Search Results for: Serbia

WHILE the imposition of age limits on the consumption of tobacco and other nicotine products remains very much a national, and in some cases sub-national jurisdiction decision, there is no doubt that the general trend worldwide is for tighter restrictions on younger consumers, even if they are often tough to enforce.…

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

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

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.…

INTRODUCTION

The textile industry is one of the world’s oldest manufacturing sector, yet it is also one of the most dynamic, constantly reinventing itself. Today, the development of micro-factories might herald root-and-branch change in how the textile and clothing industry operates, a transformation driven by advances in digital textile printing.…

MALTA’S only multiple casino operator has been fined over serious AML/CFT failings, with the country’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) ordering Tumas Gaming Ltd to undertake AML control reforms.

The company must pay EUR233,156 for breaching the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations.…

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

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

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

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)…

THE NEED to actively recharge electric vehicles makes them less attractive to consumers, especially when batteries can take eight hours to charge. So, the development of ambient technologies that enable EVs to charge themselves as they operate has been a key focus of automotive R&D.…

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

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

The president of Italian food industry association Federalimentare has told of his concern about the medium- to long-term effects of the drop in demand for Made in Italy foods caused by Covid-19 epidemic affecting the country.

Ivano Vacondio said that the current spike in domestic food demand is “atypical and fleeting”, noting that hoarding by Italian consumers has, until now, camouflaged problems that will soon emerge, he said in statements sent to just-food.…

DURING the Yugoslav wars and their aftermath, the government of Serbia President Slobodan Milošević, and his family, were accused of laundering millions of dollars from Serbia, notably to Cyprus – see https://www.tax-news.com/news/Cyprus_Traces_Two_Accounts_Linked_To_Milosevics_Alleged_Money_Laundering_Activities____3063.html. Today, 20 years after the fall from power of the man held responsible for whipping up the nationalism that broke up Yugoslavia, Serbia’s AML/CFT affairs are more prosaic.…

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

THE EUROPEAN Commission – the European Union (EU) executive – has claimed its Erasmus+ higher education exchange initiative is significantly boosting tertiary studies for African students and academics, with 8,500 Africans benefiting this year (2019).

In a report on the programme, which has been hailed as a flagship of the EU’s positive international impact, the Commission said that this figure was poised to keep growing, so that it will have helped more than 35,000 African students and academics by 2020.…

FAR from being the zone of volatility of the 1990s, eastern and central Europe’s economies and hence their paint and coatings markets, are enjoying stability and steady growth. In Croatia, for instance, according to market researcher Euromonitor International data, the paint and coating industry posted revenues of USD147 million, USD 2 million more than in 2017.…

EVERY manufacturing and agricultural industry has an impact on climate change – and the tobacco sector is no different. Faced with long-standing criticism of the health impact of its products, the tobacco industry is now facing attacks that its work generates carbon emissions and hence climate change.…

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

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

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

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

The construction of the Serbian section of a gas interconnector between Serbia and Bulgaria, enabling transfers of between 1 and 1.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas annually from Bulgaria to Serbia and 150 million bcm from Serbia to Bulgaria is to be financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB).…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Mercosur negotiators went into crucial trade talks in Uruguayan capital Montevideo September 10-14, cheered on by automakers on both sides who want a deal, even though there are tough technical issues to resolve. The round is another bid to smash the deadlock over a future trade pact between the EU and the four founding Mercosur nations – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. …

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is planning to lend EUR100 million to the concessionaire operating Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, Serbia.

The money would be borrowed by the subsidiary of France’s Vinci Airports operating Nikola Tesla – Vinci Airports Serbia d.o.o.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) food and drink exporters could be major beneficiaries of a revised EU-Mexico trade agreement which will remove almost all bilateral tariffs left by a year 2000 deal. Under a new agreement struck in principle, Mexican import duties on EU exports of cheeses, such as gorgonzola and roquefort, and pasta (of up to 20%), will be removed, along with duties on chocolate and confectionery, (that can exceed 20%).…

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

BULK tobacco smuggling is on the rise in eastern and south-eastern Europe, and cigarette manufacturers are calling for a better coordinated approach by law enforcers, as well as the passing of clearer and stricter rules to combat the menace. While regulation is in place in some countries (Montenegro and Romania insist on licensing and growers’ record keeping, for instance), the licencing and registration of tobacco growers are still not required in others (for example Poland and Greece), causing weak links that can be exploited by smugglers, according to the legitimate tobacco industry.…

PRACTICAL discussions on integrating six western Balkans countries within the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) are to take place, with an agreement allowing their entry into the bloc having come into force on December 1. The expansion includes Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, who have formally joined the ECAA, alongside the European Union (EU), Norway and Iceland.…

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 NUMBER of Turkish textile firms making the most of advantageous business conditions in Serbia and setting up companies in the Balkan state is set to double by the start of the new year, economic experts have predicted.

Offering investors state-of-the-art established production facilities, access to a skilled workforce and financial subsidies on the table, Serbia has proved to be a prime location for Turkish investment, particularly in the textile industry.…

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.…

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

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

Croatia has reversed a decision to raise import fees on food imports charged at its borders with its non-European Union (EU) Balkan countries Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina, as well as on trades from Macedonia, another ex-Yugoslav state. The Croatian ministry of agriculture today (Aug 10) announced that “from Friday [August 11] onwards the border controls would be fully normalised”.…

HUNGARY has signed an agreement with Russia’s Gazprom involving the central European country linking its gas distribution networks to the planned TurkStream pipeline, routing Russian gas via Turkey into Europe. Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto struck the deal with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, which involved Hungary building infrastructure to link with TurkStream, which will also cross Bulgaria and Serbia.…

SERBIA’S Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport handled its first direct flight to New York, USA, last June (2016) and thus grabbed an extraordinary opportunity to start re-positioning itself as a south-east Europe hub offering flight connections.

