Search Results for: Portuguese

But even though the Lava Jato task force was officially disbanded in 2021, Pierpaolo Bottini, partner at São Paulo-based Bottini & Tamasauskas Advogados, and a former director of the Economic Criminal Law of the Brazilian Institute of Criminal Sciences, said this abuse of crypto has been highlighted in cases he is defending. …

Higher education institutions are being warned they could be a target for money laundering, with fees being financed by the proceeds of crime, including corruption, which might also buy property, cars and other items for students.

The problem has been highlighted in a series of reports.…

INTRODUCTION

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

The food halal market for Portugal, a largely Christian country that was in the early Middle Ages part of the Muslim world, has been expanding, serving a growing local Muslim community and Muslim tourists keen to taste Portuguese food.

Between 711 and 1249, most of Portugal was under Muslim rule, which influenced its language and culture.…

The new chair of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has said the body will consider reviewing its standard on intangibles, IAS 38. Following feedback from advisory groups and consultative bodies, Andreas Barckow said that IAS 38 is “more than 20 years old and has never been revisited other than for consequential changes resulting from other projects”.…

INTRODUCTION

While debates continue over whether Aristotle actually said ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, the concept that a system can deliver more impact than each element of its technology acting alone is well established in the textile sector.…

African students have been benefiting from an informal innovative online initiative helping them find jobs after they graduate. The iDEASlab (1) has in particular enabled higher education students to launch business ideas after graduation.

The network’s academics are Angolans based in the USA, Russia and Angola, who, inspired by their time at university, decided to work together informally to create development in their places of birth.…

THE COVID-19 pandemic’s boom in web usage has created opportunities for hackers and fraudsters to attack the unwary through electronic networks, however, on the plus side the scope for open-source intelligence (OSINT) inquiries online to reveal useful information about these criminals is growing.…

In five years, the Europol-hosted website ‘No More Ransom’ (NMR) (1) “prevented criminals from earning almost a billion euros through ransomware attacks,” the European Union (EU) police agency claims. Launching a new more user-friendly home for its ‘Crypto Sheriff’ app on Monday (July 26), Europol said that through 121 free tools, able to decrypt 151 ransomware families of this malware, the NMR repository has helped more than six million people recover locked files for free.…

The Angolan government has been implementing several measures to improve the weak reputation of its higher education system, such as stricter accreditation and assessment laws, with some experts saying these changes need to be implemented more comprehensively.

Since the current President João Lourenço took office in 2017, after almost 38 years under José Eduardo dos Santos’ command, the country has undergone significant change.…

Cape Verdean public universities are competing to raise their country’s profile as an international HE centre – launching new modern facilities, degree courses taught entirely in English and multiple international agreements.
Being a tourism-dependent archipelago highly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, the Cape Verde GDP dropped 14.8% last year – the worst economic performance in its history.…

The under-developed system of higher education of African archipelago country São Tomé & Príncipe is growing slowly amidst expanding demand, being assisted by international projects and funds.
One major potential initiative that may cause significant progress, however, involves this Lusophone country being chosen by the Pan African Institute for Development (PAID) to host a future International University of Development Sciences.…

Mozambique’s tobacco leaf and processing sector is facing tough times. Cyclones such as this January’s Eloise, and Idai in 2019 have wreaked significant damage on tobacco plantations. Covid-19 has caused processing disruption and harmed legitimate distribution, encouraging an increase in black market cigarette sales.…

IT is maybe not a common occurrence for the tobacco industry to find itself on the right side of judicial rulings, but in December, South Africa’s Western Cape High Court ruled that a four-and-a-half month national ban on sales of tobacco products, justified to prevent the spread of Covid-19, had been unconstitutional.…

The Amílcar Cabral University, the only public university in Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s poorest and politically fragile countries, is looking to expand its educational services and attract more funds, trying to overturn past student dissatisfaction with its work.

After nine years leaning on a public–private partnership with the Lisbon, Portugal-based Lusófona University, the UAC (Universidade Amílcar Cabral in its Portuguese acronym), ended in 2013 after the government jeopardised the agreement.…

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 International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has released a white paper saying that the accounting profession needs to learn from the challenges of Covid-19, investing in boosting communication skills. This will enable accountants to be more effective pro-active trusted partners with their clients, able to adapt to flexible and remote working even after the pandemic subsides.…

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

THE PORTUGUESE textile and clothing industry has proved to be an example of resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic due to its clusters, flexibility, investment in research and development (R&D) and good ethics, a Oporto and Brussels-based clothing industry innovation agency has argued.…

A MAJOR expansion in collecting sales information within the digital economy across the European Union (EU) and beyond has been proposed by the European Commission, to crack down on widescale tax evasion.

The EU executive has proposed reforms to an EU directive on administrative cooperation between tax authorities (see https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/2020_tax_package_dac7_en.pdf)…

South-east Asia is not known for a tradition of eating dairy products, but actually consumers in the region’s most populous country Indonesia (population 270 million people) have been eating cheese for more than a century (partly thanks Indonesia’s historic links with the Netherlands) and the country has a thriving domestic dairy industry.…

PORTUGAL’S digital textile printing sector generates sales of USD164 million annually (as of 2019), according to analysists BlueWeave Consulting & Research Pvt Ltd, which predicts it is poised to grow, benefiting from its close proximity to European customers, at a time when Europe’s market for digitally printed textiles is booming, with the technology in increasing high regard.…

WITH anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls becoming ever more comprehensive, strategic and widespread, the demand for trained AML/CFT professionals is growing. Salaries are increasing, as a result. This good compensation reflects the fact that AML work is becoming increasingly demanding because of regulatory requirements, said Michael Harris, director, financial crime compliance, at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.…

THE LONG lines of customer to the cash register in Inditex stores – the giant Spanish company behind High Street fashion brands Zara, Bershka and Pull&Bear (among others) – are also now buying personal care products as well as clothes. They funnel customers through shelves that are not only bursting with low-cost impulse buys, such as hair accessories, smart phone covers and key rings, but now also Inditex scents.…

BRAZIL’S automotive industry sector is optimistic about the future, now that the new government of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro has left the new Route 2030 package of industrial incentives untouched.

