Tax (SST), replacing Malaysia’s now abolished goods and services tax (GST), has come into force (from September 1), via the new Sales Tax Act 2018 and the Service Tax Act 2018. The SST is a single-stage tax, a sales and services tax imposed on manufacturers and service providers rather than end customers, as with the 6% GST.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has released a new standard on reporting financial instruments – IPSAS 41 – to improve the relevance of financial assets and liabilities data. It replaces financial instruments reporting rules in IPSAS 29, introducing a single classification and measurement model for financial assets, considering an asset’s objective and cash flows.…

A CRACKDOWN coordinated by European Union (EU) police and judicial cooperation authorities, Europol and Eurojust, has caught a network of online scammers responsible for stealing some EUR18 million, with a total 19 arrests. With the ringleader in Cyprus and members in Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK, the gang was behind over 35,000 online fraud cases detected since 2012 in a six-year long probe called Operation Warenagent, managed by the public prosecution office of Dresden, and the Saxon state office of criminal investigation, both in Germany, and the Vilnius public prosecutor, in Lithuania.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) justice, consumers and gender equality Commissioner Věra Jourová has unveiled the EU’s 2018 Justice Scoreboard, highlighting failings in national justice systems, including not protecting judges from political influence.  “The independence of courts and judges remains an issue in certain member states,” Jourová said, with the perception of independence ranging from nearly 90% in Denmark to 25% in Hungary, the worst performer.…

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.…

INTERNATIONAL tenders are now open to expand Latvia’s Riga International Airport (RIX), with bidders being asked to propose designs for a new expanded terminal. With increased passenger and flight numbers, the existing terminal’s check-in, security, and luggage claim areas are no longer able to accommodate ongoing traffic growth.…

THE USA’S Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed banning correspondent bank relationships within the United States for the Latvia-based ABLV Bank which it says has aided money laundering. With US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin immediately backing the move, the clampdown is sure to happen, maybe within three months.…

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 DE-RISKING by banks of their correspondent banking relationships is a long-standing problem and is today becoming a truly global phenomenon. From the Caribbean to the Pacific Islands, to Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe, banks have lost correspondent relationships with international financial institutions.…

Cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) are still very common in Russia, despite its continued ban on European Union (EU) pigmeat exports, imposed since January 2014 following a handful of cases in Poland and Lithuania. While outbreaks have continued in the EU, Russia – whose ban was imposed on live pigs, pork and pig products over fears importing ASF-infected meat and livestock, has from last July (2017) to today (January 30) notified to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) around 2,800 ASF cases of domestic pigs, and 90 cases in wild boars.…

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

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

THE SECURITIES Commission Malaysia (SC) has issued Guidelines on Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) Funds to boost the growth of green investments in the country. The advice follows Malaysia issuing in July the world’s first green sukuk (Islamic bond).

The new advice applies to conventional as well as Islamic sustainable finance, including unit trust funds, real estate trust funds, exchange-traded funds, and venture capital and private equity funds.…

OECD SAYS 49 JURISDICTIONS WILL AUTOMATICALLY EXCHANGE TAX INFORMATION THIS YEAR

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

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

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

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

IN a cutting-edge area of the textile sector such as digital manufacturing, planning and distribution, it is always helpful to know what the gold standard is for performance. But with technologies still developing and innovation taking hardware and software in directions that are untested – with implications that are as yet unknown – companies may not want to follow the crowd.…

Greater collaboration between private sector organisations is the key to even greater use – and success – of artificial intelligence (AI) in combating money laundering, cross-sector experts believe.

Specialists from banking and finance, compliance, the legal profession, law enforcement and AI developers all concur that the most effective way forward in the ongoing anti-money laundering (AML) battle is to increase the amount of shared data.…

Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has released a new Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG). This revised guidance encourages the development of corporate governance culture, not just within listed companies, but also state-owned enterprises, small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and licensed intermediaries. This code includes 36 practices to support strong board leadership; effective audit, risk management, and internal controls; and solid corporate reporting.…

The European Commission and the Russian giant Gazprom have moved closer to striking a deal over the company’s competitive behavior in the European Union (EU). On Monday (March 13), the EU competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager invited all interested parties to comment on Gazprom commitments to address concerns that the company is breaking EU anti-trust rules.…

THE DE-RISKING by major banks through cancelling correspondent banking relationships (CBRs) has started to raise such alarm that anti-money laundering institutions are starting to advise against such caution.

“There has been international pressure to make banks think twice about turning down customers and not just have blanket bans  on certain jurisdictions  or certain types of institutions,” said Sarah Ouarbya,  partner in Mazars, one of the UK’s largest accountancy firms and an international  specialist in audit, tax and advisory services.…

A CONSORTIUM of investigative journalists has claimed to have identified a model showing how a Russia-based money laundering scheme moved at least USD20.8 billion out of the country, via Moldova and Latvia. Significant portions of this money was transferred to accounts held by western banks including Britain’s HSBC and Coutts, the Bank of America and other major financial institutions, said the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).…

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.…

Italy’s premier beauty trade fair celebrated half a century this year in Bologna with a host of special events that ranged from an opening cocktail party on the fair grounds to a special dance performance held in the Bologna city centre.…

THE ASEAN Audit Regulators Group (AARG) and the big-four audit firms have agreed a measurable goal to improve audit quality within south-east Asia. The project involves Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand; along with Malaysia’s Audit Oversight Board, Indonesia’s Finance Professions Supervisory Centre, Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission.…

EUROPEAN food and drink exporters will be preparing to boost exports through the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA), which has been provisionally approved by the European Parliament.

The deal, whose duty reduction and quota expansion elements could apply from April (2017) will phase out nearly 99% of tariffs on all food and drink traded between the EU and Canada over the next seven years.…

MANY personal care product markets in eastern and central Europe are growing slowly, with incremental growth being tapped especially by major international brands who have squeezed out local players with their solid pricing and reliable quality.

But with natural cosmetics rising in popularity, there is still space for innovative smaller players with sufficient local roots and knowhow to appeal to consumers in what remains an extremely diverse region in terms of culture and consumer habits.…

MANY personal care product markets in eastern and central Europe are growing slowly, with incremental growth being tapped especially by major international brands who have squeezed out local players with their solid pricing and reliable quality.

But with natural cosmetics rising in popularity, there is still space for innovative smaller players with sufficient local roots and knowhow to appeal to consumers in what remains an extremely diverse region in terms of culture and consumer habits.…

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.…

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.…

Russia’s economic woes are well-documented, yet, rather than mirroring the financial downturn, its personal care market and industry has remained comparatively healthy. Beneath these encouraging figures, however, strong currents appear to be instigating long-term changes to the sector, notably an increasing preference for cheaper products by hard-pressed consumers.…

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.…

FACED with the twin threats of Brexit and a new US President-elect who prefers bilateral relations to multilateralism, the European Union (EU) and its institutions are nonetheless pushing ahead with forging a collaborative system of anti-fraud law enforcement.

In a sign that such initiatives draw overwhelming backing from European Parliament political groups, the EU’s elected assembly, its plenary has backed by 545 votes to 91 a detailed call for the European Commission to review its legislation against corruption and organised criminals.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU)-safety rules are needed for more materials in contact with food, such as those used in packaging, kitchen utensils and tableware, a European Parliament motion has said. MEPs said that only some of these materials, such as plastics and ceramics, have been fully tested for safety for human health.…

THE DEVELOPMENT of electricity interconnectors crossing national borders is simultaneously a technical and geo-political act, requiring careful planning and skilled installation of technology, along with an eye towards promoting security of power supplies.

Such investments are a priority of the European Union (EU) and its member states under its Energy Union programme.…

A key element of Russia’s bans on European Union (EU) food exports was challenged today, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) saying the country’s bans on European Union (EU) exports of pigs, pigmeat and related products, imposed over African swine fever (ASF) cases, breach global trade laws.…

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.…

IN an ever more interconnected world, where reliable energy flows are of critical importance to sophisticated developed economies, the role of diplomacy in helping keep oil and gas flowing is perhaps more important than ever before.

Of course, oil and gas has always been an international business.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed Friday’s (Aug 19) ruling from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) opposing Russia’s bans on European Union (EU) exports of pigs, pigmeat and related products, imposed during 2014 because of outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF).