Domestic airline Air Serbia has been successfully operating this route to John F Kennedy International Airport, but the preparations at the Nikola Tesla for handling transatlantic flights was not smooth at all.…

THE PRESIDENT of a key Serbian meat industry association has told GlobalMeatNews that a new meat quality label will help raise standards among her country’s manufacturers and processors, boosting sales at home and abroad.

Tamara Penjić, the president of the Serbian Meat Quality Label Association, said the label will “contribute to the strengthening of export potential and the opening of new markets”.…

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.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and its member states have been keen adopters of rules restricting how tobacco companies make, market and sell their wares, but to what extent have the EU’s neighbours to the east and southeast followed suit?

The answer is – largely – yes: controls have increased – but the extent to which this has happened and the details of restrictions vary widely from country to country.…

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

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

THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused six European Union (EU) member states of failing to detect enough fraud in EU spending programmes where their governments have a significant management role. In its latest annual report on the ‘Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – Fight against fraud 2015’, the Commission said Austria, Britain and Finland had reported “a very low number of fraudulent irregularities, in particular in relation to the amount of frauds allocated to them” for  EU agricultural spending.…

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.…

IT is perhaps little surprise that many senior leaders within the UK and European Union (EU) civil aviation sector oppose the withdrawal of Britain from the EU following the planned June 23 in-out membership referendum. The industry has benefited mightily from the open borders and travel rights offered by the EU.…

Germany’s leading meat processor Tönnies Lebensmittel GmbH has agreed to take over up to 10 state-owned pig breeding businesses in Serbia, giving an additional supply capacity of up to 700,000 animals. The goal is to breed and process up to 4 million pigs by 2026.…

COUNTRIES in eastern Europe and the western Balkans are struggling to meet renewable energy targets set through their membership of the European Union (EU)-linked Energy Community, according to two new reports. They say just one of the community’s eight member countries – Montenegro – is likely to meet EU targets for renewables by 2020.…

EXPORTERS of liquid milk and associated products to the European Union (EU) will have to work harder to secure sales in future from April 1, with the EU finally scrapping its production quotas from that date. They may also have to fend off new tough competition from EU exporters in their domestic markets.…

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.…

TEXTILE exports from Serbia to Russia have been increasing, as European Union (EU) exports fall amidst the continuing diplomatic standoff between Brussels and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis. The Serbian government has also been working to prevent EU exporters using Serbia as a backdoor conduit for textile re-exports to Russian markets, taking advantage of the 2000 Serbo-Russian free trade agreement.…

Belgrade Nikola Tesla International Airport, in Serbia, is expanding and investing in its terminals as its traffic continues to grow. It long ago cemented its position as the busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia, and is seeking to underpin this status with a series of investments made since 2013.  …

While eastern Europe’s cosmetics sector seems in general to be emerging from its post-recession doldrums, the conflict in Ukraine has begun to significantly impact that country’s cosmetics industry. Analysts warn that tit-for-tat sanctions with Russia and uncertainty over the annexed Crimea and the future of the contested east of the country is halting investment.…

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

COUNTERFEIT medicines smuggled into Europe through the post and by couriers were among the more than 70,000 fake products intercepted during a joint customs operation code-named ERMIS. Coordinated by the Greek customs service and the European Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF, the operation involved customs officers from other EU member states, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, said the European Commission.…

WINNERS AND LOSERS

RETAIL

WINNERS

ASOS

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

THE WESTERN Balkans has long been considered as having weak money laundering controls. But, Croatia’s accession to the European Union (EU) on July 1 and tighter legislation in Serbia has focused criminals’ attention on a smaller number of looser jurisdictions – Montenegro is one of those.…

CROATIA, which joined the European Union (EU) on July 1, aims to revive its knitting sector following a decline in recent years. While understandably cautious about the next few years, given the current economic troubles in Europe, Croatia plans to capitalise on the potential benefits and opportunities from being an EU member state, focusing on innovation and higher-value products in order to become more competitive.…

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

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

Zagreb-based CIOS, one of the leading scrap metal businesses in Southeast Europe, and Eurometrec, the European Metal Trade and Recycling Federation, have told Metal Bulletin that the scrap metal industry in Croatia, which is to join the EU on July 1, has the potential to expand significantly over the next few years.…

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.…

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

THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked oil and gas companies to participate in a major public consultation designed to help it draft reforms promoting the development of new energy technologies. Brussels is planning to release a new policy paper on the subject in the middle of this year.…

BY MARK ROWE, MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS, AND MOHAMMED YUSUF, IN NAIROBI

INTERNATIONAL civil aviation procedures are designed to create predictability. But they are not usually applicable for airports in territories that have declared independence, but have not achieved full international recognition, or a seat at the United Nations.…

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 MARK ROWE

COSMETICS companies looking to expand sales and manufacturing in Croatia are looking for new opportunities as the ex-Yugoslav country prepares to join the European Union (EU) next year. With a population of 4.9 million, and an expanding, educated middle class, Croatia is an increasingly attractive market for cosmetics and personal care products.…

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.…

BY MARK ROWE

CROATIA has a strong tradition of knitting that features heavily in the traditions of the country’s rural hinterland and this could stand its knitwear sector in good stead for the country’s 2013 accession to the European Union (EU).…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, IN SERBIA

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

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, IN NOVI SAD, SERBIA

IT goes without saying that when a country falls apart through years of bloody civil war, the purchase of luxury clothing is not going to be a priority. But peace usually brings a strong desire to put aside painful memories and this can bring a yearning for luxury.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is coming under pressure to act against child labour in the global cocoa sector, with proposals being debated at the European Parliament to track cocoa produced with the help of children. That could mean an EU law creating a monitoring system making it clear to consumers where cocoa products risked being tainted by child labour, maybe through the "possible introduction of ‘child-labour free’ product labelling," said a draft report from the EP’s international trade committee.…

BY MARK ROWE, IN LONDON; ZLATKO CONKAS, IN NOVI SAD, SERBIA; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; AND BLAKE BERRY, IN WARSAW

DURING the spring of 2011, the prevailing view throughout eastern Europe’s personal care and toiletries market was that while business was not exactly buoyant, the worst of the recession was over – then came the credit crises and the faltering Euro.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RETAIL – WINNERS AND LOSERS

WINNERS

MARKS & SPENCER

Times may still be tough in its home British market, but M&S showed forward-thinking foresight in 2011- on sourcing transparency and the environment: potential key issues for future consumers.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS

Will Croatia’s ascension to the EU hamper the country’s tobacco industry?