The President, who assumed office on January 1, had criticised Route 2030 (Rota 2030 in Portuguese) last November (2018), as a potential waste of money.…

Although religious universities educate only about 15% of all higher education students in Mozambique, they make a significant contribution to a country with very low levels of access to tertiary studies. Only 1% of the 29 million Mozambicans are currently attending attend higher education courses according to data provided by the country’s ministry of science and technology and higher education.…

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. …

CHINESE exports of knitted fabrics have been hit by major USA duties in the latest round of tit-for-tat tariffs imposed in the countries’ ongoing trade war. China exported USD470 million’s worth of knitted and crocheted fabrics to the USA in 2017, according to international trade data.…

JOINING expertise from the public and private sector to combat money laundering or terrorism financing (TF) aided by virtual currencies (VCs) is the way forward, financial crime experts told MEPs at the June 18 meeting of the European Parliament’s special committee on terrorism.…

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

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

BRAZIL’S beauty and personal care market took a hit in 2016, as the world’s fourth-biggest beauty market struggled to emerge from its worst-ever recession amid political corruption scandals. 

The outlook is for a slow recovery this year, as high unemployment keeps a lid on purchasing power in this market of 207 million people.…

THE SOUTH African hair care market grew 6% in current value terms in the past year to South African Rand ZAR6.6 billion (USD488.4 million). And this growth is projected, by London-based market researchers Euromonitor, to rise by a 1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in constant value terms over the next five years.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

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

THE EUROPEAN Commission must propose a new blacklist of non-European Union (EU) countries considered high-risk money laundering locations, after the full European Parliament (EP) overwhelmingly a proposed list yesterday (May 17), by 392 votes to 80, with 207 abstentions.

A Parliament spokesperson told Money Laundering Bulletin the Commission had no deadline to produce its third list of countries needing to face stricter controls doing business in the EU, but was expected to do so in the next “few months”.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

The oil and gas industry is reshaping its strategies, practices and values as it responds to global agreements on climate change and sustainable development. The 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – which came into effect in January 2016 – are prominent among global governance challenges driving change in the oil and gas industry, but pressure just keeps building.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the creation of a significant holding by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and Toho Gas Co Ltd in the Portugal gas distribution sector, green-lighting their acquisition of shares in Portugal’s Galp Gás Natural Distribuição. Henceforth, the Japanese companies will share control with Portugal’s Galp Energia SGPS, a key oil, gas and power generation company.…

Central Bank theft – casino repercussions: the Philippines

The theft in February of $101m from the Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank New York in an audacious hack of SWIFT codes saw funds flow to casino accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation in the Philippines.…

Plastics has a very good image – but the industry’s contribution to marine waste is damaging it, Antonino Furfari, managing director of industry organisation Plastics Recyclers Europe, told yesterday’s (September 29) high level Brussels conference on measures to prevent this environmental problem.…

Three out of four people polled for a European Parliament-commissioned survey have said they wanted the European Union (EU) to do more to tackle tax fraud. Asked whether they would like the EU to intervene less than at present or more in “the fight against tax fraud” 75% said more, 14% said they wanted no change, 5% less and 6% answered they did not know.…

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

The Philippines has been standing accused of passively aiding money launderers and terrorist financers ever since its Anti-Money Laundering Act in 2001 exempted local casinos from the duty of submitting suspicious transaction reports on their operations.. But pressures to revise that decision have been growing markedly since earlier this year Chinese cyber hackers managed to launder USD81 million through banks and casinos in Manila, with only approximately USD6 million of the booty recovered so far.…

Back in March 2014, a Hong Kong businessman named Joseph Lau Luen-hung was sentenced in absentia to five years and three months in prison by Macau’s Court of First Instance.

Lau had been found guilty, along with along with fellow businessman Steven Lo Kit-sing, of money laundering and paying a Hong Kong dollars HKD20 million (USD2.5 million) bribe to Macau’s former secretary of public works, Ao Man Long, who is himself serving a 27-year jail term (for bribery charges).…

AFTER a difficult few years brought about by a global economic recession, Portugal’s footwear and clothing industries is growing and underpinning the country’s business recovery.
Last year (2014) the country’s shoe exports hit a record high of around 89 million pairs sold overseas, bringing in EUR1.8 billion (USD2.06 billion) in receipts according to the Portuguese Association of Industrial Footwear, Accessories, Leather Goods and Substitutes (APICCAPS), helping a country still recovering from crippling government austerity measures.…

ADDITIONAL pressure is being placed on Macao anti-money laundering (AML) authorities to reduce the illicit flow of money between the Chinese special administrative region (SAR) and mainland China. This month (February 2015), officials from mainland China’s ministry of public security (effectively the police force) have this month been meeting Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) officials to set up a system that monitors transactions through UnionPay (China’s state-owned card payment clearing company) in Macao.…

Climbing the career ladder in finance and accounting takes a willingness to take on new, difficult challenges, acquiring varied experience and clear long-term goals. No one knows this better than Grzegorz Mączyński, an ACCA fellow and the financial director and member of the board of Alstom Konstal, Alstom Transport’s branch in Poland.…

A EUROPEAN Commission report has indicated a fall in patent settlements between researching pharma companies and generic manufacturers in 2013, with 146 such deals struck in the European Economic Area (EEA) that year. This compares with 183 settlements in 2012

The EEA is the European Union (EU), plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.  …

The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) is reaching out to higher education institutions in other neighbouring countries to establish collaborations that will encourage more foreign students to enroll for distance learning.
University vice chancellor Professor Tolly Mbwette said the institution’s board hoped to spread its influence regionally: “We are now the largest distance learning university in the region and our plan is to take distance learning to most countries in East Africa and those under the Southern African Development Community [SADC] by 2016.”…

THE PLASTICS industry will be especially influenced over the next five years by four new European Union (EU) commissioners who have been nominated to serve in the new European Commission of its incoming president Jean-Claude Juncker. Assuming they are confirmed in their positions and begin work on November 1, a key figure will be new health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, a former Lithuanian health minister who will be responsible for food contact materials and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).…

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

A potential bonanza of new projects may be offered to Chinese construction companies following the set-up of a new development bank with lots of cash for infrastructure projects. This July marked the launch of the so-called ‘BRICS Bank’, a new multilateral development bank, operated by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.…

Brazilian booksellers teamed up at São Paulo’s international book biennial from August 22 to 31 to lobby its government to help protect them against Amazon’s physical and e-book sales service, now serving South America’s largest economy.

Amazon launched its physical books service on August 21 with 150,000 titles available, the vast majority on Brazilian Portuguese.…

AUSTRIA

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

While India’s Supreme Court last week (April 21) lifted an 18-month-old ban on iron ore mining in the state of Goa, it maybe six months before extraction begins, Steel First has been told.