Russia, meanwhile, has said it is studying the ruling and may yet appeal.…

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

THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing to make something of a political leap of faith by proposing broad reforms to the European Union’s (EU) VAT system, with the goal of undercutting the EU’s chronic missing trader VAT fraud problem.

Such scams cost EU exchequers around EUR50 billion annually according to the Commission.…

THE HONG Kong government has said that its Inland Revenue Department will closely assess data released in the Panama Papers leak, taking action against tax evasion and avoidance by taxpayers uncovered within these documents. In a written answer to the special administrative region’s (SAR) Legislative Council, the government admitted however that it did not know the number of intermediaries in Hong Kong providing offshore incorporation company services.…

THE VULNERABILITY of the European Union (EU) to fraud is a key concern driving support for a Brexit in the UK’s in-out EU membership referendum in June. And VAT fraud is one of the worst and longest-standing of EU financial crime.…

MULTI-COUNTRY regions such as eastern Europe do not always follow the same script when it comes to market performance. Sometimes, when major events happen, such as the global financial crisis, it is difficult for national coatings markets to buck the trend, but with the recovery now established, weakening economic headwinds, the latent differences between national markets can become clear.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) system for fighting cross-border value added tax (VAT) fraud, including the EUR40-60 billion in annual VAT revenue losses linked to organised crime, is ineffective and hampered by a lack of comparable data and indicators, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) system for fighting cross-border value added tax (VAT) fraud, including the EUR40-60 billion in annual VAT revenue losses linked to organised crime, is ineffective and hampered by a lack of comparable data and indicators, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors.…

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.…

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

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

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

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.…

GAZPROM has agreed to drop gas prices charged to Lithuanian utility Lietuvos Dujos until the end of 2015 following European Commission charges of dominant position abuses in central and eastern European gas markets. The Russian giant is also now facing competition for cheaper liquid natural gas (LNG) supplies in Lithuania via the Klaipėda terminal on the Baltic Sea.…

BRUSSELS DETAILS UPCOMING EU VAT REFORMS

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a statement outlining the subject of planned VAT legislative proposals to be made next year (2016). These will reduce the administrative burden on businesses through VAT regimes varying between European Union (EU) member states.…

GAZPROM has declared that it will fight the European Commission inquiry into possible dominant position abuses, even though the Russian position could be weak. The European Commission sent Gazprom a ‘Statement of Objections’ on April 22, accusing the Russian energy giant of abusing its dominant position in central and eastern European gas markets, a charge the company denies.…

THE POLISH, Scottish, Austrian and Belgian meat sectors are significant winners in the latest announcement of European Union (EU) marketing financing designed to help food companies seize more sales within and outside the EU.
They will benefit from multi-million Euro sales and marketing programmes, 50% funded by the EU, announced yesterday (Tues April 21).…

A MEETING of European Union (EU) health ministers in Riga this week has backed the development of a new policy for reducing alcohol-related harm. Ministers, meeting informally in the capital of current EU president Latvia on April 20 to 21, also agreed that the EU should play a role in creating general alcohol standards for the international market and in the harmonisation of EU national alcohol policies.…

EUROPEAN cigarette smuggling has evolved and diversified over the past ten years, and international cooperation is often the best way to counter them, argue European Union (EU) anti-fraud officials. Meanwhile, the tobacco industry has accepted that liaising with these initiatives does bring benefits.…

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

In the latest in a string of bans on cheese products entering Russia, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights and Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) has banned cheese products made by Poland’s Ostrowia.
But this latest dairy ban is not all it seems, and Milkiland, the Netherlands-based dairy products producer owning Ostrowia, has called for “dialogue” with Russian authorities because its banned ‘Wesola Krowka’ (‘Jolly Cow’) is made from vegetable fats.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) should invest in gas interconnections between member states to make its mooted EU Energy Union a success, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has claimed.
Speaking (Feb 6) at a conference on the topic in Riga, Latvia, Maria van der Hoeven, said: “If done right, [the Energy Union] could be enormously beneficial to the region in terms of boosting economic growth, promoting energy security, completing the internal market and encouraging investment.”…

In a country embroiled in an ugly armed conflict, the issue of confectionery may seem at first glance to be superfluous. In Ukraine, though, that is anything but the case.

Not only is confectionery a key industry for the country, but it is a highly politicised one.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission stood by its position on Friday (January 30) that the European Union (EU) member states were united regarding talks with Russia about the possible lifting of the latter’s ban on EU food products such as pork meat.

A Russian official said last week that his country was ready to resume inspections with the goal of lifting the ban on pork meat from France, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.…

RUSSIA’S combined heat and power sector is poised to undergo a radical transformation that will use the open market to rejuvenate and update the industry, according to the country’s energy minister.

Speaking to the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, energy minister Alexander Novak announced last November that creating a competitive market for combined heat and power (CHP) was a key priority.…

China’s cabinet, the State Council has announced the country will increase imports of beef and lamb, according to a Chinese government communiqué. It said ministers at a meeting held on September 29 (last Monday). “[China] will reasonably increase imports of beef and lamb,” said the statement.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s response to Europe’s African swine fever (ASF) crisis was criticised at the European Parliament yesterday (Tuesday Oct 7) for being too weak. The disease has brought about considerable economic damage to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, members of the parliament’s agriculture and rural development committee warned in Brussels.…

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 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).…

NATIONAL telecommunications experts and ministers from the 28 European Union (EU) countries are still far from agreeing the proposed ‘Connected Continent’ package of telecoms regulations, with intensive technical talks still taking place in the EU Council of Ministers. This is one of two EU legislators who must approve the legislation for it to take effect – it was proposed by the European Commission in September 2013.…

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.…

FOUR Baltic-rim states have reached an agreement on a programme of joint measures to combat the outbreak of the fatal African swine fever virus (ASFV) in the region. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia established a Baltic-Polish taskforce on July 30, to eliminate the spread of the disease, which was detected at a piggery in Eastern Lithuania on July 22.…

A STATE of emergency was declared on 28 July in the Ignalina district of Lithuania after African Swine Fever was discovered in a Danish-owned pig complex, bordering Latvia. This is the first outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in a commercial holding in the European Union.…

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.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission will renew its request for a World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel to investigate Russia’s ban on European pigmeat imports later this month, after Moscow blocked an inquiry on Thursday. The requests for a WTO panel come after talks between both sides aimed at ending the import ban broke down in April without resolution and signals an escalation of the dispute.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has today forced the creation of a disputes panel at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which will examine the legality under world trade law of Russia’s ban on imports of EU live pigs, pork and other pig products.…

Latvia became the third EU state to report instances of African swine fever after 13 wild boar and four farmed pigs tested positive for the disease. This is the first instance of the African swine fever in the country following outbreaks in nearby Poland and Lithuania in January. …

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 ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has secured agreement from its 34 rich world member countries to apply a new single global standard on automatic exchange of tax information. Endorsed by G20 finance ministers, the standard obliges countries and jurisdictions to obtain all financial information from their financial institutions and exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions annually.…

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

A EUROPEAN Commission-financed report on money laundering punishments within the European Union (EU) has called on EU governments to consider using more administrative penalties, including property seizures, to punish hiding criminal proceeds.

Noting that money laundering is “visibly under-prosecuted” in the EU, it said using article 3 of the EU’s fourth money laundering directive authorising the use of non-criminal proceedings “should be further explored and developed.”…

HELPING AND ADVISING EUROPEAN CONSUMERS SHOPPING AND TRAVELLING ABROAD

WHEN CAN ECC-NET OFFICES HELP YOU?

• Air travel

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

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

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.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states yesterday (Wednesday) approved detailed restrictions on the handling of pigs and pigmeat in border areas of Poland and Lithuania to try and prevent the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF). Veterinary officials have this year confirmed four cases in districts close to Belarus, sparking a Russian pigmeat import ban that has been roundly criticised as an overreaction by the EU.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission and the Lithuanian government are considering backing significant hunting and trapping campaigns to reduce wild boar numbers in regions where these animals have contracted African Swine Fever.

They have asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to investigate the idea, with Lithuania also asking for advice on using fencing and organised feeding to control boar movements.…

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.…

EU VAT FORUM PILOT EXTENDED ONE MORE YEAR THE EUROPEAN Commission is to carry out an evaluation of the European Union (EU) regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 that says EU listed companies must use international financial reporting standards (IFRS) to produce their consolidated accounts.…

THE COUNTRIES of eastern and central Europe that came in from the cold in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall have felt the economic chill in recent years, with recession affecting the fortunes of the cosmetics industry.