Croatia’s strong tobacco sector stands to benefit from selling into the European Union once the country joins the EU. However it could lose trade in neighbouring states because of duty changes.…

BY MARK ROWE and ZLATKO CONKAS

THE AMBITION of Serbia to join the European Union (EU) is proving problematic on a number of fronts, with the country’s control of money laundering a major hurdle. In February 2010, 50 people were arrested, suspected of using money laundering and tax evasion involving up to USD2.7 million.…

BY MARK ROWE

WANTED: experienced, international oil majors to overhaul overlooked and possibly underplayed reserves in the Caspian. Apply to the government of Turkmenistan. An announcement to that effect emerged over the summer by the Turkmenistan government, in a move that suggested that the gas-rich country was finally looking to establish the depth of its oil reserves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN AGREEMENT between Serbia and Kosovo involving Serb authorities recognising Kosovo customs stamps will remove a de facto bilateral trade blockade for a wide range of goods, including pharmaceuticals. The European Union has helped seal the deal – a spokesman declared: "The mutual trade embargoes will be lifted.…

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

BY E BLAKE BERRY and MARK ROWE

NURSES working in Britain, and western Europe like to think their professional standards are high. And largely this is true. But what of nurses working in eastern Europe? With most countries in the region in the European Union (EU), it had been hoped EU nursing training and practice rules would raise professional standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ENERGY ministers from the European Union (EU) and the Balkans will next month (October 6) vote on a new plan to create a ‘gas ring’ of pipeline links uniting the fragmented energy markets of south-eastern Europe. A meeting of the Energy Community, an organisation linking the EU’s supposedly united energy market with those in neighbouring countries to the south and east, will be asked to back an ‘Implementation Plan for Gas Infrastructure Development in the Energy Community’.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY’S USD2 billion paint market may be forecast by manufacturers to grow between 12% and 13% this year on the back of a resurgent construction sector; however, paint exports are currently struggling. This is because of a combination of lacklustre market demand in Europe along with the troubles companies are facing in terms of implementing European Union (EU) regulations required as Turkey meshes with the EU’s REACH chemical control system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) will lend Euro EUR80 million to help Serbia’s main electricity company expand dedicated coal production, despite environmentalist objections.

In fact said EBRD spokesman Sergiy Grytsenko, by helping Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) use more modern coal processing technology at its Kolubara basin mines, the loan would reduce carbon air pollution through EPS’ lignite-fired plants.…

BY ZLATKO ?ONKA?

EUROPE: Serbia and Kosovo strike deal over degree recognition

Zlatko ?onka?

The European University Association (EUA) has welcomed an agreement between the governments of Serbia and Kosovo that will pave the way for the mutual recognition of degrees issued by their universities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) will push ahead with its plan to lend Euro EUR80 million to help Serbia’s main electricity company expand its coal production, despite objections from environmentalists.

In fact said EBRD spokesman Sergiy Grytsenko, by helping Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) use more modern coal processing technology at its Kolubara mining basin, the loan would reduce the amount of carbon polluting the atmosphere through EPS’ coal-fired power stations, which consume the country’s extensive lignite deposits.…

BY MARK ROWE

IT has to be the worst nightmare for professional nursing ethics imaginable. You work in a private clinic. And an armed group is harvesting organs from corpses who have died at the clinic. You may suspect they were actually killed so those organs can be removed, which means your own life could be at risk if you kick up a fuss.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS

ITALIAN hosiery specialist Golden Lady has started building its third factory in western Serbia, its second in the city of Loznica. With this latest Euro EUR6 million investment, the company’s total investment in Serbia since 2005 will exceed Euro EUR100 million.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS

BENETTON is to invest Euro EUR43 million in clothing factory it is purchasing in the southern Serbian city of Nis, in a bid to strengthen its position in the Balkans.

The Italian knitwear giant is expected to become an official owner of the currently government-owned Nis-based ‘Nitex’ textile factory after a sale set for May 13.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

CENTRAL Asia is often in the news regarding political instability, and the complexity of the region’s borders and ethnicities make for an opacity that can encourage the growth of organised crime. Also, being far from the centres of anti-money laundering activities and standard setting – in Europe, north America and east Asia, the region’s often authoritarian governments have a poor reputation regarding the enforcement of law and judicial probity.…

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

THE POWER sectors of eastern Europe need billions of dollars investment to maintain or replace ageing capacity, a World Bank report has warned. Looking at investment requirements for 2009-15, the bank said Serbia’s electricity sector, for example, needs between USD3.3 billion and USD6.7 billion additional investment for environmental upgrades, new capacity, transmission interconnectors and distribution rehabilitation.…

BY MARK ROWE

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

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, KEITH NUTHALL

SERBIA is the latest European country to start formal accession negotiations with the European Union (EU) and as it prepares to joins the EU, its auto sector will have increasingly unfettered access to the EU’s 500 million consumer market.…

BY MARK ROWE

Recession forced eastern European smokers to ditch premium brands for cheaper smokes

Tobacco majors have long targeted eastern Europe as a soft emerging market for premium brands. But times got tough during the recession, when smokers swapped aspiration for economy.…

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 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 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

THE NON-FERROUS metal industry of Bosnia & Herzegovina has been highlighted in a World Bank report as a bedrock of the country’s economic recovery after the 1990s war that shattered its society. Released by the trade and integration team of the World Bank development research group, the report declared the country’s "industrial restructuring, as seen through the lenses of foreign trade performance and its sustainability, has taken off.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY 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.…

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 MARK ROWE

THE NEXT few years are likely to see several countries accede to the European Union (EU), with significant implications for the personal care sector. Local producers of toiletries, detergents and cosmetics, as well as multinationals in a number of countries, are closely following the negotiations conducted by their governments.…

BY MARK ROWE

MOLDOVA would appear to fit the description of a far away country about which the world knows nothing. But its location, adjacent to Romania, (one of the two most recent European Union (EU) member states, Ukraine, the Black Sea and the disputed, politically uncertain region of Transnistria (which remains formally part of Moldovan territory, while its government has little authority there), is extremely familiar, and favoured, by counterfeit cigarette producers and traffickers.…

BY MARK ROWE

ACCORDING to World Health Organisation (WHO) data, 33% of women and 51% of men smoke in Serbia, and per capita consumption of cigarettes remained constant at around 80 packs per year between 2005 and 2009.

