Search Results for: Spain

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE LATEST report of the European Court of Auditors on annual spending by the European Union is depressingly familiar. It says the figures do not warrant official approval. It puts a questionmark over some Pounds 2.5 billion out of the pounds 50 billion spent by the EU in 2000, with most of the suspect figures again in the farm sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
WATER pricing reform is on its way in the European Union. The water framework directive passed last year imposes a commitment on Member States by the year 2010 to ensure that their pricing policies “provide adequate incentives for users to use water resources efficiently.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FORMAL state aid investigation has been launched by the European Commission into exemptions from excise duty on heavy oils used for the production of the aluminium raw material alumina, allowed by the governments of Ireland, France and Italy

They have used powers available to them under the 1992 Directive on the approximation of the rates of excise duties on mineral oils, to exempt alumina producers in, respectively, the Shannon region, Gardanne and Sardinia, from paying excise on the oils.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Council of Ministers has agreed proposals to further harmonise manufactured tobacco sold within the EU, albeit a watered-down package compared with that tabled by the European Commission earlier this year.

Ministers accepted that the fixed minimum amount of excise duty per 1,000 cigarettes would be Euro 60 from July 1, 2002, rising to Euro 64 from July 1, 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SPAIN has lost two bids at the European Court of Justice to overturn the refusal by the European Commission to fully meet Spanish claims for European grants for meat subsidies, because of concerns about Madrid’s “weak” anti-fraud controls.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission is to propose an extension of EUenvironmental legislation in the mining sector following completion of aconsultation exercise with interested parties. Brussels said it had decidedto proceed with three priority actions “to improve the safety of mines,relating to industrial risk management, management of mining waste andintegrated pollution prevention and control.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HEALTH experts have been discussing a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD), which has shown Britain performs poorly against its competitors in western Europe and north America, regarding the number of nurses employed per head of population in the late 1990’s.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the proposed merger between steel producers Usinor S.A. of France, Luxembourg-based Arbed S.A. and Aceralia Corporación Siderúrgica S.A. of Spain, a deal which would create the world’s biggest steel company. To secure regulatory approval, the companies have agreed to sell off steel production and distribution operations in France, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy and Portugal.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is about to complete its own recommendations on safety improvements in long road tunnels. Its proposals include roadside checks on lorries to detect overheating and also rules on the amount of fuel carried through tunnels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PROCESS of transforming the European Union’s anti-fraud office OLAF into a truly independent operator, with enough investigative muscle and legislative teeth to make an impact in Brussels’ fight against financial crime, has proved to be a slow and difficult task, its latest report admits.…