Across a wide range of countries – for instance – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia – the retail value of the beauty and personal care products market has remained at around Euro EUR10.70 billion in both 2012 and (according to provisional data for these five countries by market analysts Euromonitor International) in 2013; and is forecast to grow to EUR10.85 billion in 2014.…

EASTERN and central Europen markets for biocosmetics are a key growth area for personal care product companies, with some markets growing and others relatively untapped.

The region’s largest country, Poland (38 million people) is witnessing sales of bio-cosmetics surging at rates of 10% to 30% annually, according to producers and distributors.…

BY MARK ROWE; JONATHAN DYSON, in Zagreb; and ANDREW KURETH, in Warsaw

THE COUNTRIES of eastern and central Europe that came in from the cold in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall have felt the economic chill in recent years, with recession affecting the fortunes of the cosmetics industry.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

An interim report from the European Universities Association (EUA) on the pattern of public funding for universities has highlighted how the character of funding for HE institutions in Europe is changing, largely though not entirely, as a result of the economic pressures facing governments.…

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.…

Lithuania’s Maxima Group has told just-food it is too early to assign blame for the collapse of its supermarket in the Zolitude area of Riga, Latvia. The tragedy left 54 people dead, with two Russians and one Armenian among the casualties according to the latest figures.…

THE BALTIC States’ proximity to Russia and their position as a border between eastern and western financial markets, renders Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania particularly at risk as regards money laundering.

Hard hit during the global financial crisis they have still made considerable strides towards improving anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) legislation while transitioning into the Eurozone: Estonia joined January 2011; Latvia will join this January; Lithuania wants to join by 2015. …

FRAUDSTERS using telecommunications without paying will cost the global industry around USD46 billion in 2013, according to the USA based Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA). Based on a worldwide survey, its experts predict such losses this year will be 15% up on 2011 and will represent 2.09% of global revenues.…

ALMOST one quarter of European online shoppers used the internet last year to buy books, magazines and e-learning material, according to a Eurostat annual survey on information and communication technologies (ICT) use in households and individual consumers, published yesterday.

Buying books, magazines or e-learning material online was most common in Luxembourg, with 47% of those surveyed declaring to have done it, and Germany, where 41% of those who participated said they had bought these kind of products online in 2012.…

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%.…

POLAND, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will collectively receive EUR2.5 million from the European Commission to prevent spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) from Russia and Belarus.

The Commission said the money is for “preventive measures which include cleansing and disinfection of vehicles, surveillance and laboratory testing, awareness campaigns and even the use of wild boar repellents and preventive early slaughter of pigs in risk backyard farms”.…

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

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

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

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

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

EASTERN European textile and clothing companies used to have a cost advantage in serving wealthy western European markets, but that has long been eclipsed by Asian competition – added value technical textiles may offer them a sustainable future.

In Poland’s hard-pressed textile industry, its fast-growing technical branch may constitute the future of the national industry, experts in the country’s industry say.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a detailed action plan designed to boost energy innovation and new technology across the European Union (EU). Written as a ‘communication’ policy paper, it stresses: “EU energy technology and innovation strategy is an integral part of the EU energy policy.”…

Poland confirmed plans in 2012 to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with a view to importing supplies from Qatar, it seemed like the latest example of eastern European energy ministries trying to avoid energy dependence on Russia. Plans to develop shale gas in Poland and the Baltic States fall into the same category, along with policies to build energy infrastructure linking Poland and its Nordic and Baltic neighbours.…

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.…

 An interim report from the European Universities Association (EUA) on the pattern of public funding for universities has highlighted how the character of funding for HE institutions in Europe is changing, largely though not entirely, as a result of the economic pressures facing governments.…

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.…

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

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

IT seems for all the world like the setting for a Graham Greene novel: a British-trained chartered accountant in charge of an almost unfathomably wealthy state-owned holding corporation in a distant outpost.

Yet Greene would barely recognise the 21st century context in which Our Man in Kazakhstan operates.…

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.…

A new report on global university rankings by the European Universities Association (EUA)  confirms what most HE heads will have known or suspected for some time: the dramatic growth in the number and scope of rankings tables in recent years has begun to shape the actual ways in which higher education is now developing world-wide.…

A COMPLEX international supply web supporting an illicit business of tobacco counterfeiters, losing European Union (EU) governments Euro EUR50 million in duties, has been unveiled in a German court. Details were revealed in a case at the Berlin-Moabit criminal court convicting a German-Russian co-national to nine years jail.…

As Poland’s shale gas rush ramps up in earnest, companies offering locally-sourced minerals used in hydraulic fracturing look set to profit. The industry, nascent as it is in Poland, comprises a hodgepodge of contractors and subcontractors, each sourcing different materials from different places.…

LITHUANIA’S plans to build the Visaginas nuclear power plant, hailed the first modern nuclear alternative to Russian energy in the Baltic States, have been stalled since Lithuanian voters opposed the idea in an October 2012 referendum.

However, a general election held the same day as the referendum and the resulting newly elected Social Democrat-led government has formed a commission within the energy ministry to recalculate the project’s cost estimates, reporting in March.…

PHARMACEUTICAL companies seeking pharmacovigilance and pharmacoepidemiology information from across the European Union (EU) can now consult two new databases. Created by the public-private partnership PROTECT project, they are the Drug Consumption Database and the PROTECT ADR [adverse drug reaction] database.…

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

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 KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY MARK ROWE

TO describe recent times as difficult for the eastern European cosmetics industry would be something of an understatement. Since 2010, some countries have experienced dizzying declines in production and sales that indicated the industry was more or less in tune with the wider economic mood across the region.…

BY MARK ROWE

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission, once a keen promoter of biofuels, has now reined in its enthusiasm, admitting that biofuels can emit as much carbon as fossil fuels, proposing reforms encouraging the production of secondary biofuels based on waste matter and algae.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI, AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE SWEDISH government is using the publicity over the resignation of European Union (EU) health commissioner John Dalli in October over a snus lobbying scandal to restate its case that the EU should legalise the sale of snus in all member states, a market area that Sweden’s snus producers say is worth Euro EUR2 billion annually.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A THIRD series of pre-operational demonstration projects across Europe designed to encourage the take-up of environment-friendly air traffic management systems has been announced by the Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU).

This series of AIREIII (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions) demonstrations on aircraft emission reductions will, said a SESAR note "show that it is possible to fly more environmentally friendly trajectories with commercial flights, using current technologies."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a strategy designed to encourage the growth of cloud computing and data services, especially through the development of common standards and certification.

Brussels’ policy paper (called a Communication) ‘Unleashing the potential of cloud computing in Europe’ is a wide-ranging action plan that is designed especially to promote interoperability between cloud services.…

BY ROB STOKES

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched an anti-trust investigation into Russia’s Gazprom, suspecting it of stifling gas market competition in central and eastern European (CEE). The Commission is investigating whether the energy giant may have: divided gas markets by hindering free flow of gas across member states; prevented diversification of gas supply; and imposed unfair prices on customers by linking gas to oil prices.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS

THE TURKS used to run the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as colonial overlords – now with the country enjoying its independence since 1991, its government has shown its confidence in welcoming a Turkish company TAV Airports Holding to run its two international airports.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; AND MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA

BRITAIN has been facing unusually cold and snowy winters in recent years and should this become a long-term climate trend, UK utilities will have to take note and change their operational practices to suit.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

In eastern Europe, with its Soviet-era reliance on communal heating systems, co-generation continues to have strength.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional.…

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 E BLAKE BERRY, IN POLAND; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; AND MJ DESCHAMPS,

WHILE southern and western Europe’s economies falter, being mired in debt, eastern Europe’s coatings market is now growing solidly amidst economic performances that are recovering from a recession that hit the region hard.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers is seeking an agreement with Russia and Belarus that would better coordinate the operation of their electricity systems with those of the three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The council’s working party on energy is drafting a proposal for EU ministers that – if approved – would "authorise the [European] Commission to negotiate an agreement between the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus and the European Union on electricity system operation of the Baltic States."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MJ DESCHAMPS, AND JULIAN RYALL

The management challenge of introducing increasingly sophisticated labels is compounded by the continuing diversity of labelling laws worldwide. These can be a major headache for textile and clothing companies, especially those with global supply chains.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

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

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, BLAKE BERRY, MONIKA HANLEY, MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

EASTERN Europe is often regarded as developing in the slipstream of richer western Europe – and so far the model seems to be fitting with biofuels. That said, significant biodiesel manufacturing capacity is in place in the region, according to the European Biodiesel Board.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

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

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

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

LATVIA could face serious fines courtesy of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) if it fails to promise compliance with European Union (EU) legislation on mining waste over the next two months.