Sales of boxes of cigarettes have declined since 2004, but this trend accelerated in 2008 when 520,825,787 boxes were sold, a significant drop from 2007 when 573,297,364 were sold, according to the Serbian government statistics department.…

BY MARK ROWE

The Republic of Bosnia & Herzegovina is a confusing place politically, and so understanding its tobacco market and industry is similarly difficult. Importantly, it comprises two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska and while there is also no domestic tobacco industry in the Republic of Srpska; there is within the Federation, the location of the vast majority of the country’s tobacco production.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA’S belligerent approach to its neighbours in recent years has ranged from military conflict with Georgia to energy disputes with Ukraine and a string of commodity-based stand-offs, such as rows with Norway over fish products, Poland over meat supplies and Belarus over sugar.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ABILITY of national and European Union (EU) authorities to take a tough line with confectionery companies stockpiling sugar and other products ahead of their country joining the EU has been strengthened by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

BY MARK ROWE

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

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

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY’S tobacco market, the eighth largest in the world and valued this month at GBPounds 6 billion in consumer price turnover by British American Tobacco (BAT) has contracted by 5% over the past year following the imposition of a nationwide smoking ban.…

BY MARK ROWE

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Balkans ministerial council has approved the rules of a dispute settlement mechanism for countries participating within the southeast Europe Energy Community. This links Balkans’ gas (and electricity) regulation with that of EU member states and ensures EU energy legislation is adopted in participating countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Balkans ministerial council has approved the rules of a dispute settlement mechanism for countries participating within the southeast Europe energy community. This links Balkans’ electricity and gas regulation with that of EU member states and ensures EU energy legislation is adopted in participating countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Balkans ministerial council has approved the rules of a dispute settlement mechanism for countries participating within the southeast Europe energy community. This links Balkans’ electricity and gas regulation with that of EU member states and ensures EU energy legislation is adopted in participating countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has agreed to fund with US$8.63 million an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)-coordinated project to decommission Serbia’s ageing Vinca Institute research reactor. Work will start with repackaging old Soviet nuclear fuel for repatriation to Russia for reprocessing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

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

BY ALAN OSBORN

OF all the European Union’s (EU) flagship energy projects, maybe none is more central to the goal of ensuring security of supply and none more fraught with political and technical complexity than the proposed Nabucco pipeline designed to bring natural gas from the Caspian region, the Middle East and Egypt into Austria and then on to consumers in western Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WESTERN Balkans countries have agreed to implement European Union (EU) transport laws on tolling, safety standards, subsidies, pollution, professional training and other matters, easing the ability of EU fleet managers to operate services in the region. Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have agreed to sign a ‘Transport Community Treaty with the EU.…

BY LUCY JONES, in Dallas; ALAN OSBORN, in London; KARRYN CARTELLE, in Tokyo; BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg; PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut; RACHEL JONES, in Caracas; MARK ROWE; and KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round being slow to proceed since its 2001 launch – and only this year approaching something resembling and end game – free traders wanting to encourage global commerce have looked to bilateral and regional trade deals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The Bologna process was launched in 1999 with great fanfare and hopes for a brave new world within European higher education, but the initiative involved a leap of faith by universities and colleges. For although it makes good sense that the 46 countries now taking part should have higher education systems sufficiently compatible to improve collaboration and course exchanges, such a limited goal was never going to be enough.…

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 MARK ROWE

ONE of the most perfidious environmental legacies of communism in eastern Europe was that of mining pollution. In particular, across a swathe of the Balkans, from Albania to Bosnia & Herzegovina, (the former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo, up to 150 mines have been identified by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as areas of concern.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPANY involved in a European Union (EU)-funded overhaul of a power station in Serbia could face criminal charges over double invoicing, said the latest annual report from EU anti-fraud agency OLAF. It claimed that Euro 300,000 was wrongfully invoiced by the unnamed company in the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR)-managed project, which has invested heavily in the lignite-fired Nikola Tesla power station, near Belgrade.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BOOM in counterfeit cigarettes being smuggled into the European Union (EU) is intensifying, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. It says EU customs officials seized 156 million packets’ worth of fake cigarettes in 2006, up 380% on 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BOOM in counterfeit cigarettes being smuggled into the European Union (EU) is intensifying, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. It says EU customs officials seized 156 million packets’ worth of fake cigarettes in 2006, up 380% on 2005.…

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

BY DEIRDRE MASON
WITH every new piece of European Union (EU)-inspired road and vehicle-safety legislation brings a new opportunity to make and sell the kit to local authorities so that they can comply. Speed limiters may not be the newest story in safety equipment, but the requirements to fit them had a further boost on January 1 this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SPAIN’S wine-making province La Rioja is heading a Spanish team tasked with helping the Serbia agriculture ministry resurrect a once thriving local wine industry. The European Agency for Reconstruction-managed Euro 1.4 million project will improve quality assurance and vineyard registration and classification.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATURAL gas-rich Kazakhstan’s increasing thirst for beer has helped prompt European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to lend around US$40 million in local currency (Kazakh Tenge 5.2 billion) to a leading local beer producer. The money would assist Efes Karaganda Brewery JSC in boosting brewing capacity, infrastructure facilities and marketing departments at existing plants in Almaty and Karaganda.…

