Archive

Keith Nuthall
PSYCHOLOGICAL harassment in the workplace, especially by colleagues, is the new growing health-and-safety threat in Europe, both as a source of stress and a cause of productivity losses, a European Union (EU) agency’s report has concluded.

‘Preventing violence and harassment in the workplace’ by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has found that defence industry workers and government officials are most likely to suffer this kind of victimisation, with 16 per cent reporting these problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched an investigation into Britain’s planned Euro 115 million SBS Incubation Fund, which would provide soft loans to businesses intending to develop and operate office premises for small firms. Brussels thinks that the scheme could break European Union state aid rules, because it does not appear to follow existing regional aid rules, notably in terms of imposing caps on the proportion of costs that can be covered.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
GERMAN chemical company BASF is developing a new “self cleaning” coating from lotus plants that stops dirt clinging to rough surfaces, especially paper. The polymer spray that repels dust and grime exploits what is known as the “lotus effect” – the way water dropping on lotus leaves forms beads and simply rolls off.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union’s revised take-over directive is facing new obstacles following an unexpected decision by Britain to side with Germany in opposing a number of key aspects of the proposal. Thus far Germany has been alone in rejecting provisions in the draft directive, which would limit national mechanisms to frustrate take-over bids.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LAWYERS are being asked to comment on whether the European Union should agree a set of common safeguards for the treatment of defendants or suspects facing court proceedings in any Member State. The idea has been flagged up by the European Commission, which has published a new Green Paper on procedural safeguards for suspects in criminal proceedings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LEGAL professionals across the European Union (EU) are to be asked whether they support the idea of creating a parallel body of European contract law that would exist alongside national legislation. The idea is to create a set of legal principles that are recognised across the EU as a tool by which cross-border disputes could be resolved, but which – unlike standard European legislation – would not supersede national rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FORMAL agreement has been secured at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over a new legal aid directive, which would ease access to justice for litigants in cross-border civil and commercial disputes. Member States, (barring Denmark, which has opted out), will be bound to provide financial support to citizens who cannot afford legal advice for such cases held within the EU, unless governments deem that such actions are “manifestly unfounded.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN LEGAL terms, it is a Herculean task: streamlining and reducing the thousands of pages of the European Union’s (EU) body of law, the acquis communautaire. However, the European Commission does not seem to be intimidated, after all, it proposed most of this legislation in the first place.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick has backed launching a case against the European Union for refusing to accept genetically modified food. Such a suit would seek to overturn Brussels’ de facto four year-old moratorium on GM food imports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has tabled wide-ranging changes to the EU Common Agricultural Policy, which would effectively end Brussels’ traditional method of subsidising farmers according to production and instead paying them a fixed sum based on farm size. Brussels said the proposed “de-coupling” would raise farm incomes and make European agriculture more competitive.…