Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
OECD REVIEW
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has launched a review of its guidelines on corporate governance, to assess how they might be reformed in the light of the accounting scandals that have dogged the US recently.…
PASSENGER INSURANCE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has rejected a claim by a bereaved mother that European law entitled her compensation for the death of her son in a road accident, where he was a passenger sitting in an unseated rear area of a Citroën C 15 D diesel van.…
FINANCIAL SERVICES REPORT
BY ALAN OSBORN
Significant economic gains, including a better deal for insurance companies and other long-term institutional investors, will follow from the creation of a single EU market in financial services according to a research study made for the European Commission by London Economics, in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Oxford Economic Forecasting, published today (Tuesday).…
FINANCIAL CONGLOMERATES
BY ALAN OSBORN
NEW rules affecting the operations and supervision of multi-national groups of companies in the EU will come into force shortly following agreement by the European Parliament today (Wednesday) of the Financial Conglomerates Directive; MEP’s accepted the latest draft approved by EU ministers, clearing the last hurdle preventing it becoming European law.…
STRESS CASE STUDIES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
AWARDS have been made to 20 companies across Europe by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for groundbreaking schemes that have effectively reduced workplace stress, reducing the risk of psychological problems developing in employees. Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, the agency’s director, said the schemes were examples of good practice that should be followed across the European Union.…
FLOODS - EU
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have formally approved the creation of an EU Solidarity Fund, helping Member States deal quickly with the effects of natural and man-made disasters; its funds will be mobilised immediately to assist regions affected by the floods of August and September 2002, which should help reduce the burden that has to be met by insurance companies.…
COMMUNITY PATENT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) Council of Ministers is under pressure to agree proposals to set up a so-called ‘Community Patent’ that would give inventors the option of obtaining a single patent legally valid throughout the EU. Germany and Portugal are objecting to wording in the proposed texts and have succeeded in blocking the initiative, angering EU internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein who said the Commission “cannot accept that the proposed central and specialised EU jurisdiction should be watered down.”…
COMPANY LAW REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FINAL report has been issued by the European Union’s (EU) High-Level Group of Company Law Experts which recommends reforms to EU company law. The group’s mandate had been extended this April, to consider the lessons on the Enron affair and other accounting scandals in the United States.…
SERVICES ROUND
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is considering a range of requests from foreign governments to liberalise the access to its legal professions under commitments it will make in a future World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal, following the ongoing so-called Doha Development Round.…
SAUDI LAW
BY MATTHEW WELLS
A UNITED Nations (UN) envoy is urging the Saudi Arabian government to speed up an unprecedented, yet tentative, judicial reform process.
Speaking after a week-long mission to the country, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Dato Param Cumaraswamy, said the kingdom’s legal system was improving following the introduction of a new criminal procedure code in May.…