Search Results for: German

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has come down on the side of the European Commission in a dispute with Germany, (which has been supported by Britain in this case), over the payment of VAT when petrol suppliers redeem money-off vouchers they had distributed to retailers through a middle-man.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved Germany’s controversial Euro 647 million state aid injection to TotalFina Elf subsidiary Mitteldeutsche Erdöl Raffinerie for constructing the Leuna 2000 refinery in Saxony-Anhalt. Brussels had re-examined the project and has now cleared all aid, including Euro 61.4 million, which had been blocked pending the decision.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GERMAN company Rapid Eye AG is developing a new type of geographical survey satellite, specialising in agricultural data, with EU-approved Euro 37 million German government grants.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INNOVATION is important in the provision of water services, whether that be to prevent the contamination of supplies by a return of this summer’s floods, or to source drinking water for arid areas where ground reserves are running dry.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered a reduction in the state aid proposed by the German government to help the company Capro Schwedt to build a new plant for the production of caprolactam, the main input material for the production of synthetic fibres.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether Germany’s spirits monopoly law regarding the production of grain brandy, (Kornbranntwein), involves the payment of illegal state subsidies. The Commission wants to prevent small agricultural producers being unfairly favoured with state production subsidies denied to producers from other Member States, and, from 2006, to larger German commercial producers.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has closed competition investigations threatening the future of two international aviation cooperation deals: the Star Alliance of Lufthansa, SAS and United Airlines; and the KLM-Northwest Airlines compact. Brussels halted inquiries into Star after its partners offered to surrender slots at Frankfurt airport to allow competing services on the Frankfurt to Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco routes.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A GERMAN research group has been awarded an EU European Business Award for the Environment for developing technology to produce fibre-board from the residue wood of palm oil plantations. The Fraunhofe Institute for Wood Research’s system will help Malaysian producers create a marketable product from the 40 million tonnes of biomass waste produced annually, which is usually either burnt or stored in poor conditions.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THE FINANCIAL framework of state regulated air traffic management is often perceived by the more commercially orientated air transport industry as inflexible and driven by supply rather than demand. This perception remains despite the widespread corporatisation of ANSPs, (air navigation service providers), which has pulled them away from the firm embrace of government.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
GERMANY is being threatened with legal action by the European Commission over the award of sewage water treatment and gas and electricity supply contracts by the city of Jever, Friesland, north Germany. Brussels says that the contracts were agreed without open tendering procedures legally required to ensure competition in public procurement.…