The European Commission has sent a final legal warning (called a ‘reasoned opinion’) to Latvia, asking the country to ensure that extractive waste is treated in specific facilities in line with EU requirements, to avoid endangering human health and the environment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice’s general court has overturned a ban on Britain’s Ineos Healthcare Ltd from using its trademark ALPHAREN to sell certain medicines in Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania. This dispute centres on Ineos medicines containing magnesium iron hydroxy carbonate or hydrotalcite or derivatives; used in renal dialysis and treating renal diseases and kidney ailments; and phosphate binders for treating hyperphosphataemia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has been alarmed by coordinated ‘bot-net’ attacks on computer networks in Britain, Estonia, Georgia, France, and elsewhere, and is beefing up its cyber-defences. Keith Nuthall reports.

IT takes a lot to spark the lumbering bureaucratic behemoth known as the European Union (EU) into hasty action.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LIP-GLOSS shaped as cupcakes have been removed from sale in Latvia, because of their potential choking hazard, European Union (EU) consumer safety network RAPEX has reported. The Taiwan-made ‘Natural Products’ line included lip-gloss cupcakes with chocolate, cherry, raspberry and strawberry scents.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

9

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

BY 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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EXTENT of the European Commission’s ignorance about energy agreements struck by European Union (EU) member states with non-member countries has been revealed in a background memorandum. It explains a proposal on making such deals more transparent.

Brussels proposed last month that it should be informed, even about negotiations preparing for bilateral energy agreements involving EU governments.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

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

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

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

BY MONIKA HANLEY

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) 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

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

BY GERARD O’DWYER

IF there is one region where high standards in fighting money laundering and terrorist finance are expected, it is surely the five Nordic states: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Notwithstanding the criticism leveled at Iceland’s financial regulators during the credit crunch, all five countries have admirable traditions of public openness, government efficiency and international cooperation, especially amongst themselves.…

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

AS any journalist who has covered regional or local authorities will testify, sub-national public administrations yearn for the big time. They want their efforts considered important, over and above their day-to-day delivery of community services.

But they know their aspirations must deliver added value.…

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 ALAN OSBORN

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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 KEITH NUTHALL

THE PLANNED shape of a new European Commission for the next five years has been unveiled, and it includes recreating a new single directorate general (DG) for energy. Since 2000, the Commission has operated a joint directorate general for energy and transport, but with the growing importance of the energy brief to the European Union (EU), energy policy will receive a new separate directorate general.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHIFT in European Union (EU) energy policy should become apparent from February 1, when Germany’s Günther Oettinger should become EU energy Commissioner. Replacing Latvia’s Andris Piebalgs for the next five years, the appointment of a German to this increasingly powerful position has been widely touted as shifting EU energy relations towards closer links with Russia.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEGOTIATIONS have begun to incorporate Georgia within the European Union’s (EU) aviation system, leading the Caucasus republic to adopt most EU civil aviation rules. The talks will inevitably cause some diplomatic issues with Russia, given its recognition of the two Georgian breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEGAL action has been instigated by the European Commission against Latvia, over the failure of the Baltic State’s government to properly liberalise its groundhandling services. Brussels says Latvia has not implemented the EU’s groundhandling directive 96/67/EC, which it was supposed to adopt as a condition of joining the union in 2004.…

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 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 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 KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW system of gathering food health data across the European Union (EU) appears to have marred an annual comparative study from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), with Britain’s data collection being indirectly criticised.

While the UK appears to have received a relative clean bill of health regarding food-related illnesses, statistical anomalies probably explain the results, with Britain supplying insufficient information.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) begins its first coordinated enforcement checks of the REACH chemical control system, Europe’s top adhesives industry federation has stressed concerns about its potential uneven application country-to-country.

ECHA announced on April 30 it has launched ‘REACH-EN-FORCE-1’, a joint enforcement project with national inspectors checking pre-registrations, registrations and work on REACH safety data sheets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL, LEAH GERMAIN and MONICA DOBIE

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

BY 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

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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 KEITH NUTHALL

A SPECIAL Ecodesign Regulatory Committee has backed European Commission proposals to toughen mandatory energy performance requirements for televisions and ‘white goods’ – such as washing machines and dishwashers. This means some existing models will from mid-2010 be banned from European Union (EU) shops.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FRENCH attempts to get the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to sign up in principle to a farmer-friendly and potentially protectionist Common Agricultural Policy in the long-term have been blocked by Britain, Sweden and Latvia. France had spoken of "community preference": erecting fresh EU tariff barriers on food imports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

France’s attempts to get the EU Council of Ministers to sign up in principle to a farmer-friendly and potentially protectionist Common Agricultural Policy in the long-term were blocked by Britain, Sweden and Latvia at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers last Friday.…

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 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 MONIKA HANLEY

LATVIA’S textile and clothing industry is being hit hard in the recent reversal of the country’s economic fortunes, as competitors in the labour-intensive industry either close down or move production to cheaper locations.

In the first 10 months of 2008, the output of Latvian textile and clothing companies declined by approximately 7%-10%, most of it in the last few months, said the Latvian Association of Textile and Clothing Industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HEADS of government at the European Union (EU) summit staged last week have backed a European Commission action plan to connect the electricity grids of all the EU countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, to strengthen their energy security.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LITHUANIAN government has welcomed the backing by European Union (EU) heads of government at a summit in Brussels to connect the electricity grids of all the EU countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, to strengthen their energy security.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEMBER governments of the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have adopted international guidelines designed to limit the impact of deep-sea fishing on species at risk of being over-fished. The rules would apply for fishing vessels working in international waters and they call on international fishery organisations to ensure deep sea fisheries are "rigorously managed".…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

GONE are the days of the disgruntled, Soviet style Baltic States truck driver, more interested in taking time off than pushing for more deliveries. Since the fall off communism and the coming of independence to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, a new breed of truckers has come on to the scene, with new trucks and more ambitious attitudes, including the desire to drive west.…

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 Commission is to spend Euro 3.5 million on setting up secure truck stops for hauliers having to wait at the frontier between the European Union (EU) and Russia. Length delays in processing cargoes mean "truck drivers are compelled to spend several days in a queue of many kilometres on the border", said a Brussels announcement: "This situation threatens not only road safety and drivers’ security but also creates a damaging environmental and social situation."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HUNGARY, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia are to demand a revised European Union (EU) emissions trading scheme grant them (and fellow eastern Europeans) lower targets for reducing greenhouse gas pollution. In a joint proposal expected to be presented to EU ministers this week, they argue that eastern Europe has already significantly reduced the EU’s collective CO2 emissions, and should not be expected to continue making steep reductions from 2012 onwards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY MARK ROWE

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ROAD transport has been booming in the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) in 2004. Between 1995 and 2005, traffic volumes increased by 400%, compared to 16% in longer established EU member states such as Britain, a consultants report written for the European Commission has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

By Keith Nuthall

A UNITED Nations-sponsored global initiative to encourage business schools to teach and promote social and environmentally responsible commercial practices has gathered a critical mass of support. More than 100 business schools worldwide have now signed up to the Principles for Responsible Management Initiative.…

By Keith Nuthall and Monica Dobie

Universities and colleges are constantly working with business and industry to undertake commercially valuable research. University World News here again features a selection of these cutting edge developments in its business pages.

*The University of Latvia’s Institute of Polymer Mechanics Eureka has helped create construction bricks with domestic waste polymers usually considered too varied or dirty to be recycled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA’S new-found belligerence and confidence is not confined to the political and military sphere: in recent years Russia has adopted an aggressive, take-it-or-leave it stance when it comes to fish, seafood and other food products.