“Some things can be put in place by September but the full-fledged mining would start only by January [next year],” said Parag Nagarcenka, assistant director at Goa’s directorate of mines & geology.…

The Association of Portuguese Distributors (APED) has warned that a controversial new law effectively banning supermarket discounts will harm consumers, food suppliers and retailers. APED president Ana Isabel Trigo Morais said that the “negative impacts” of the law would cause price rises.…

THE SECOND round of the European Union’s (EU) Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2) that starts in the New Year has been designed to ease funding applications by interested companies and other organisations forming consortia to develop innovative drugs, according to Michel Goldman, IMI executive director.…

BRAZIL is an innovative technical textile producer, declares a report from a senior São Paulo’s business school the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), despite the sector experiencing teething problems as it expands. Looking at the Brazilian textile sector as a whole, the study estimates that 77% of investment into the sector during 2012 was used to buy innovative machinery – and the technical textile sector especially has a lot of demand to meet.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament (EP) has sharply criticised Norway for imposing heavy duties on imports of beef and lamb from the European Union (EU), calling on the European Commission to assess possible retaliation.

A strongly worded resolution agreed today (Thursday July 4), MEPs urged the Commission to continue putting Norway under pressure to lift or ease the duties.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action against Portugal for offering tax benefits to non-resident companies more than 25% owned by Portuguese residents, while denying them to other non-resident companies. Brussels says this breaks European Union (EU) fair trading rules and could ask the European Court of Justice to order Portugal to reform these rules.…

A CENTRE-left Portuguese member of the European Parliament (MEP) Nuno Teixeira has raised concerns about the safety of Brazilian beef after learning that two shipments of Brazilian beef meat have been blocked in the port of Rotterdam after testing positive for the presence of Ecoli bacteria.…

EUROPEAN clothing suppliers flocked to this year’s Intertextile Beijing Apparel Fabrics 2013 show to explore China-based sales, but told just-style of concerns that excess domestic inventory might impede export sales in this key emerging market. This year’s show at the China International Exhibition Centre was notable for a year-on-year 36% rise in European exhibitors, including a similar expansion of companies exhibiting at the pavilion operated by Italian textile producer organisation Milano Unica.…

BRAZIL’S growing economy has given many Brazilian motorists purchasing power they have never had before. This – plus effective social welfare policies and an end to past hyper-inflation – has grown Brazil’s middle class, which is now about 54% of the 196 million population, according to the country’s presidential office for strategic affairs.…

MEMBERS of the European Parliament agriculture committee are worried about cuts made to the European Union (EU)’s rural development fund for the rest of the decade in the recent EU 2014-20 spending deal – warning it may especially hit farmers rearing livestock of sheep and goats in poor regions.…

Strengths:

China has a booming e-commerce sector, and growing online drinks retailers are building more warehouses nationwide. They need to balance ‘just-in-case’ and ‘just-in-time’ demands and also the need for flexibility versus low inventory. Negotiating these logistical pressures is vital in this huge yet highly fragmented market.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament called yesterday (Thurs) for the European Commission to stick to its guns in proposing that origin labelling for clothing and shoes made outside the European Union (EU) be made mandatory, after the EU executive threatened to withdraw a legislative proposal on the issue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted legal protection to speciality Portuguese goat and sheep meat and a Slovene pork product. This prevents meat traders using their names in marketing unless these products are made in their home area by traditional production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PRESSURE is growing on European Union (EU) ministers to give the EU’s sugar production quota system a stay of execution. MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee have called for the retention of EU sugar quotas for beet farmers until 2020, rather than follow existing plans to phase them out in 2015.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA

12 SEPTEMBER 2012

SPAIN’s ailing book industry has seen things go from bad to worse throughout 2012 as the country moved centre stage in the Eurozone crisis, government austerity measures hit hard, and unemployment hovered around 25%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) consumer safety alert network Rapex has warned that illegal hydroquinone content is continuing to be discovered in skin whitening products across Europe. Portuguese customs, for instance, seized Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)-manufactured Angel Cosmetics lightening beauty soap with carrot oil for containing the chemical, banned under the EU cosmetics directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the troubles of the Euro cast doubts over the viability of key European Union’s (EU) economic policies, the EU appears to have rediscovered ambition in crafting EU institutions and programmes for fighting commercial crime. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN MÁLAGA

JUST like El Dorado, the never-was city of gold, Latin America’s 390 million Spanish speakers, are a siren call to Spanish publishers, whose domestic market numbers just 46 million souls. There is even a side bet on 190 million Portuguese speaking Brazilians

Some publishers, lured by these big numbers, have tried and failed in the past, foundering on the reefs of censorship, economic and currency volatility, and the local business culture, though taking forever to get paid – if at all – should not have come as a shock to Spanish firms.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PAINTS and coating companies in the European Union (EU) storing potentially dangerous chemicals on their premises will have to by 2015 abide by tougher management standards preventing industrial accidents. This is because the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council of Ministers have struck an agreement on the contents of a new law – the Seveso III directive – that will include new safety rules for chemical-using businesses.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has passed a resolution calling on the European Commission to use its diplomatic muscle to outlaw child labour in emerging market cocoa and chocolate industries. MEPs want exporting countries to impose tougher labour laws preventing young children from being used to harvest and produce these key cosmetics ingredients.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PORTUGUESE authorities have clamped down on personal care products they regard as potentially harmful for a second month running, European Union (EU) consumer warning network RAPEX has reported. Action was taken against eight products in October, including customs seizures and sales ban.…

BY MINI PANT ZACHARIAH

PORTUGUESE bakery group Dan Cake has confirmed to just-food that Indian-made versions of its ‘Danesita’ biscuits, cookies and cakes will enter the Indian sweet bakery market by the year end. It follows Dan Cake and India-based Phadnis Group inking a 66:34 joint venture last month to set up a production facility in Chakan, 30 kilometres from Phadnis’ Indian headquarters in Pune, central India.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPREHENSIVE European Union (EU) directive combatting the sale of fake medicines has been approved by the European Parliament. The law – which still requires approval from the EU Council of Ministers – insists that Internet pharmacies must be authorised by member states to operate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) consumer protection network RAPEX has warned of a series of hair-care products being discovered containing substances banned by the EU cosmetics directive. Czech authorities banned Polish product hair dye 111 Noix Dore for containing 2-nitro-p-phenylenendiamine and hydroquinone.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

18

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend Euro EUR90 million to airport operator Aeroportos de Portugal (ANA) to fund improvements to seven airports in the country. The bulk of the money will be spent at the mainland airports of Oporto, Faro and Lisbon, with smaller investments at ANA’s four airports in the Azores archipelago – namely Ponta Delgada, Horta, Santa Maria, and Flores.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CONSUMER protection authorities of Portugal have been busy with unsafe cosmetics products in September, with five withdrawals reported by European Union consumer safety network RAPEX. Some covered Spanish made products – such as Isdruc ‘Crema despigmentante’ skin lightening cream; plus Tempting ‘Vitamine vital shampoo’ and ‘Live Mask repair’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