BY MARK ROWE
MEMBERSHIP of the European Union (EU) appears to represent something o a ‘promised land’ for the nations of the Balkans. A major sticking point for countries pushing for membership, though, is corruption, and in particular efforts to push through practical and applicable anti-fraud legislation.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN odd fact about Serbia today is that hardly anybody in the country seems curious about the way its official government financial figures don’t remotely add up. The authors of a US-sponsored report for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) published last October – ‘Money Laundering and Predicate Crime in Serbia 2000-2005’ – acknowledge the conventional shortages of staff and computers but say they “hit on a more fundamental void: lack of curiosity.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF is investigating China garlic smuggling, with low production costs and high EU duties generating high illegal profits. OLAF claims Euro 60 million in duties are being lost, with only meat (of all kinds) and sugar subject to more food-fraud inquiries – 17 are ongoing into garlic.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

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

BY ALAN OSBORN

KOSOVO differs from all other countries that the Money Laundering Bulletin has surveyed so far in the context of money laundering in that it has no defined and internationally recognised final shape – neither in respect of its borders nor in the composition of its government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EXPORTERS of meat and bone meal waste shipping cargoes from the European Union (EU) to non-EU power incinerators do not have to make special declarations to environmental authorities, a European Court of Justice advocate general has recommended.

Juliane Kokott has said this is the case even if the animal waste was contaminated by BSE: "…contamination by risk material, if… incinerated, does not lead to any apparent increased risk to the environment."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EXPORTERS of meat and bone meal waste shipping cargoes from the European Union (EU) to non-EU power incinerators do not have to make special declarations to environmental authorities, a European Court of Justice advocate general has recommended.

Juliane Kokott has said this is the case even if the animal waste was contaminated by BSE: "…contamination by risk material, if… incinerated, does not lead to any apparent increased risk to the environment."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

LIKE other countries in the Balkans, Montenegro is anxious to shake off a reputation for financial corruption and political instability and, it has to be said, appears to be doing so with rather more success than some of its neighbours.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

CONSIDERING everything against it – a turbulent political history since the break-up of Yugoslavia, a weak, cash-based and largely ‘grey’ economy, poor living standards and feeble inflows of foreign investment among other things – Macedonia has done very well to set up a relatively impressive slew of anti money laundering legislation in recent years.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

A SIGNIFICANT boost in funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will speed the challenging switchover from ageing nuclear power stations in central and eastern Europe (CEE) to a cleaner, more efficient and more sustainable energy scene in these new and aspiring entrants to European Union (EU) membership.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FOOD, biotechnology and agriculture research projects will command budgets of Euro 1.9 billion from 2007-13 under a draft rewritten European Union (EU) seventh framework programme (FP7). Other targeted research budgets under the Euro 54.5 billion scheme proposed by the European Commission of potential relevance to the food sector include Euro 5.9 billion on health, Euro 1.8 million on environmental research, plus Euro 3.4 billion on nanotechnology, materials, and manufacturing.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE ONLY public university in the would-be independent Balkan nation of Kosovo has finally elected a senate, a move that observers hope may ultimately help to diffuse ethnic tensions in the country’s higher education system.

The impasse over the composition of the University of Pristina senate was provoked by a political power struggle between the country’s leading parties, and was linked to Kosovo’s impending independence from Serbia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for European Union (EU) electricity utilities to be protected against unfair competition from those based in neighbouring Balkan countries signing an Energy Community Treaty with Brussels. This effectively extends the EU single market in electricity to nine non-EU countries.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drawn up plans to lend Serbia’s Torlak Institute for Virology and Immunology Euro 18 million to upgrade and expand its Belgrade production and research facilities. This will focus on selected vaccine production lines, bringing them up to international manufacturing standards, including building a new influenza vaccine production facility.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) is paying Euro 5 million to install a dust filter at the Kostolac coal-fired power station, in eastern Serbia. Dust particles currently emitted are up to 23 times higher than allowed in the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors, has successfully cooperated for the first time in assessing an EU spending programme with a supreme audit organisation of a country that is neither a member state or an official membership applicant.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A BRITISH QC who has become the first woman president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will start presiding its cases from Monday (Feb 27). Rosalyn Higgins, 68, will direct a case brought by Bosnia & Herzegovina alleging that Serbia & Montenegro (as the successor of Yugoslavia) is responsible for genocide and so must pay reparations.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OUT of 60 recommendations made in a report last December by the European Parliament on strategies to prevent human trafficking only one specifically mentioned money laundering and even there the message was essentially "carry on as before" and "keep your eyes open".…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
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.…

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 in full, including related environmental and competition laws.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed continuing existing duty-free access to EU markets to food exports from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, and Kosovo for another five years except certain fisheries products, sugar, and ‘baby beef’, where some duties or restrictions would continue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) European Agency for Reconstruction will pay for the tagging of one million Serbia cattle to improve food safety and help the country increase its meat and animal exports. The tags will allow Serbian veterinary authorities to track bovine livestock from farm to market, helping them spot and contain disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank is lending Euro 34 million to the Serbia & Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency for rehabilitating national air traffic control infrastructure. Much of the money will help improve the Belgrade flight information region’s area control centre.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced it will help fund an overhaul of Serbia & Montenegro’s Sevojno Copper Mill, by lending Euro 16 million to East Point Holdings Ltd (EPH), a Cyprus commodities-trading company which owns 35% of the plant.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has helped broker a deal with seven Balkans countries involving them reducing the environmental damage caused by their mining industries, especially regarding non-ferrous metals. Welcoming the agreement, UNEP highlighted the potential problems caused by mining for zinc, cadmium, copper, bauxite, silver and gold in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, and (effectively independent) Kosovo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has helped broker a deal with seven Balkans countries involving them reducing the environmental damage caused by their mining industries. Welcoming the agreement, UNEP highlighted the potential problems caused by mining for zinc, cadmium, copper, bauxite, silver and gold in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, and (effectively independent) Kosovo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) is financing three new assessments of Kosovo’s energy industry, focusing mainly on the autonomous Balkans province’s coal-fired power stations. The EAR, the European Union (EU) body aiding economic recovery in Kosovo, Serbia & Montenegro and Macedonia, will stage three studies:

*Examining the feasibility of building a brand new power station, which may use coal;

*Limiting the environmental impact of the coal-fired Kosovo B plant, currently the province’s main producer of electricity; and

*Studying the economic and technical feasibility of rehabilitating four units of the coal-fired Kosovo A power station.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has limited duty-free sugar quotas for Balkans exporting countries at 180,000 tonnes annually for Serbia & Montenegro, 12,000 tonnes for Bosnia & Herzegovina, and 1,000 tonnes for Albania. This replaces unlimited duty-free access, which had been exploited by fraudsters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINANCING has been secured for a new international programme creating 10 alternative dispute resolution tribunals in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia & Montenegro over the next four years. The International Finance Corporation (IFC)-coordinated project will immediately make permanent a pilot tribunal in Bosnia, having been given US$600,000 by the Canadian government; the World Bank agency also intends to firmly establish a Serb arbitration tribunal in the next 12 months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is to help create 10 alternative dispute resolution tribunals in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia & Montenegro over the next four years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to pump Euro 16 million into a Serbian copper mill producing semi-finished copper and brass products. The money will be channelled via Sevojno Rolling Mill’s private owner, Cyprus-based East Point Holdings Ltd, which will use the loan to purchase new equipment and modernise existing plant at the rolling mill in Sevojno, around 100 miles south of Belgrade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has struck a wide-ranging textiles trade deal with Serbia & Montenegro, where the EU will immediately abolish quota restrictions on Serb exports, in exchange for a phasing out of import duties on EU exports.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has struck a wide-ranging textiles trade deal with Serbia & Montenegro, where the EU will immediately abolish quota restrictions on Serb exports – including non-woven materials – for a phasing out of import duties on EU exports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has struck a wide-ranging wool, textile and clothing trade deal with Serbia & Montenegro, where the EU will immediately abolish quota restrictions on Serb exports, for Belgrade phasing out of import duties on EU exports by 2008.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has struck a wide-ranging textiles trade deal with Serbia & Montenegro, where the EU will immediately abolish quota restrictions on Serb exports, in exchange for a phasing out of import duties on EU exports. The legislation lists a wide variety of textile raw material, yarn, fibre, fabrics and clothing lines affected by the deal, which would see Serb & Montenegrin duties scrapped by 2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will lend up to Euro 35 million to Croatian supermarket chain Getro, helping it add nine more stores to its current 15. Although this expansion will be in Croatia, the company will also use the money to explore moving into neighbouring Serbia & Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has drawn up plans to lend Euro 22 million to Serbia & Montenegro pharmaceutical company Hemofarm Koncern a.d. (Hemofarm) to finance the construction of a new solid forms packaging and production facility in Obninsk, Russia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FORMAL decision has been taken by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to abolish all remaining textile and clothing import quotas for World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries from January 1. It means 210 quotas affecting exporters from Argentina, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand will go.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RIGHT of European Union (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in EU programmes will be extended to five non-member countries in the Balkans under agreements signed with Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia & Montenegro.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will cap duty-free sugar exports into the EU from the western Balkans after duty-free exports rose from almost zero to 270,000 tonnes in 2003. Quotas will restrict imports from Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Albania and Serbia & Montenegro.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will cap duty-free sugar exports into the EU from the western Balkans after duty-free exports rose from almost zero to 270,000 tonnes in 2003. Quotas will restrict imports from Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Albania and Serbia & Montenegro.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WANT to sell cigarettes? Go east, young man. That might be the advice that tobacco companies could glean from the latest set of World Health Organisation (WHO) smoking figures. Using 2003 or latest available data, the WHO has collated percentage rate proportions of smoking adults (18 and over), compared with total populations of all but 56 countries: the overwhelming majority of nations.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AS recently as 1989 Yugoslavia was the richest and most westernised country in eastern and central Europe and arguably among the more politically stable of them. But then came the collapse. The ethnic fighting of the early 1990s led to breakaways by Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina as independent states in 1992, leaving Serbia and Montenegro as the “Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” under Slobodan Milosevic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend Euro 20 million to help an American packaging giant, the Ball Corporation, build an aluminium can plant in Serbia, focusing on drinks. The factory should start work next year, employing 100-150 workers at its Belgrade site.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced plans to lend up to Euro 30 million in debt financing to a Serbia & Montenegro retail group, enabling it to launch 31 new supermarkets in the next two years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SERBIA & Montenegro can resume shipping sugar to the EU at zero-rated tariffs, after establishing certification procedures preventing origin fraud that sparked the suspension of this trade privilege.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend Euro 20 million to help American packaging giant the Ball Corporation build an aluminium can plant in Serbia. The plant is expected to focus on beverages, increasing competition in the sector, said an EBRD note.…

Keith Nuthall
GOVERNMENTS in south-eastern Europe have agreed it is “fundamentally important to increase and intensify interregional cooperation in air transport.” Such work, which would cover airport operations and air traffic control will be written into a detailed memorandum of understanding, with a detailed and timetabled work programme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SERBIA & Montenegro can resume shipping sugar to the EU at zero-rated tariffs, after establishing certification procedures preventing origin fraud that sparked the suspension of this trade privilege.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has followed up support from its sister European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for improving air traffic control in Serbia & Montenegro. The EIB is planning to lend the Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency up to Euro 36 million for rehabilitating and modernising the country’s ATC networks.…