The country has imposed a number of bans on fish products from its European neighbours, including salmon and other fresh fish from Norway, fishmeal, frozen fish and canned smoked sprats from Poland and a range of fish products from Latvia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) research network Eureka has helped create bricks with domestic waste polymers usually considered too varied or dirty to be recycled. It has worked with the Latvian Technological Centre; the Institute of Polymer Mechanics, the University of Latvia; and Spanish company Hormigones Uniland to mix waste polymers with other materials to make construction products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been angered by the United States has been demanding additional information on air passengers flying to American airports, beyond the existing agreement between the European Union (EU) and the USA. And furthermore, the US has been making such demands through bilateral supplementary agreements with EU member states, notably with the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia, while deals with Lithuania, Hungary and Slovakia are under discussion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHILE tuberculosis rates remain low in western and central Europe, an increase in drug resistant TB in eastern Europe is raising concern amongst European Union (EU) experts. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has released figures showing that 18.6% of Lithuania’s 2,228 TB cases in 2006 were multiple-drug resistant; 15% of Estonia’s 399 cases were of this deadly strain; as were 14.7% of Latvia’s 1,109 cases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) seven-year-old Doha Development Round maybe drawing towards a close, the pharmaceutical industry might start to consider that a final deal could lead to the elimination of most import duties on drugs and medicines, traded worldwide.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL

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

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

SOMETHING must be in the water these days in Brussels. The European Commission seems determined to press ahead with its plans to reshape the European Union’s (EU) energy market, no matter how vociferous or powerful the opposition. In December, the Commission was bullish about unbundling, now it is being equally aggressive over renewable energy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

LATVIA has warned the European Union Council of Ministers that a 70% increase in feed prices in one year is causing catastrophic problems for its pigmeat sector: feed costs cover 60% of all pigmeat financial outlays in Latvia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY SUZANNE KOELEGA, in Sint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, JAMES FULLER, in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, and KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR shake up is looming in the political organisation of the Caribbean, with the impending dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles federation, and the creation of separate political units for its composite islands Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius (Statia).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

GEOGRAPHICALLY Russia is part of Europe. Moscow is 1,557 miles from London, but 3,456 miles from New York. The Russian capital is also just 760 miles from Stockholm, as the crow flies. These figures are worth considering when trying understanding the often fraught energy diplomacy between Russia and the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY 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

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

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MORE than a fifth of European Union (EU) motorists would not use their cars any less, even if dramatic improvements were made to local public transport systems, a European Commission-funded opinion poll has revealed. Conducted by pollsters Gallup amongst 25,767 people across the EU, the survey said 22% of those favouring cars over other transport means would remain loyal to their vehicles come what may.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LATVIA has joined the growing alliance of eastern European countries taking the European Commission to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), challenging what they regard as miserly carbon allowances within the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Riga has joined Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Estonia in opposing their allocations by Brussels for emissions between 2008 and 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) report has said that 101,335 deaths a year in Britain can be attributed to environmental problems, which could be reduced making them less deadly. Indeed, across Europe, the WHO says “well-tested environmental health interventions could reduce total deaths…by almost 20%.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LARGE drinks companies such as Diageo will be able to continue making vodka from non-traditional ingredients such as grapes, without having to label their products vodka-style drinks, following a European Parliament vote today (Tuesday 19/6). Furthermore, proposals from the parliament’s environment committee that ingredients other than grain, potatoes or sugar beet molasses be listed on large labels, with lettering two-thirds as large as the word ‘Vodka’, were voted down.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LARGE drinks companies such as Diageo will be able to continue making vodka from non-traditional ingredients such as grapes, without having to label their products vodka-style drinks, following a European Parliament vote today (Tuesday 19/6). Furthermore, proposals from the parliament’s environment committee that ingredients other than grain, potatoes or sugar beet molasses be listed on large labels, with lettering two-thirds as large as the word ‘Vodka’, were voted down.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s nuclear energy directorate has found a series of radiation protection procedure and capacity failings at Latvia’s Salaspils research nuclear reactor. During a general investigation of Latvia’s capacity to monitor and deal with radiation problems, the Commission has called for reforms at the reactor, although it did accept basic radioactivity monitoring and sampling facilities were in place.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS concerns increase about the security of the European Union’s (EU) supplies of oil and gas, the European Commission has put in place a network of security experts charged with monitoring threats to the EU’s energy flows and raising alarms if necessary.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission fined Poland was also fined Euro 7.7 million and the Czech Republic Euro 6.2 million for hoarding excess meat stocks ahead of joining the European Union (EU) in 2004, allowing them to flood European markets once tariff barriers were removed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency (ESA) is offering detailed snow melt data to countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, information that can aid hydrological modelling, flood forecasting and water resources management. ESA satellites are already providing snow melt data from Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, parts of western Russia and Belarus from the beginning of March until the end of May, and next year will also cover parts of Poland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced heavy fines against the Polish government (Euro 473,000) and Latvia (Euro 204,000) for the hoarding of excess wine stocks ahead of their countries joining the European Union (EU) in 2004. Accession deals for new member states always insist that new member countries do not import or produce excess supplies of drinks or food products ahead of joining the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is being pushed by 13 of its 27 member states for postponement of a rule that says for beef cattle to be labelled organic, they must not be tethered. Under the existing regulation EEC/2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products, organic labelled beef must be from untethered cattle from 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PHILIP Morris International (PMI) has released a detailed intelligence dossier on cigarette and other tobacco product counterfeiting, in a bid to encourage the international cooperation it deems necessary to effectively fight this crime. The report highlights 17 countries around the world where it thinks cigarette counterfeiting is a particular problem and where the cigarette company has specific advice: Latvia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Belize, Panama, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Ghana.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) has released a series of detailed reports outlining the threats posed by counterfeiters worldwide and the inability of many governments to fight the problem.

Its sheaf of intelligence includes comprehensive warnings from cigarette giant Philip Morris, a company that has adopted a high profile in fighting counterfeiters and smugglers.…

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

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

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

BY 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
DRIVE into eastern Europe and your chance of being killed in a road accident rise steeply say the latest European Union (EU)-wide comparative accident figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat. The EU’s worst blackspots are Latvia at 752 road accident deaths per million car registrations; Romania 749; Lithuania 571; Slovakia 507 and Poland 476.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 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 UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is pushing signatories to its new Protocol on Water and Health to its Convention on Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes to agree detailed targets on improving European water quality.…

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 EUROPEAN Commission is to release the European Union’s (EU) remaining 855,000 tonnes of intervention sugar stocks onto world markets. Buyers will be able to use available export refunds, with Brussels keen to exploit current market prices and avoid heavy storage expenses, which it wants ended after incoming reforms to the EU sugar market system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LATVIA has become the first European Union country banning sales of confectionary, including chewing gum, and potato crisps, in state-run schools and nurseries. The prohibition covers all foods and drinks containing artificial additives.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LATVIA has become the first European Union (EU) country to ban the sale of soft drinks, confectionary and potato crisps, in its state-run schools and nurseries. Strictly speaking, the health ministry prohibition covers all foods and drinks containing artificial additives including colourings, flavourings, preservatives, caffeine, and amino-acids sold in state schools.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN and other European Union (EU) countries which have yet to adopt the Euro are to be covered by a newly extended EU programme on fighting counterfeiting of Europe’s single currency. The EU Council of Ministers has approved a renewed ‘Pericles’ programme, which will spend Euro 1 million a year from 2007 to 2013.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LATVIA has become the first European Union (EU) country to ban the sale of confectionary, including chewing gum, and potato crisps, in its state-run schools and nurseries. Strictly speaking, the health ministry prohibition covers all foods and drinks containing artificial additives including colourings, flavourings, preservatives, caffeine, and amino-acids sold in state schools.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LATVIA has become the first European Union (EU) country to ban the sale of fizzy soft drinks, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and 7-Up in its state-run schools and nurseries. Strictly speaking, the health ministry prohibition covers all drinks containing artificial additives including colourings, flavourings, preservatives, caffeine, and amino-acids sold in state schools.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FOOD manufacturers have been given practical and scientific advice by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on reducing the exposure of their customers to food and livestock -borne disease. In supporting the European Commission strategy of setting reduction targets for salmonella in poultry meat production, EFSA identified processing plants as having the highest rates of contamination, with those also making animal feed causing problems while being victims, as "contaminated animal feed" introduced salmonella into livestock and food.…

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

AN UNLIKELY alliance linking the European timber industry and environmentalists has called for caution in increasing the role of biomass in Europe’s energy mix. The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) and the Worldwide Find for Nature (WWF) have recommended that the energy sector’s exploitation of biomass grow sustainably.…