THE ORIGINAL inhabitants of Latin America, who dominated the region prior to the Spanish and Portuguese conquests, have often had a rough deal regarding tertiary education. But initiatives are underway to right this wrong. This May the Peruvian National Congress’ Education Commission approved a proposal to create a National Aymara University, the first institute for higher learning in Peru designed to serve so-called ‘indigenous’ peoples of the country.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

THE ORIGINAL inhabitants of Latin America, who dominated the region prior to the Spanish and Portuguese conquests, have often had a rough deal regarding tertiary education. But initiatives are underway to right this wrong. This May the Peruvian National Congress’ Education Commission approved a proposal to create a National Aymara University, the first institute for higher learning in Peru designed to serve so-called ‘indigenous’ peoples of the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s proposals to allow European Union (EU) member states effective control over whether GM food should be grown in their countries have come under fire in the European Parliament. Its environment committee has debated the plans, with Portuguese green MEP Marisa Matias and others raising concerns national bans on products approved for cultivation across the EU may be vulnerable to legal challenges, perhaps at the World Trade Organisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations and Brazil are helping a small west African country fight against its exposure to organised drugs crime by funding and helping manage the construction of a new police academy. Since a civil war in the late 1990s, Guinea-Bissau – a former Portuguese colony – has seen weak governments under attack from international narcotics rings.…

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission will spend around Euro 3 million on promoting sales outside the European Union (EU) of French spirits, Italian and Portuguese wines over the next three years. It is spending Euro 1.2 million on marketing and information campaigns in Japan and north America coordinated by Italian wine federation Federdoc; Euro 1 million promoting Portuguese ‘vinho verde’ wines within China, Norway, Latin and north America, campaigns organised by the Comissão de Viticultura da Região dos Vinhos Verdes; and Euro 912 million on promoting Cognac, with campaigns in China, Russia and north America coordinated by France’s Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC).…

BY BRENDAN DE BEER and CARRIE-MARIE BRATLEY

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SPECIAL marketing protection has been announced by the European Commission for three more traditional products: an Italian salami – ‘Ciauscolo’; a Spanish bread ‘Pan de Cruz de Ciudad Real’ and a Portuguese sweet potato – ‘Batata doce de Aljezur’.…

 By David Haworth, in Brussels

No sooner has Sweden unveiled plans for the next six months of political endeavour in the European Union, than the wheel has fallen off before the new model can even be test driven. The Swedes who assumed the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1, had predicated their efforts on a quick reappointment of Jose Manuel Barroso, 53, the genial European Commission president, for another five years’ office.

The former Portuguese premier received the unanimous “political support” of EU leaders during their recent Summit. This endorsement, you might think, would be enough to confirm the head boy in his position for another term. But no, the presidency job is in the final gift of the European Parliament – and this is where the Swedish calculations have gone wrong.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PORTUGUESE and Spanish knitwear sectors are to benefit from special government programmes designed to support clothing producers in these countries withstand the recession, given these countries regard the sector as having strategic importance. The Portuguese government has announced a major Euro 850 million plan to boost its struggling clothing sector, with Euro 600 million being lavished on export credit insurance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has extended European Union (EU) geographical indication protection to traditional Portuguese biscuits ‘Ovos Molos de Aveiro’ and to Italian chestnuts ‘Castagna di Vallerano’. This means these marketing terms can only be used by biscuits and chestnuts made according to set traditional methods in their usual historic home production regions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PORTUGUESE government has announced a major Euro 850 million plan to boost its struggling textile and clothing sector, with Euro 600 million being lavished on export credit insurance. Another Euro 180 million will help Portuguese textile and clothing companies secure access to bank loans, with smaller sums being spent, for example, on backing risk capital investment (Euro 20 million); and rationalisation through mergers and acquisitions (Euro 30 million).…

BY MONICA DOBIE

SECURITY guards took the joy out of the European Parliament’s annual pet night by banning dogs from entering the institution’s Brussels headquarters, claiming the animals posed a potential security threat.

The annual event takes place to raise awareness for animal welfare issues and normally sees EP officials and MEPs bringing their working animals and pets into the EU parliament building.…

BY MARK ROWE

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

THE ACCOUNTANCY profession in the United States might think its day of reckoning came and went in 2002. But those who thought that the Sarbanes Oxley Act was the final word in regulation for the accounting profession may be in for a rude surprise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has continued this month’s surge in decisions to grant traditionally made European food products protection by adding them to the European Union’s (EU) protected geographical indication lists. It has announced protection for six more products, preventing them from being copied by food manufacturers based outside the regions where they are traditionally produced and manufactured.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it will be spending Euro 2.85 million promoting the sales of Italian and Portuguese wines within the European Union (EU). The money will finance marketing and information campaigns across Europe already planned by relevant wine sector organisations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted 18 traditionally made European Union (EU) food products protection by adding them to EU geographical indication lists, preventing them from being copied by food manufacturers outside these products’ home regions. These include Spanish marzipan ‘Mazapán de Toledo’; Portuguese smoked sausage ‘Alheira de Vinhais’; and Slovenská parenica, a smoked Slovak sheep milk cheese.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MAJOR concerns have been raised about a draft European Union (EU) plan to attract highly qualified immigrants because of its ability to fuel an intense brain drain from Africa.

A hearing was staged last week in Brussels (June 26) at the European Parliament on the ‘blue card’ proposals now being designed by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed as a model a Portuguese scheme that retrained 1,700 unemployed workers in computer, Internet and telecommunications skills after losing jobs from the country’s textile and clothing sector.

Vladimir Spidla, the European Union’s (EU) social affars Commissioner praised the system at a conference staged near Porto by CITEVE, a private high-technology textiles and clothing group.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed as a model a Portuguese scheme that retrained 1,700 unemployed workers in computer, Internet and telecommunications skills after losing jobs from the country’s textile and clothing sector.