Keith Nuthall
TRAINING for hundreds of officials in Serbia’s often hard pressed tax administration will begin imminently in a state-of-the-art instruction centre, the European Union’s (EU) European Agency for Reconstruction has announced. The Belgrade lecture centre and attached reference library is part of four such centres being funded by a Euro 13.4 million EU programme, said the agency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE URGENCY of the need to create a hazardous waste disposal facility in Serbia – able to deal with the most toxic substances – has been underlined by the dumping of 24 barrels of carcinogenic liquid near Belgrade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction Development (EBRD) is lending Euro 22 million to Serbia & Montenegro’s largest pharmaceutical producer Hemofarm a.d. to launch operations in Russia, its largest export market. The money will help Hemofarm buy new equipment and build a packaging and production pharmaceutical plant in Obninsk, 100 km south-west of Moscow.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A TRAINING programme for Croatian judges and prosecutors has been launched involving the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to enable some of its war crimes cases to be heard in Croatia. The move will help ease the workload of the United Nations-backed tribunal which has been given until 2010 to wind up, preferably by 2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank are planning to lend Euro 36 million each to the Serbia-Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency to help modernise Belgrade and Podgorica ATC centres and related surveillance, navigation and communication networks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Security Council has been asked to pressure Serbia & Montenegro into restarting effective cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal on former Yugoslavia. A letter from court president Judge Theodor Meron has attacked “extremely serious” persistent failures to help the court, such as failing to execute arrest warrants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SERBIA police have arrested the general manager of the country’s biggest sugar producer MK Komerc, alleging he helped forged origin documents for exports into the European Union. These claimed the sugar was Serbia-made, benefiting from special EU market access, but it had actually been imported.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GOVERNMENTS and international institutions of the European Union (EU) need to better prepare for cooperative responses to large-scale man-made disasters that inevitably cause damage on a cross-border scale, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has claimed. In a report ‘Mapping the Impacts of Recent Natural Disasters and Technological Accidents in Europe’, the EEA said that the oncoming enlargement of the EU was “an opportunity to strengthen cooperation…across a much larger area of Europe.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GOVERNMENTS and international institutions of the European Union (EU) need to better prepare for cooperative responses to large-scale natural and mad-made disasters that inevitably cause damage on a cross-border scale, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has drawn up plans to lend Euro 22 million to Serbia & Montenegro pharmaceutical company Hemofarm Koncern a.d. (Hemofarm) to finance the construction of a new solid forms packaging and production facility in Obninsk, Russia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending Frikom AD – Serbia and Montenegro’s largest ice cream and frozen food manufacturer – Euro13.1 million to help improve its production facilities, upgrade irrigation systems and produce more raw materials from its own land.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SERBIA & Montenegro’s largest grain trading company Yu-Point is to expand sales into south-east Europe helped by a Euro 12 million European Bank for Reconstruction and Development/Fortis Bank loan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THERE is a significant risk that Europe’s summer of blackouts could be repeated after 2008, unless effective investments are made in power generation and distribution plant, the Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE), has warned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRAUD is centre stage again in European Union (EU) news, following a series of high profile scandals, for instance in Eurostat. Now OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud agency has produced an annual report showing that it is detecting more irregularities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW European Union funded equipment has been unveiled at a food safety laboratory in Serbia, the first of 31 centres to be modernised via a Euro 14 million funding scheme. The Kraljevo Veterinary Institute’s new kit will test animal and animal product samples for infections, part of a nationwide system ensuring meat safety and detecting animal disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW European Union funded equipment has been unveiled at a food safety laboratory in Serbia, the first of 31 centres to be modernised via a Euro 14 million funding scheme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW European Union funded equipment has been unveiled at a food safety laboratory in Serbia, the first of 31 centres to be modernised via a Euro 14 million funding scheme. The Kraljevo Veterinary Institute’s new kit will test animal and animal product samples for infections, part of a nationwide system ensuring meat safety and detecting animal disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations (UN) has framed a new anti-corruption convention and its established convention against organised crime is now coming into force. Keith Nuthall examines what this will mean for businesses, banks and governments.

THE COMMERCIAL world is often doubtful about the value of international conventions fighting crime, but their texts do at least reflect a global consensus amongst concerned governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW European Union funded equipment has been unveiled at a food safety laboratory in Serbia, the first of 31 centres to be modernised via a Euro 14 million funding scheme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has become the latest international financing institution to announce a loan to Serbia’s power utility Elektropriveda Srbije. It is lending Euro 22 million to modernise the utility’s existing power control system. The move follows the announcement of a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development loan last month.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending Euro 60 million to Serbia’s state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) to help rehabilitate the country’s coal mining sector. The 15-year loan is aimed at enabling the company to modernise its coal production and doubling to 12 million tonnes the amount of lignite extracted annually from the Tamnava West mine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A UNITED Nations (UN) Convention against Transnational Organised Crime has come into force, imposing a duty on ratifying countries to outlaw membership of an organised criminal group, which it defines legally. So far, said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 48 countries have ratified it, including Monaco, Nigeria, Serbia & Montenegro, Peru, Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Philippines, Tajikistan, Albania, France, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, China, Norway and Afghanistan.…