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 MARK ROWE

WHEN it came to accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004, the Baltic States were something of a special case. Though unable to compete on the same scale as their neighbours in Poland, or further south, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the economies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia quickly gained a reputation for being micro economic powerhouses – and the same has applied to their paint industries.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IN a long-expected move the European Commission is proposing to raise the minimum rate of excise duty on alcoholic drinks sold in the 25 EU countries by 31% in order to take account of inflation in the period since 1992 when the rates were last agreed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a list of priority projects under its 2007-13 trans European network (TENs) energy programme. Three of the 10 gas pipeline projects link Europe to Algeria, a key alternative source to Russia, and there are also priority gas pipelines to Libya and Turkey listed.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHILE personal care product sales for the 15 countries that made up the European Union (EU) before 2003, plus Switzerland and Norway, increased by just 1% in 2005/2006 on the previous year – eastern Europe is a more enticing prospect for the industry, and has been singled out by major organisations and companies as a shining light for sales, investment and production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATVIA and Netherlands governments want the European Commission to lower securities demanded from sugar producers wishing to restructure as the EU lowers production aid. Brussels currently demands 120% of grants be lodged as security. Latvia said such "abnormal demands" prevented companies participating; the Dutch branded the demand "severe".…

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 DAVID HAWORTH

THE PAINT and coatings industry is a small but brightly shining star in the Finnish economy’s firmament, and one, which, as might be expected, has all the virtues of specialised Nordic industrial sectors.

These include a mature market, a great familiarity between manufacturers and customers in a society of little more than five million and harsh winter conditions, which dictate the high consumption of paints.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE FINNISH government is to challenge the European Commission’s proposals for a broad definition of vodka under the proposed new European Union (EU) spirit labelling regulations, exploiting its oncoming strong position as EU president. Finland will use its control over EU Council of Ministers business to try and secure agreement that only drinks made from cereals or potatoes can be labelled ‘vodka’.…

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.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Environment Agency (EEA) report has explained exactly why market forces are propelling road transport into an ever-strengthening position in the European Union (EU) freight market, to the dismay of environmentalists.

Lorries and vans are "generally faster, cheaper, more reliable and flexible when compared to other modes", such as trains and boats.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Commission consumer alert service RAPEX has warned an American-made mail varnish – branded Orly – has been banned in Latvia. It contains 3.2% dibutyl phthalate: toxic for reproductive systems and illegal under the European Union cosmetics directive.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATVIA and Netherlands governments want the European Commission to lower securities demanded from sugar producers wishing to restructure as the European Union lowers production aid. Brussels currently demands 120% of grants be lodged as security ahead of a payment.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PRESIDENT of Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency Jerzy Niewodniczanski has told Polish paper Zycie Warszawy that his government was interested in cooperating in building and operating a multi-national nuclear power plant with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.…

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.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN is more enlightened over flexi-time compared with the European Union’s (EU) other large economies, say new figures released by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The EU agency says only Sweden, Finland and Latvia practice more flexi-time, although Britain does not always perform well regarding the degree of flexibility allowed by employers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has ordered its committees of national officials to stage a "thorough examination" of the official EU definition of vodka, because of a row between member states over its terms. Poland, supported by Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, is resisting a European Commission proposal to allow vodka to continue being sold in the EU using non-traditional ingredients.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BREATH tests carried out on 10 European Commissioners to show the dangers of smoking have failed to demonstrate the health risks, at least of passive smoking, with all officials passing with flying colours – including some ex-smokers. They were checked for carbon monoxide contamination, a key tobacco smoke toxin, but none had CO levels exceeding the CO pollution warning level in European Union cities: 8.5 ppm (parts per million), which is exceeded in smokers’ breath, said a Commission memorandum.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CEREAL production and prices in the European Union (EU) both slumped in 2005, compared with 2004, according to the latest food market figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat. Faced with a bumper harvest in 2004, producers struggled to secure good prices, even by cutting back on production, a process aided by poor weather.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW EFSA BOSS BUDGET ROW – LATEST ADVICE

THE FRENCHWOMAN appointed to take the vacant top executive director job at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will need all her political skills to solve a potential budget crisis facing the agency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

POLAND, supported by Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden are resisting a European Commission proposal to allow vodka drinks to be sold in the European Union, even if some ingredients are non-traditional. Poland and its allies want vodka-labelled drinks to be based only on cereals and potatoes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

POLAND, supported by Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden are resisting a European Commission proposal to allow vodka to be sold in the European Union (EU) using non-traditional ingredients. Poland and its allies want vodka-labelled drinks to be based only on cereals and potatoes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ROYAL College of Nursing (RCN) has called for further changes to the European Union’s (EU) proposed services directive, after the European Parliament voted for social care to be covered by the legislation. This would allow nursing agencies established for an (undefined) temporary period in a foreign EU member state – say Poland or Latvia – to provide nurses to children’s or old people’s homes in the UK.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has formally announced that it is lending Euro 40 million to Latvia state energy company JSC Latvenergo to replace its TEC-2 thermal power plant in the capital Riga by a state-of-the-art combined heat and power (CHP) plant.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THE LATEST round of European Union (EU) proposals to tighten up laws fighting the use of illegally unsafe commercial shipping, announced on November 23, 2005, will place shippers who want to continue operating in EU-controlled waters under closer scrutiny than ever, says the European Commission.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FIRST-EVER multilateral treaty covering the Balkans has been signed in Athens, creating a European Energy Community, linking the gas (and electricity) policies of south-eastern Europe with those of the European Union (EU). Indeed, under the treaty, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and Kosovo must apply EU energy legislation, including related environmental and competition laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S labour costs are rising at a faster rate than those of its key European Union (EU) competitors, Germany and France, figures from the EU statistical agency Eurostat reveal. In the second quarter of 2005, UK nominal hourly labour costs for the whole economy rose by 3.4% compared with the same period in 2004.…

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
CRITICS of European political institutions have sometimes been unkind about the Council of Europe, which has been accused of being a powerless talking shop. And although the Council lacks the power to fine and cajole member governments enjoyed by the European Union (EU) – from which it is completely independent – it has some important roles.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has approved plans to lend Euro 40 million to Latvia utility Latvenergo to help it build a 400 mW combined heat and power (CHP) plant, in the capital Riga. Hoping to diversify the country’s hydro-power dominated energy mix, the EIB wants to help Latvenergo replace an existing CHP plant with a modern gas-fired combined cycle unit, heat recovery steam generator and steam turbine.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s sugar management committee has ordered Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Slovakia and Malta to rid themselves of surplus sugar stocks by November or face heavy fines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has allowed Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia until November 2005 to eliminate surplus stocks of sugar, built up prior to their joining the EU last May. Remaining excess sugar will spark fines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WORKING hours in Britain exceed those in most new European Union (EU) member states from eastern and southern Europe says a report showing how western Europe workers generally work fewer hours. Britain’s usual weekly work hours, said the European Industrial Relations Observatory are 43.1, only exceeded in the expanded EU by Latvia’s 43.3.…

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 Commission has allowed Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia until November 2005 to eliminate surplus stocks of sugar, built up prior to their joining the European Union last May. Remaining excess sugar would spark EU fines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN a political hair-and-tortoise move, a European Commissioner from a country where the Lada once reigned supreme has told speed-loving German motorists he will press for European Union (EU) speed limits of 90kmh (55.9 mph). Latvia’s Andris Piebalgs, energy Commissioner since last November, told the Die Welt newspaper “I personally support the idea”, which was originally proposed by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH security of energy supplies being a key concern of the European Union (EU), and the subject of legislation under discussion in Brussels, it is no surprise that the EU devotes millions of Euros to developing the oil and gas sector of the former USSR.…

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
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has called on EU national governments to increase their spending on radioactive waste management research. Speaking to a Brussels workshop on the topic, he said spending “in many – but not all – member states is not sufficient to make real progress in the short to medium term”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has moved to extend its control of fishing in the Baltic Sea, following the accession of four Baltic eastern European states to the EU last year. With Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania becoming member states, the Baltic is largely an EU zone, excluding small stretches of Russian territorial waters – off Kaliningrad and St Petersburg.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THREE Belgian brothers – who launched Lithuania’s second largest supermarket chain after the country quitted the ex-USSR – have secured Euro 40 million equity investment by a major US finance house. The European Commission has approved America’s Citigroup Inc taking a minority share in the Ortiz brother’s UAB Palink group.…