Vladimir Spidla, the European Union’s (EU) social affars Commissioner praised the system at a conference staged near Porto by CITEVE, a private hi-technology textiles and clothing group.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PORTUGUESE auto workers who recently lost their jobs in layoffs are to receive Euro 2.42 million from the European Union (EU) in social assistance and retraining packages. The money will come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, designed to help Europe cope with economic change brought by worldwide economic change.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice alleging illegally excess red tape regarding exporting excisable goods – notably alcohol. Lisbon insists an administrative document is sent to customs officials six working hours before their release by exporting Portuguese warehouses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEGAL restrictions that are limiting the availability of motor vehicle inspection centres in Portugal are to be challenged at the European Court of Justice, which may order that they be removed. The European Commission thinks the Portuguese government is breaking European Union freedom of trade restrictions by maintaining the rules, maybe preventing the operation of a sufficient number of inspection centres.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) alleging illegally excess red tape regarding the export of excisable products – including tobacco goods. Lisbon insists an administrative document is sent to customs officials six working hours before their release by exporting Portuguese warehouses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice alleging illegally excess red tape regarding the export of excisable goods – including perfumes. Lisbon insists that an administrative document is sent to foreign European Union customs officials administering imports of these goods six working hours before their released by exporting Portuguese warehouses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) alleging illegally excess red tape regarding the export of excisable goods – notably alcoholic drinks. Lisbon insists an administrative document is sent to foreign European Union (EU) customs officials six working hours before their released by exporting Portuguese warehouses.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, in South Africa

SOUTH Africa is in a race against time to ensure the country’s

burgeoning economy is not crippled by fuel shortages, forcing its oil and gas companies to innovate to ensure security of supply, notably from neighbouring countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has added to its protected traditional designations list Portuguese ‘Transmontano’ pork products; Hungarian salami from Szeged; Italian Pecorino di Filiano cheese, Spain’s Cereza del Jerte cherries, Lenteja Pardina de Tierra de Campos lentils and Garbanzo de Fuentesaúco chickpeas; Cyprus’ Loukoumi Geroskipou confectionary; and Slovakia’s Skalický trdelník patisserie products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has moved to protect eight traditionally made European food products from being copied by food manufacturers based outside the regions where they have historically been made. Brussels has added Portuguese ‘Transmontano’ pork products; Hungarian salami from Szeged; Italian Pecorino di Filiano cheese, and others to its list of protected designations list.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FUTURE of the European Union’s (EU) global positioning satellite project Galileo has been all but secured with the EU Council of Ministers agreeing to raise an additional Euro 2.4 billion to launch the system into the sky.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has blocked European Commission proposals that flat rate road taxes be scrapped across Europe in favour of levies varied according to vehicle CO2 emissions. Whilst ministers this week (Tues) agreed on the need for "fiscal measures in passenger car taxation for the purpose of discouraging environmentally damaging behaviour," they did not agree an EU directive was necessary to order this in all 27 member states.…

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

LETS Hope Galileo really makes a difference to European Union (EU) global positioning and navigation telecommunication services. Because, now the additional spending to guarantee its deployment has got the formal go ahead from the EU Council of Ministers, it is going to cost EU taxpayers dear.…

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 DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

SOME five hundred scientists and other experts held a two-day meeting in Brussels this week at a Food Safety Summit to mark the fifth anniversary of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which organised the conference.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FUTURE of the European Union’s (EU) global positioning satellite project Galileo has been all but secured with the EU Council of Ministers agreeing to raise an additional Euro 2.4 billion to launch the system into the sky.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s latest inspection of the Portuguese Research Reactor, of the country’s Nuclear and Technology Institute, at the Sacavém campus, near Lisbon, has called for improvements to radiation safety controls. Although a Brussels report welcomed the installation of new monitoring devices for liquid discharges from the reactor into the environment, it said they could be strengthened.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY DINAH GARDNER, in Macao

IT’S the world’s biggest casino. With 1,150 gaming tables and 3,400 slot machines, the US$2.4 billion Venetian Macau Resort opened its doors last month [August 28] in Macau, a special administrative region (SAR) of China near Hong Kong.…

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

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

BY 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

THE PORTUGUESE government is being taken to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission over allegations it is breaking EURATOM rules regarding its operation of the Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear research reactor in Lisbon. Brussels claims a failure to follow EURATOM- mandated administrative controls, notably over the discharge of radioactive effluents.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has lost patience with Portugal over its restrictions on the import of European Union (EU)-made polyethylene water pipes, asking the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to impose heavy recurring fines. If Lisbon does not scrap the restrictions quickly, judges could soon impose daily penalties of many thousands of Euro, payable until Portugal complies with an earlier ECJ ruling against its pipe import policy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has lost patience with Portugal over its restrictions on the import of European Union (EU)-made polyethylene water pipes, asking the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to impose heavy recurring fines. If Lisbon does not scrap the restrictions quickly, judges could soon impose daily penalties of many thousands of Euro, payable until Portugal complies with an earlier ECJ ruling against its pipe import policy.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening to ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to impose daily recurring fines of Euro 1,000s on Portugal for failing to comply with a 2005 ECJ ruling that it bring its drinking water quality in line with European Union (EU) standards.…

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

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London

EUROPEAN manufacturers have been given the go-ahead to use explosive chemicals as igniters for airbags after a new European Union (EU) law had threatened to put them out of business. The new legislation drawn up by the European Commission in Brussels last year (2005) was principally aimed at the fireworks industry and laid down new regulations to ensure safety in handling, storage and transportation binding across the 25 member countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared France gas and petroleum company Total’s takeover of Spain-based gas, oil and petrochemical production firm Compañía Española de Petróleos (Cepsa), which focuses on the Spanish and Portuguese markets. Brussels fast-tracked the merger approval, as it considers the deal does not pose competition problems for the European Union’s energy sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened legal action against Denmark, France, Portugal and Sweden for failing to install continuous safety controls required by a European Union (EU) directive on ‘the control of high-activity sealed radioactive sources and orphan sources’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drawn up plans to lend Portuguese electricity utility EDP (Energias de Portugal) up to Euro 180 million to retrofit three coal-fired power stations in Spain and Portugal. The plan is to research, design, build and install clean coal technology, namely flue gas abatement systems, removing SO2, NOx and particulates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drawn up plans to lend Portuguese utility EDP (Energias de Portugal) up to Euro 180 million to retrofit three coal-fired power stations, one in southern Portugal (4 units 314 MWe each); and two in Spain’s Asturias region (350 MWe and 556 MWe).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EU winemakers have attacked European Commission proposals to reform the EU wine market with plans to grub up more vineyards.The Commission wants to grub up 400,000 hectares of EU vineyards due to over-production and poor sales. Participants at a European Parliament hearing late last week agreed the EU wine market needed change but claimed the EU should act to increase demand, not slash production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PORTUGAL is facing possible European Court of Justice (ECJ) action after it exploited a concession over wastewater treatment to conduct blatant pollution of the Atlantic Ocean, alleges the European Commission. Lisbon was given permission in 2001 to follow lower standards in pumping wastewater from the 720,000-people Estoril region than are usually required under the European Union (EU) urban wastewater treatment directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PORTUGAL has been ordered by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to reform its copyright law, so that the country’s public libraries have a duty to pay authors when they lend books. By not writing such a commitment into its national law, the Portuguese government has been censured by the court for breaching European Union directive 92/100/EEC on rental right, lending right and copyright.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S largest solar photovoltaic power plant is now under construction in Portugal’s sunny Algarve region. When it starts generating electricity early next year, it should power 8,000 homes, saving 30,000 tonnes annually in greenhouse gas emissions. There will be 52,000 photovoltaic modules on the plant on the 60-hectare site located on a south-facing hillside at Serpa, which is one of the sunniest spots in Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THERE is a large and growing list of regional money laundering organisations, with formal or informal links with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), so a question mark could hang over why the Commonwealth is getting involved in fighting dirty money.…

