Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCIENTISTS are studying European Space Agency (ESA) satellite data proving that huge waves of 25 metres height or more are an ever-present hazard to shipping on the high seas. Researchers in the international MaxWave project are examining images culled over three weeks of more than 10 such monster waves.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FEVERISH efforts are being made to rescue the European Union’s (EU) software patent directive after suggestions that a number of member states voted for it “by mistake” in May and now seeking ways of reversing their positions. One of those seeking to change its vote – the Netherlands – said it mistakenly thought the measure incorporated amendments approved by the European Parliament which excluded patents for pure software.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
‘CATCH me if you can’ might well be the motto of international money launderers. Despite laws criminalising the practice being well established, international organisations are continuing to extend their legal and geographical scope. Keith Nuthall reports.

IF a continent has need of comprehensive cross-border anti-money laundering legislation, it surely has to be Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DUTCH anti-corruption maverick Paul van Buitenen has joined forces with the Green group in the European Parliament, albeit as independent MEP. He demanded a seat commanded by the Green/European Free Alliance on the parliament’s influential budgetary affairs committee as his price for joining the group.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has pressured the British government to allow contributions to foreign European Union (EU) pension funds to be tax deductible. The move – a final warning letter threatening possible action at the European Court of Justice – comes as the UK is considering an overhaul of its pension system.…

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

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening seven European Union (EU) countries with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to apply EU law and give local companies the option of applying International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 on financial instruments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FORMER European Commission Chief Accountant Marta Andreasen is finally set to learn the outcome of her long-running disciplinary proceedings, sparked by her suspension in 2002 for whistle-blowing. Brussels is expected to take action based on the recommendations of a disciplinary board headed by the ex-president of the European Court of Justice’s Court of First Instance, José Luis da Cruz Vilaça.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ACCORDING to popular prejudice, Britons are work obsessed and driven, spending too many evenings in the office, while the French are lazy clock watchers, with an eye on that two hour lunch break – but this could be pure myth according to a European Union (EU) study.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ACCORDING to popular prejudice, Britons are work obsessed and driven, spending too many evenings in the office, while the French are lazy clock watchers, with an eye on that two hour lunch break – but this could be pure myth according to a European Union (EU) study.…