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

Keith Nuthall
BRITISH taxation inched up from 2002 to 2003, but according to the latest comparative European Union (EU)-wide figures, the UK still has one of the lowest European tax burdens. As a proportion of GDP, Britain’s total taxes were 37.1% in 2003, compared with 37% in 2002, up from 36.7% in 1995, before the accession to power of the Labour government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATIONAL governments are often jealous of attempts by the European Union (EU) to increase its power into policy areas that they consider none of its business. Defence and foreign affairs are obvious examples, but health is another. EU member states have long resisted Brussels’ calls for influence over their health policies, but their resolve has weakened of late.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE TAXATION and customs portfolio in the new European Commission is to be held by a one-time communist and leader of the socialist party in Hungary, its former foreign minister Laszlo Kovacs. Mr Kovacs, who is 65, replaces Ingrida Udre of Latvia who was criticised by the European Parliament for failing to rebut allegations concerning financial irregularities in the funding of her political party and was subsequently withdrawn by her country at the request of the new Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the creation of a retail joint venture in the Baltic States, run by Scandinavian food retailers Kesko Oy, of Finland, and ICA AB, of Sweden and Norway. This new business will buy and sell daily consumer goods in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, combining the two Scandinavian company’s existing outlets in the region.…

BY MARK ROWE
THERE is no doubt that water quality in eastern Europe has improved immeasurably since the break up of the Soviet Union and its related satellite states, a process reinforced by the wholesale privatisation now taking place. But while standards have improved, concerns about pollution, old pipes and outdated treatment works are likely to continue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NUCLEAR industry is likely to be disappointed with the transfer of Hungary’s Lazlo Kovacs away from the energy portfolio in the new European Commission expected to take office this week. (NOTE – NEXT WEEK IN REAL TIME) His removal follows a lacklustre performance at a European Parliament hearing that led MEPs to brand him “incompetent” as a potential energy Commissioner.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE REVAMPED European Commission of president José Manuel Barroso has been confirmed by the European Parliament, which approved moving Hungary’s Lázló Kovács to the tax Commissioner portfolio. He had been proposed as energy Commissioner, but was transferred after MEPs complained about his “incompetence” in this subject.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE RENEWABLE power generation industry could find it has increased influence at the European Commission than expected, with the replacement of Hungary’s Lázló Kovács as European Union (EU) energy Commissioner for the next five years. Following a lacklustre performance at a European Parliament hearing, MEPs judged him “incompetent” for this position and was subsequently moved to the post of tax Commissioner by EU president-elect José Manuel Barroso.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INCOMING European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has moved Hungary’s Lazlo Kovacs from being energy commissioner-designate, after he was criticised by the European Parliament for being “professionally incompetent” in the field. He will now become tax commissioner and will be replaced by Latvia’s Andris Piebalgs, a former education and finance minister.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MAJOR reshuffle of the proposed European Commission due to take office on November 1 will be made with president-elect José Manuel Barroso withdrawing his team because of opposition to its appointment within the European Parliament. Although the prime concern of MEPs has focused on Italy’s nominee as Commissioner for justice, freedom and security Rocco Buttiglione, the Netherlands’ competition Commissioner-designate Neelie Kroes is also in the firing line.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ISSUES of commercial crime have been moving up the European Union’s (EU) policy agenda in recent years. With the arrival of a 25-member European Commission under Jose Barroso, the subject has even greater prominence and involves the responsibilities of three new Commissioners.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s campaign against restrictions on personal tobacco imports between European Union (EU) member states could intensify after a new taxation Commissioner takes office in November. Answering a European Parliament questionnaire, Latvia’s Ingrida Udre said she would “not hesitate” to take legal action against governments imposing “systematic controls” on private travellers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s campaign against restrictions on personal alcohol imports between European Union (EU) member states may intensify after a new taxation Commissioner takes office in November. Answering a European Parliament questionnaire, Latvia’s Ingrida Udre promised a strong line, stressing that “systematic controls” on private travellers importing wine, beer and spirits from foreign member countries “are incompatible” with EU treaty rules.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ESTONIA’S prime minister Juhan Parts has refused to increase his government’s planned 20% hike in strong alcohol duty rates, despite pressure from neighbouring Finland for a steeper rise. Visiting Helsinki, Mr Parts heard arguments that next year’s planned tax change would add only a few cents to a bottle of strong grain liquor which retails for about Euro 3 in Estonia, while selling for Euro 9 a bottle in Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN governments should exploit the scare tactics of the 1980’s when AIDS campaigns shocked promiscuous sex devotees and intravenous drug users into changing their behaviour, stemming HIV infections, the World Health Organisation has claimed. It fears dramatic increases in HIV cases in eastern Europe that are amongst the world’s worst, notably in Estonia, Latvia, Russia and the Ukraine “where the epidemic continues to spread unchecked”.…

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S small shops and off-licences can expect no help from the incoming European Commission in their fight against personal alcohol and tobacco imports. Answering a European Parliament questionnaire ahead of assuming office in November, Latvia’s Ingrida Udre promised to take a strong line on efforts to restrict this trade, assuming she is confirmed as taxation and customs union Commissioner.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ESTONIA’S prime minister Juhan Parts said his government would not boost a planned 20% hike in strong alcohol duty rates, despite pressure from neighbouring Finland. Visiting Helsinki, Mr Parts heard arguments that next year’s planned tax change would do little to halt the boom in personal alcohol imports to Finland since Estonia joined the EU in May.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s campaign against restrictions on personal alcohol imports between European Union (EU) member states could intensify after a new team of Commissioners takes office in November. Answering a European Parliament questionnaire, Latvia’s Ingrida Udre promised a strong line, assuming she is confirmed as taxation and customs union Commissioner.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN the age of the Euro-sceptic politician, no one can deny that European Union (EU) institutions have a lot of power, and that their authority is felt in every economic sector, including the insurance business. With European rules currently being debated that will shape the future of car insurance, for instance, it is futile to deny the industry follows EU politics as closely as it does national public affairs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILS of the expansion in European Union (EU) import quotas for Kazakhstan steel products because of May’s enlargement of the EU by 10 new member countries have been released by the European Commission. The central Asian republic had a pre-existing steel trade deal with Brussels, guaranteeing its access to EU markets for a range of products.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEKS are Europe’s most dishonest tax payers a European Commission report has concluded, with more than 20% of work by value being undeclared. The paper shows Britain is much more honest, with only 2% of its GDP concealed from the taxman, second only to Austria (1.5%).…

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

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

BY MARK ROWE
IT is understandable to see how the cosmetics industries in the European Union’s (EU) newest members might view the recent expansion of the EU club with mixed feelings. On the one hand, new markets have opened up: if their products are good enough to sell at home, they can now sell them from the Baltic to the Atlantic.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is bankrolling the development of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas reserves, a key alternative supply for the European Union (EU). It wants to lend Tasbulat Ltd Euro 60 million to help develop three medium-sized oil and gas fields in Mangistau region, western Kazakhstan, producing up to 8,000 barrels/day in 2006; Tasbulat is owned by SNP Petrom, Romania’s national oil company.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has codified and publicised the often complex set of rules controlling the migration of eastern and southern European workers from the 10 countries joining the EU on May 1. These transitional rules designed to ease the impact of their accession on the EU’s 15 established member states, have been posed online at the European Job Mobility Portal http://europa.eu.int/eures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 10 EASTERN and southern European countries joining the EU on May 1 are “on course” to meeting its food health standards, Brussels’ health and consumer protection Commissioner David Byrne has claimed. This masked problems however: temporary exemptions have given the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia between an additional three months and three years to ensure milk producers, slaughterhouses and food processing plants meet standards that should already have been in place.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EASTERN and southern European countries who joined the European Union (EU) on May 1 have been granted requested stays of execution over the implementation of common EU minimum rates for solid fuel energy taxation. The EU Council of Ministers fears sharp increases would damage these new members’ energy markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EASTERN and southern European countries who have now joined the European Union (EU) have been granted requested stays of execution over the implementation of common rules on energy taxation that were agreed last year for the old EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s opposition to restrictions on personal alcohol imports between European Union (EU) member states, such as between France and Britain, could intensify after a new team of Commissioners takes office in November. Answering a European Parliament questionnaire, Latvia’s Ingrida Udre promised a strong line, assuming she is confirmed as taxation and customs union Commissioner.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE DANISH government has alerted the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to the discovery of dioxin contamination in Baltic salmon that exceeds EU safety standards, sparking alerts in former communist countries which have just become member states. The problem has led Denmark to impose its own fishing and marketing ban on Baltic salmon.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHILST Britain’s record on serious accidents at work is declining, the factories, building sites and offices of some eastern European countries joining the European Union (EU) this weekend (May 1) are becoming safer, according to EU statistical agency Eurostat.…