BY LIZ HALL, in Alicante

IMPROVEMENTS in Portugal’s ability to detect crime detection, combined with increased vulnerability within the tourist property development arena, mean we could see another Operation White Whale in the next few years, its tip emerging in Portugal rather than Spain, experts warn.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

VOLKSWAGEN has persuaded the Portugal government to subsidise a training programme for workers at its Portuguese subsidiary Auto Europa: unfortunately, the European Commission thinks the payments may be illegal and could block them. An inquiry launched by the executive of the European Union (EU) will check whether this planned Euro 3.5 million grant follows the EU’s rules on ‘state aid’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POLITICAL battle is underway at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over whether EU import duties on unwrought aluminium should be retained or scrapped. The struggle pits Poland and eight other member states against Germany, which wants the current 6% duties retained.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced plans to spend Euro 702,993 over three years on promoting Portuguese Madeira wine in the USA, Canada, Brazil and Japan. The money will be funelled to the

Instituto do Vinho da Madeira (IVM), and will be matched by funding from the Portugal government and private sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to stage negotiations with the Peruvian government on forging a fishing access agreement with the European Union (EU), its first struck with a South American country. If successful, a deal would be a rich prize for EU fishermen, given the plentiful stocks that teem Peru’s deep Pacific Ocean territorial waters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that hand-delivered and mailed legal papers have the same legal authority under European Union (EU) law. It says that if two sets of documents are sent by both means, their date of receipt depends on which arrived first.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) finance ministers have agreed to add district heating to the list of sectors for which member states can levy an optional reduced 5.5% VAT rate until 2010. The agreement was struck after Poland lifted its opposition to a deal following a dispute over social housing VAT.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILS of a rich nine-year fishing access deal struck between the European Union (EU) and the Federated States of Micronesia, in the western Pacific, have been released by the European Commission.

Noting that the western Pacific is “the richest tuna fishery ground in the world (it accounts for 50% of total tuna catches world-wide)”, the Commission stressed: “The current state of the stocks is good and that, for certain species, the maximum safe level of exploitation has not been reached yet.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A DECISION by the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance to uphold a move by the European Commission to block the proposed acquisition of Gas de Portugal by Energias and ENI has dismayed the European electricity industry, which believes the prohibition stands in the way of creating a genuine pan-European electricity market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the Portuguese government to grant Euro 45.2 million in state aid to pharmaceutical company Portela and C° SA (BIAL), for researching and developing two new medicines for the central nervous system. Brussels approved the subsidy on regional development grounds because the company is based in a poor area of northern Portugal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released details of a fishing agreement that will give 40 European Union (EU) tuna seiners and 17 surface longliners access to the Indian Ocean waters off the Comoros archipelago. Asking EU ministers to approve the deal, Brussels said it would cover an annual catch of 6,000 tonnes of tuna in Comoros waters until December 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ANTI-DRUG officials in the European Union (EU) have confessed to being such cultural dinosaurs, it was five years after reports about ecstasy emerged in youth, music and lifestyle magazines before they started collecting and reporting data on the drug.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE and Italy will share Euro 1.57 million of European Union (EU) money for promoting the sale of their hams within the EU over the next three years, along with their cheeses and wines. The countries will provide matching national funding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PORTUGUESE government has failed at the European Court of Justice to defend a contested claim it had abided by European Union law regarding the number of spot-checks regarding special beef premiums for 1999. The European Commission has long maintained that there were too few checks; producers may now have to return some subsidies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend the majority of a new Euro 5 million budget over the next three years promoting French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Austrian wines in key foreign markets. Brussels noted that the main targets would be north America, China, Russia, India, Japan and non-European Union countries in central and eastern Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend Euro millions over the next three years promoting French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Austrian wines in key foreign markets. Announcing the latest of a series of such grants, (matched by national funding), Brussels noted that the main targets would be north America, China, Russia, India, Japan and non-European Union countries in central and eastern Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has blocked a bid by Mexico’s Cervecería Modelo’s to secure European Union (EU) trademark protection for its beer Negra Modelo. This has been opposed by Portugal supermarket group Modelo Continente Hipermercados, which secured its own EU rights to the trademark ‘Modelo’ in 1995, for goods including “syrups, beers, refreshing drinks and non-alcoholic beverages”.…

BY LIZ HALL
SPAIN’S paint and coating industry has every right to be self-congratulatory at present: the widespread investment and business improvements of recent years have paid off with the sector securing a well-earned place alongside its counterparts elsewhere in the developed world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a new fishing access deal with Madagascar, allowing Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese to catch tuna in its Indian Ocean waters until December 2006. The EU will pay Madagascar Euro 825,000 this year and next to compensate it for the loss of fish.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission consumer alert service has reported a ban in Portugal of a novelty cigarette lighter set, designed like other household objects (such as a telephone) or animals, some producing sound and light effects. Portuguese retail authorities ruled the lighters a fire risk to children, who would regard them as toys.…

Keith Nuthall
THE CREATION of a new ground-handling joint venture for Portuguese airports has been approved by the European Commission; it has authorised the merging of the groundhandling division of private airline Portugália into the service offered by national carrier TAP (Transportes Aereos Portugueses).…

