Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BACK in the last century, it was easy to find economists who liked a little corruption, saying it oiled the wheels of government and commerce. Today, this complacency has gone, with most development specialists saying bribes weaken governments and shrink private investment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) has warned companies to avoid an offer from a German company ZDR-Datenregister to register their trademark in a so-called Central Data-Register Community Trade Marks, for payment of Euro 1,235.40.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEK government has asked EU ministers permission to exempt local small waste dealers in glass, paper, board, scrap iron and steel and suppliers of any size in non-ferrous metals from paying VAT. Athens wants to deviate from European tax directives this way, because of VAT evasion and the difficulties of investigating the sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A DRAFT United Nations Convention against Corruption has been considered for the first time by a special committee established to present a final version to member governments for approval.

The document currently includes plenty of square brackets, with even the purpose of the convention up for grabs, with two Article One’s being discussed.…

Keith Nuthall
A BRUSSELS convention reviewing the EU’s Financial Services Action Plan has concluded that in the wake of the Enron scandal the European Commission should redouble its efforts to make sure that European legislation underpins anti-corruption safeguards such as auditor independence.…

Keith Nuthall
REFORMS that are needed to promote a seamless single market in financial services that spans the whole European Union will be debated on Friday, (Feb 22), in Brussels, with the European Commission inviting private sector representatives, regulators, national governments and other EU institutions to a key meeting.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has ignored strong pressure from the American government to abandon its plans to exempt EU-based suppliers of digital products from charging VAT when they sell to customers in non-EU countries.

Sealing a formal political agreement on the proposal and sending it back to the European Parliament for further discussion, ministers stuck to their line that foreign importers of digital products, such as music or computer software downloaded from the Internet, should pay VAT, as the goods are consumed within the EU.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union companies alerting European Commission investigators about cartels of which they form a part, will find it easier to escape being fined for their crimes in future, because of a new so-called “leniency policy” launched to promote whistle-blowing.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
SCIENTISTS in Queensland, Australia, have been experimenting with crustacean blood lines to breed prawne that grow faster and produce the biggest specimens; they can now produce one measuring 30cm in length and weighing more than 450g.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A NORWEGIAN salmon producer which had been hit with European Union anti-dumping and countervailing duties after failing to file compulsory performance reports with the European Commission, is expected to be freed from having to pay the tariffs.

Gje-Vi AS was ordered in 1998 to pay the duties, because Brussels claimed that it had broken promises not to dump salmon on European markets and to prove with its accounts that it was trading fairly.…