Search Results for: Macedonia

BY MARK ROWE

RENEWABLE energy investments may often be low in price, but when there are enough of them, they make a difference in a region’s energy profile. Such is the case for eastern Europe, where many millions of Euros are being invested in green energy projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MEETING of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, staged by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has accepted reports highlighting significant shortcomings in openness for some jurisdictions. The Pacific island state Vanuatu fared worse, being accused of "significant deficiencies in the availability of information" with its government lacking "any powers to access information" about taxing its residents and companies.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, and KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALYSHAH HASHAM

CANADA – long a difficult jurisdiction for the tobacco sector – became tougher still on July 5, when a national ban on manufacturing and selling most flavoured cigarettes, cigarillos and blunt wraps came into force.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it comes to the power sector, it certainly pays to be green in eastern Europe right now. The London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), whose mandate is to bring sustainable development to eastern Europe and central Asia, has been especially active in promoting green energy across the region.…

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

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY LEAH GERMAIN and KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a new programme helping countries wanting to join the European Union (EU) adopt EU pharmaceutical regulations and work with the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Brussels’ Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) Programme will help the governments of Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey who are negotiating EU entry and those awaiting formal membership talks: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN IMPORTANT step has been made towards guaranteeing the safety of electric and hybrid cars, with the adoption by the UN’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations of a new technical standard on this subject – a global first.…