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

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a formal inquiry into a levy on wines sold in Portugal financing its Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho (IVV), which provides expert help to the country’s wine industry. The charge was introduced in 1995 and because it is also levied on wine imported from other European Union (EU) member countries, Brussels is concerned that this “wine promotion parafiscal charge” may effectively involve imports subsidising the Portuguese wine industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SIX year fishing agreement struck between the European Commission and the Seychelles has reduced access for European Union (EU) tuna boats to answer criticism that similar past deals have been emptying developing world waters of fish. The new agreement with the Seychelles – lasting from January 2005 to 2011 – cuts fishing opportunities for tuna long-liners by 15% by 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission under incoming energy Commissioner Lázló Kovács could look to Russia and the Ukraine as the key guarantors of Europe’s future gas and oil supplies. Kovács, a Hungarian, has told the European Parliament that he intends to establish “real cooperation” with these countries as a first priority.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend Euro 855,000 promoting Portuguese wine in USA, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, China and Japan. The Portuguese government and private sources will also contribute to a total promotional budget of Euro 1.7 million over three years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has added seven traditional food products to the EU register of protected geographical indications: Spanish beef Ternera de Navarre, Carne de Vacuno del País Vasco and Carne de Cantabria and veal Carne de la Sierra de Guadarrama, Portuguese sausages Farinheira de Estremoz e Borba, Italian Kiwi fruits Latina and Valle del Belice and France’s Noix du Périgord nuts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it will spend Euro 855,000 on promoting the sale of Portuguese wine in USA, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, China and Japan. The money will be combined with money from the Portuguese government and private sources, to create a total promotional budget of Euro 1.7 million, to be spent over the next three years.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE NEW president of the European Commission, the former Portuguese prime minister Jose Manuel Barroso, has made clear that for the next five years at least there will be a reform-minded team at work in Brussels driven by a powerful desire to eliminate accounting fraud, inefficiency and the protection of special interests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has added five additional traditional Iberian meat products to the European Union’s (EU) register of protected geographical indications. They are Spanish beef lines Ternera de Navarre, Carne de Vacuno del País Vasco and Carne de Cantabria and veal Carne de la Sierra de Guadarrama veal, plus Portuguese sausages Farinheira de Estremoz e Borba.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has added six Portuguese sausages (chouriço, paia and morcelo), a French anchovy and melon, plus an Italian salami, to the European Union’s (EU) list of protected geographical designations: Anchois de Collioure Melon Quercy and Salame d’oca di Mortara.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has added six traditional Portuguese meat products to the European Union’s (EU) register of protected geographical indications. They are sausages Chouriço de Carne de Estremoz e Borba, Chouriço grosso de Estremoz e Borba, Paia de Toucinho de Estremoz e Borba, Paia de Lombo de Estremoz e Borba and Paia de Estremoz e Borba; and Morcela de Estremoz e Borba.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it is granting Portugal’s Comissão de Viticultura da Região dos Vinhos Verdes (CVRVV) Euro 882,320 over three years to help promote its products within the European Union (EU). Matching funding will come from the Portuguese government and the Comissão itself, making the programme’s total budget Euro 1.76 million.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it is granting Portugal’s Comissão de Viticultura da Região dos Vinhos Verdes (CVRVV) Euro 882,320 over three years to help promote its products within the European Union (EU). Matching funding will come from the Portuguese government and the Comissão itself, taking the programme’s total budget to Euro 1.76 million.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DESPITE the woeful record of the British food industry regarding health, Britain’s food consumers are the most trusting in Europe, a new survey has suggested. Comparing UK attitudes to those in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Italy and Portugal, when asked if they felt 12 food products were “very safe” to eat, British consumers were the most optimistic in every case.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PUBLIC procurement rules telling Portuguese utilities to conduct open tenders for their purchases are illegal under European Union (EU) law, the European Commission is claiming. As a result, it is threatening legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has the power to order Portugal to comply.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DESPITE the woeful record of the British food industry regarding health, Britain’s food consumers are the most trusting in Europe, a new survey has suggested. Comparing UK attitudes to those in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Italy and Portugal, when asked if they felt 12 food products were “very safe” to eat, British consumers were the most optimistic in every case.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DESPITE the flawed health record of the British meat industry, Britain’s food consumers are the most trusting in Europe, a new survey has suggested. Comparing the UK with Denmark, Norway, Germany, Italy and Portugal, British consumers were most likely to consider 12 foodstuffs “very safe”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PORTUGUESE government is being threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to ensure European Union (EU) nuclear safety standards are applied at the country’s nuclear technology institute. The European Commission claims that Portugal is not complying with various demands from Euratom and the EU basic safety standards directive, such as continuously monitoring local radioactivity and alerting Brussels about any records.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SURVEY by European Union (EU) market research organisation Eurobarometer has revealed that there is immense potential for growing Internet usage in southern Europe. A survey showed not only were 43 per cent of EU citizens still unconnected to the Internet, there were huge regional variations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SURVEY by European Union (EU) market research organisation Eurobarometer has revealed that there is immense potential for growing Internet usage in southern Europe. A survey showed not only were 43 per cent of EU citizens still unconnected to the Internet, there were huge regional variations.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROSTAT scandal has spread to another European Union (EU) institution, with the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee grilling officials from the EU Publications Office (OPOCE) and the responsible (education) Commissioner Viviane Reding. The office sold Eurostat data on its behalf, directing the proceeds to bank accounts of its choosing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve a detailed fishing access deal allowing EU fishing boats access to the Atlantic fishing waters off west Africa’a Guinea Bissau until June 2006. Under the agreement, licences to fish shrimp will be granted to Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek vessels, with boats from Spain (enjoying the overwhelming majority of rights), Italy and Greece being allowed to take fin-fish/cephalopods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released details of a deal struck with the Ivory Coast that will allow European Union (EU) fishing boats access to its rich tropical fish reserves this year and next. It has asked EU ministers to approve a deal allowing 600 GRT of Spanish demersal vessels to fish of the west African country, along with 18 tuna seiners from France and 21 from Spain; five Portuguese and 15 Spanish surface longliners and seven pole-and-line tuna vessels from France and five from Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PORTUGUESE government is being threatened with legal action by the European Commission over its failure to properly police European Union (EU) legislation imposing maximum driving hours on hauliers. Brussels says it may take Lisbon to the European Court of Justice unless it shows within two months how it will increase the number of checks it makes on lorry drivers’ work records.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and PHILIP FINE

EUROPEAN Union consumers have a "reasonable level" of confidence in making online financial transactions, although concerns are more intense in southern Europe. According to European Commission figures, on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 representing absolute confidence), on average EU citizens rate their feelings at 7.08.…

KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH travel agencies are amongst the most productive in the European Union (EU), according to a report on labour productivity written by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency. Its study assessed the added value created by each worker in a given year for a range of industries, Britain’s travel agencies were the second most productive in the holiday industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
STREAMLINING, multi-tasking and flexible posting of employees may be important weapons in the arsenal of a personnel team looking at getting the most efficiency out of their company, but managers had better make sure that their policies are legal, not only under national laws, but European law too.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PORTUGUESE government is planning a mass slaughter of chickens, turkeys and quails after an inquiry determines the extent to which poultry in Portugal has been treated with banned nitrofurans, a carcinogenic anti-biotic. A number of poultry farms have already been closed down following the discovery last October that the drug had been used on Portuguese birds.…