Keith Nuthall
A TRAINING centre for tax officials in Serbia has been opened, part of a Euro 13.4 million European Union-funded overhaul of the Serb inland revenue system. The centre – in Novi Sad – will train 1,000 officials over the next 15 months and will be the first of four such centres to be opened, (also in Niš, Kragujevac and Belgrade).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending Euro 60 million to Serbia’s state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) to enable it to modernise its fuel (coal) production and upgrade its company’s communications network to a digital system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending Euro 16 million to two Serbian agribusiness companies – Fabrika TE-TO Senta and Star Secer (Nova Crnja) – both owned by Italian sugar producer SFIR Group – to purchase beets from local farmers, boosting their liquidity.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ONCE again significant recovery of coal mining in Kosovo has been frustrated by unforeseen natural disasters – in this case the collapse last November of the coal face in the Bardh coal mine after very heavy rain, causing serious damage to equipment.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend Euro 20 million to Serbia’s Belgrade International Airport and the Montenegro Airport Management Company to upgrade their passenger terminals. The money would help modernise Belgrade airport, extending its existing building, installing air conditioning, replacing check-in counters, remote control and video surveillance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COUNTERFEITING is considered by many to be a victimless crime, the only losses being suffered by large trademark holders who have plenty of money anyway. The reality, of course, is quite different. Keith Nuthall reviews the latest international developments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A KEY part of the European Union-funded programme to create a Serbian Agency for Medical Products (MPA) has been fulfilled, with the completion of a new Euro 300,000 headquarters building for the 150 staff organisation. Opened by Serbian Health Minister, Dr Tomica Milosavljevic (SPELLING IS CORRECT), it is expected to be fully furnished and operating within two months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending Euro 16 million to two Serbian agribusiness companies – Fabrika TE-TO Senta and Star Secer (Nova Crnja) – both owned by Italian sugar producer SFIR Group – to purchase beets from local farmers, boosting their liquidity.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation experts will help central and eastern Europe to control ‘western corn rootworm’, a threat to corn production. This US$2.26 million project involves Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovakia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation experts will help central and eastern Europe to control ‘western corn rootworm’, a threat to corn production. This US$2.26 million project involves Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovakia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PLANNED modernisation of control systems used by Serb electricity utility Elektropriveda Srbije (EPS) is likely to attract a Euro 20 million European Investment bank loan. The money would help upgrade EPS’s national control centre, installing energy management and data acquisition systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PLANNED modernisation of control systems used by Serb electricity utility Elektropriveda Srbije (EPS) is likely to attract a Euro 20 million European Investment bank loan. The money would help upgrade EPS’s national control centre, installing energy management and data acquisition systems.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INNOVATION from European Union-funded research has continued to offer improvements to the way that EU water utilities work. For instance, the European Commission-funded MicroChem initiative has developed miniaturised laboratory-on-a-chip systems suitable for rapid field testing of water streams. They examine water in tiny pictolitre quantities, flowing through microbore channels produced by photolithographic etching.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has suspended for at least three months the preferential zero tariff on sugar imported into the European Union from Serbia & Montenegro. Brussels acted because of concerns at European anti-fraud office OLAF, that local rules of origin controls are too weak to prevent sugar being illicitly exported to Serbia & Montenegro and then re-exported into the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has suspended for at least three months the preferential zero tariff on sugar imported into the European Union from Serbia & Montenegro. Brussels acted because of concerns at European anti-fraud office OLAF, that local rules of origin controls are too weak to prevent sugar being illicitly exported to Serbia & Montenegro and then re-exported into the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WORLD Bank report has called on the governments of the Balkans to pay more attention to the quality of their respective water sources and supplies, warning that neglect is leading to increases in pollution and damage from flooding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has agreed a complicated, but flexible, set of anti-dumping duties to be levied upon certain flat rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel from Bulgaria, South Africa, Serbia & Montenegro and Taiwan; plus certain iron and steel tube and pipe fittings from Thailand, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Slovakia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it will spend Euro 69 million this year on a major overhaul of Serbia’s Nikola Tesla A5 and B1 thermal power plants, as well as funding training programmes and making management improvements in its energy sector.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INNOVATION from European Union-funded research has continued to offer improvements to the way that EU water utilities work. For instance, the European Commission-funded MicroChem initiative has developed miniaturised laboratory-on-a-chip systems suitable for rapid field testing of water streams. They examine water in tiny pictolitre quantities, flowing through microbore channels produced by photolithographic etching.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS AMERICAN and British military forces secure control of Iraq from the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein using the latest military technology, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a cautionary report confirming for the first time that depleted uranium shells can and have contaminated drinking water.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GRANTS totalling Euro 5 million from the European Commission, Eurocontrol and the Joint Aviation Authorities have been approved for the strengthening Balkans atc services. Funnelled through the EU Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation (CARDS) programme, the funds will support civil aviation authorities and air traffic services in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Macedonia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is planning to lend Euro 12.5 million to Serbia & Montenegro fruit juice company fresh&Co. The loan will help the company strengthen its brands and its distribution networks. A bank memorandum said that the loan would enable the company to “provide a good example to other local food companies and retailers of good practice in distribution,” adding it would “also contribute to continued improvement of quality and availability of fruit juices in the market.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WATER privatisation has certainly had its critics, but it has a new supporter in the shape of the European Commission. It has publicly backed the growing privatisation of Europe’s water utilities, with its internal market commissioner praising British government moves to inject competition into its national sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank has followed up an agreement to integrate Balkans countries’ electrical systems with that of the European Union by announcing a Euro 130 million loan for developing the region’s electricity networks.

Euro 70 million is being lent to the Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro, (Euro 59 and 11 million respectively).…

BY MARK ROWE
A TEAM of scientists has visited Bosnia and Herzegovina amidst concerns that 12 areas of the country were contaminated with harmful radiation after being targeted by ordnance containing depleted uranium (DU) during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Reconstruction is spending Euro 50 million on rehabilitating the A3 block of Serbia’s Nikola Tesla A power station, the largest in the country. This project will involve 350 people working over the next eight months, and is the largest EU-funded initiative so far to improve the Yugoslav republic’s energy sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Reconstruction is spending Euro 50 million on rehabilitating the coal fired A3 block of Serbia’s Nikola Tesla A power station, the largest plant in the country. The maximum output 305 megawatts facility was installed in 1976 and has not been effectively overhauled for ten years, It is operating at two-thirds capacity, “in a poor state of repair and safety,” said the EU agency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN OVERHAUL of the judicial system in Serbia is being funded by the European Union, which is spending Euro 3 million on improving caseload management, in a bid to “offer every citizen a trustworthy, accessible and efficient justice apparatus.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is to update its monitoring systems for its trade in clothing and textiles with the limited number of countries with whom it does not have trade agreements covering the sector, which includes Taiwan.

Notably, the European Commission has asked EU ministers to update rules on surveillance and electronic documentation.…

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.…