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has reduced the proposed minimum level of cover written into the EU’s draft motor insurance directive to Euro one million per person injured, a move welcomed by the Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 10 EASTERN and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) last weekend are “on course” to meeting its food health standards, Brussels’ health and consumer protection Commissioner David Byrne has claimed. His confident declaration masks some problems however, leading to temporary exemptions, giving the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia between an additional three months and three years to ensure milk producers, slaughterhouses and food processing plants meet standards that should have been in place on May 1.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 10 EASTERN and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) last weekend are on course to meeting its food health standards, Brussels’ health and consumer protection Commissioner David Byrne has claimed. His confident declaration masks a series of problems, however, leading to many temporary exemptions and special measures, giving the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Malta, and Slovenia; the countries between three months and three years extra time to ensure slaughterhouses and food processing plants meet standards that should have been in place on May 1.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN
ACCESS rights to drive across ecologically-sensitive Alpine passes in Switzerland and Austria – plus to Bulgaria and Romania – are being granted to hauliers from the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) in May.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN has been given a relatively clean bill of health in the latest Transparency International corruption rankings, being viewed as joint-11th least-corrupt country in the world, sharing its billing with Canada and Luxembourg. Finland was the most honest place in which to do business said the pressure group’s survey, followed by Iceland and the Denmark plus New Zealand at joint third.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SERIES of exemptions from the European Union’s (EU) new directive imposing minimum rates of energy taxation on coal have been proposed by the European Commission for seven of the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the EU in May.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD WIDE Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned that the eight eastern European countries joining the European Union in May are failing to exploit their potential renewable energy capacity, making it harder for some to comply with the EU’s renewable energy directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEAT consumption in eastern European countries joining the European Union (EU) this May generally fell by 10-20 per cent during the 1990s, falling significantly below per capita consumption in the existing EU, according to a European Commission report.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
2) An ageing, rusty Russian oil tanker has left Latvia, despite European protests. Spain and the European Commission, which have expressed grave fears about the single-hull Geroi Sevastopolya, had asked the Baltic state to halt its departure from the Ventspils port and immediately adopt an EU ban on such vessels.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD WIDE Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned that the eight eastern European countries joining the European Union in May are failing to exploit their potential renewable energy capacity, making it harder for some to comply with the EU’s renewable energy directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW European Union action plan fighting illegal logging is flaws because it ignores the Baltic States, claims the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It says extensive illegal logging is taking place in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, 15-25 percent of all logging in Latvia and 40-50 per cent in Estonia.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is piling pressure on the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the organisation next May to abolish tax laws that currently break EU regulations and directives. The EU Council of Ministers has drawn up a list of 30 tax measures deemed “harmful” to Europe’s internal market that apply in the countries planning to join the EU next year, namely Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EASTERN and southern Europe countries slated to join the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004, have worked small wonders in recent years to set up anti-money laundering regimes, not necessarily because they believe this is good in itself but partly at least because EU entry might not be possible otherwise.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FOR the non ferrous metals industries, the formal enlargement of the EU next May will not be an overnight sensation but rather the end of a ten-year process during which producers in eastern and central Europe have progressively adapted themselves to the western European model.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NON-FERROUS metal producers in the existing 15 European Union (EU) countries could see some lowering of labour costs after enlargement of the EU next year as low-paid Polish and other workers move into the higher wage countries like Germany, according to industry sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CREATION of an “audit culture” in the public administrations of the 10 eastern and southern European countries planning to join the European Union next May would help ease growing concerns in Brussels that would-be Member States are failing to meet EU financial probity standards, MEPs have heard.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NOW the arguing is over and the dye has been cast, it is time to start work on the practicalities of admitting 10 new countries to the European Union, making this long discussed enlargement work for British and western European farmers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IMPENDING enlargement of the European Union, admitting countries that were once part of the communist eastern bloc, poses risks for the western European pharmaceutical sector, as well as benefits from the opening up of new markets, a senior industry figure has warned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is granting 512 meat processing establishments in six eastern European countries additional time to bring their health standards in line with European Union law once their home states join the EU next May.

A memorandum released by the European Commission’s enlargement directorate general, says that 332 of these operations are in Poland, where the deadline for compliance has been extended to December 2007; 14 establishments in Lithuania have until January 2007.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA and vodka are inseparable bedfellows but is there room for a ménage-a-trois? Its domestic market for beer is booming, while abroad both Russian immigrant communities and western European and north American drinkers are enjoying the novelty factor of a quality brew from the traditional home of vodka.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CITIZENS of eastern and southern European countries seeking to join the European Union (EU) consider improvements to the safety of the food they eat to be the top priority of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. Of those polled by the Eurobarometer organisation, 88 per cent cited food safety as their top priority for the CAP, rather than improving the income of their local farmers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SOME eastern European countries applying for EU membership need to work harder to reform their food sectors, said a European Commission report. Slovakia, Slovenia and Latvia are highlighted as having won foreign investment though.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ESTABLISHMENT of special anti-fraud coordinators in all eastern and southern European countries applying to join the European Union (EU) has been welcomed by OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office.

In a memorandum on the fight against fraud in an enlarged EU, OLAF said: “By putting Anti Fraud Co-ordinating Service offices in place, the candidate countries have demonstrated in concrete terms their commitment to fighting fraud.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE MOST important driver of reform in the institutions of the European Union today is the impending enlargement of the EU eastwards, to take in (Greek) Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALMOST all eastern European countries applying to join the EU have asked for special transitional periods averaging three years to raise health standards at some of their food processing plants to meet EU regulations. Products from plants where improvements are still being made will not be able to circulate the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LITHUANIA has imposed safeguard duties on imports of non-dried pastry yeast. Special tariffs of 22 per cent will be imposed from March to December, and 16 per cent from next January to December. Lithuania has been particularly concerned about increased imports from Germany, France, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Turkey, Italy and the Czech Republic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS acts of international largesse go, the expansion of the European Union eastwards and southwards must rank as being one of the most generous in history. With research estimates claiming that the size of the EU budget will soar to accommodate the needs of the former communist republics, (plus Cyprus and Malta), we are talking Marshall Plan here; billions of Euro’s being transferred from national coffers in western Europe to the east, via Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HOLISTIC global campaign against HIV/AIDS has been agreed by Rome-based UN agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Fund for Agriculture Development and the World Food Programme. The trio will work to minimise the effect on food production of AIDS epidemics in countries where the disease is particularly widespread, namely Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CYNICS may look at the hastening political process of allowing eastern European countries, and their large agricultural sectors, into the European Union, and ask, ‘what’s in it for us?’

It’s a good question given that the 10 countries that are at the front of the membership queue, (with the tiny exceptions of Malta and Cyprus), are hardly wealthy.…

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

BY MIKE FOX
THE HISTORIC political changes, which swept across Europe in the previous decade, have also brought huge changes to the world of aviation; the European Civil Aviation Conference, (ECAC), has welcomed 16 countries from the region as members since 1990.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation has launched a general round at its summit in Qatar, which will include negotiations on liberalising export and import regimes for so-called industrial goods such as fish.

These talks have a final deadline of 2005 and, said the meeting’s communiqué, will try “to reduce or as appropriate eliminate tariffs, including the reduction or elimination of tariff peaks, high tariffs, and tariff escalation, as well as non-tariff barriers, in particular on products of export interest to developing countries.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EASTERN European countries applying to join the European Union should be given transitional periods to align their excise duties on cigarettes with the laws loosely harmonising those of existing Member States, says the European Commission.

It has formally suggested that Poland, Romania and Slovenia should have two years from the time that they join the EU in which to amend their rates, and that Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia should have three years’ grace.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has tried to make up for its failure to strike fishing access deal with Morocco by forging an improved agreement with its north African neighbour Mauritania which Brussels claims its “the most important with a third country” that it has made.…