Keith Nuthall
Mr Neil Kinnock, vice-president of the European Commission, appears

likely to escape any censure by the European Parliament over the so-called

Andreason affair and the matter is now expected to be put finally to rest

next week. Mr Kinnock has come under fire over attacks on the Commission’s

accounting procedures by its former chief accountant Marta Andreason who

was suspended from her post by Mr Kinnock last year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice, accusing it of insisting on excessive bureaucracy regarding the authorisation of polyethylene water pipe systems used in urban construction projects. Brussels claims that the rules are so rigorous, they break European Union free movement of goods principles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler is fighting opposition within Portugal to his proposals to introduce multi-annual catch quotas. In a speech, he said: “If bacalhau is to remain on Portuguese menus we have to protect cod stocks from collapse now.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler is fighting opposition within Portugal to his proposals to introduce multi-annual catch quotas. In a speech, he said: “If bacalhau is to remain on Portuguese menus we have to protect cod stocks from collapse now.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WE know that irresponsible sea-sand dredging can led to coastal erosion, threatening beaches and ecological balance and even the livelihoods of whole sea-side or fishing communities. Yet there is today an unprecedented demand for sand as a building material.…

From Alan Osborn
The European Commission has opened a formal State aid investigation

procedure into a decision by the German government to give financial

assistance to BMW for the construction of a new car plant in Leipzig. Total

investment in the factory is around 1.2 billion euros (about pounds 720

million) of which some 418.6 million euros (pounds 250 million) is covered

by the planned aid.…

BY RICHARD HURST
THE SOUTH African construction company Grinaker LTA has announced that it has won a SA Rand 1.7 billion contract to design, engineer, build and mange the 865 km natural gas pipeline running from Mozambique to South Africa.

It has been commissioned by SA chemicals giant Sasol and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos de Mocambique to have the pipeline operational by 2004.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GERMAN, Italian, Greek and Portuguese governments may soon be ordered to pass laws insisting that motorised outdoor gardening equipment used in their countries abide by European Union noise legislation.

Formal legal proceedings at the European Court of Justice has been threatened against all four governments by the European Commission, which claims that they failed to meet a July 2001 deadline to implement the directive 2000/14/EC on noise emissions from outdoor equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EXPORT assistance will be given to Lusophone countries by the World Intellectual Property Organisation to help them establish collective copyright management societies. It is part of cooperation deal signed between WIPO and Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, whose members are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and Sao Tome and Principe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has accused the European Commission of putting the cart before the horse by attempting to begin a phasing out of tobacco growing subsidies, before a long term review on whether they should survive has taken place.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a case at the European Court of Justice in a political battle with the EU Council of Ministers over whether Portuguese pig farmers should receive Euro 16.3 million in state aid. Ministers had allowed Portugal to release the money to refund losses incurred by an earlier order from the Commission that previous subsidies of this value should be repaid, in effect overruling Brussels’ decision.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been given authority by European Union Council of Ministers (finance) to negotiate a comprehensive “Governing International Fisheries Agreement” with the USA. A Brussels official in the Commission’s directorate general for fisheries told Fishing News International that a future deal could lead to EU fishing crews being given access to fish US waters and for European factory ships to be allowed to buy stocks from American fishermen at sea.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been given authority to negotiate a comprehensive “Governing International Fisheries Agreement” with the USA. EU ministers said Brussels officials should

Meanwhile, the EU Council of Ministers has agreed a regulation aiming at boosting cod stocks in the Irish Sea this year, protecting adult cod during the spawning season, notably enforcing an area closure from February.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
WHAT is the region with the highest port consumption in the world? A fair assumption would be Portugal or maybe England, but actually, it is the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec.

Port sales in the Canadian province have exploded from 276,000 750 ml bottles in 1995, to an estimated 3 million this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HOLIDAYS and pregnancy leave are a serious business, both for the employees who take them and the employers who pay for them. Unfortunately for personnel departments who might want a little more flexibility over whether they should shell out or not, recent cases at the European Court of Justice have underlined the right of EU citizens to take paid leave, rather than erode them.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SIMPLICITY is not one the virtues that is readily associated with the institutions of the European Union, so it is refreshing to note that the European Parliament has recently taken a straightforward step to boost its accountability to the citizens of the continent that it serves.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE PORTUGUESE government has been ordered to scrap its reduced five per cent rate of VAT on equipment designed for research into alternative forms of energy, with the European Court of Justice ruling that it contravened the EU’s Sixth VAT Directive, which attempts to harmonise the application of sales taxes.…

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.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRUSSELS is always looking for big ideas by which it can justify its existence to a doubting public and one of the latest of these is the concept of a European Research Area. This idea is that Europe – with its patchwork of nations and national research units – should coordinate its academics and researchers, making sure that they do not duplicate their efforts, rather dovetailing them with a single European goal in mind.…

Keith Nuthall
A REARGUARD action is being fought by the European Commission to save its ambitious proposals to impose a deadline of 2005 on the complete liberalisation of the EU electricity market. Following pressure from the French government, EU governments have agreed to rule the idea out, preferring a looser deadline, although this has yet to be formally agreed at the Council of Ministers.…

Keith Nuthall
A FRENCH government state aid system for producers of liqueur wines and spirits, funding promotional measures, research, technical support and investment, is under threat, because of a European Court of Justice ruling that it should never have been sanctioned by the European Commission.…

Keith Nuthall
THE PORTUGUESE government has been ordered to scrap its reduced five per cent rate of VAT on wine sales, with the European Court of Justice ruling that it contravened the EU’s Sixth VAT Directive, which attempts to harmonise the application of sales taxes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission and Morocco have failed to strike an agreement which would allow Spanish and Portuguese fishing boats to take catches in Moroccan waters, bringing to an unsuccessful end six months of detailed discussions. The result is that the previous agreement, which expired in 1999, and which allowed 500 European boats to exploit catches including tuna and shrimp, is not expected to be renewed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE STANDING Veterinary Committee of the EU has recommended a gradual lifting of the ban on some Portuguese beef exports, namely de-boned meat from animals, born after July 1, 1999, between 6 and 30 months of age, complying with the Date Based Export Scheme.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EXEMPTION from European working time regulations for self-employed drivers, could last a lot longer than the three years that was agreed in the informal deal struck in the EU Council of Ministers last year.

Looking at the detail of the amended directive that has now been accepted formally by the Council, the three-year deadline only gives the European Commission the right to propose an end to the exemption.…