Search Results for: european union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is distributing 1.2 million leaflets this summer – many via EU hotel and tourism federations – which aims to educate holiday-makers on how to use the single European currency, the Euro.

With its notes and coins due to be launched in January, “Don’t forget to Pack the Euro” encourages tourists to get used to the concept of the single currency whilst vacationing abroad this summer.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WILL there come a day when a genuine European market in health care takes its place among the other landmark achievements of the European Union?

In terms of economic efficiency and the functioning of the internal market, does it make much sense for a million patients in Britain, say, to have to wait sometimes for a year or more for important operations while people in France or Luxembourg can book them for the next day and some German hospitals have barely half their beds filled?…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE PORTUGUESE government has been ordered to scrap its reduced five per cent rate of VAT on equipment designed for research into alternative forms of energy, with the European Court of Justice ruling that it contravened the EU’s Sixth VAT Directive, which attempts to harmonise the application of sales taxes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH restaurateurs and hoteliers could be forced to pay regular fees to record companies for piping music from radio broadcasts into their premises, if the European Commission wins a legal case against the British government.

It has asked the European Court of Justice to order the UK to scrap the existing system, where no royalty fees are payable for playing this background music free-of-charge to customers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITISH hauliers could face new obstacles at trans-alpine crossings in Austria, if a decision by the transport committee of the European Parliament to reject proposals for increasing the number of trips across the Alps is backed by the full assembly.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action against the British government, claiming that it has failed to write the updated EU drinking water directive into UK national legislation. If Whitehall does not persuade the Commission within two months that it has satisfactory plans to implement its rules, it could face a case at the European Court of Justice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CRIMINALS are still fleecing the European Union’s budget of hundreds-of-millions of Euro, according to the latest European Commission fraud report. But Brussels is refusing to throw in the towel, unveiling more anti-fraud proposals, Keith Nuthall reports.

THE ANNUAL report on the Protection of the Communities’ (EU’s) Financial Interests and the Fight Against Fraud always seems to have been misnamed, in that it usually focuses on how much money the European Union has been losing to fraudsters, rather than saving.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has complied with a ruling from the European Ombudsman, who backed the right of Friends of the Earth to read environmental studies regarding the compliance of the UK and Gibraltar with directives on waste, hazardous waste and habitats.…

Keith Nuthall
TOUGHER control of airline slots at EU airports have been proposed by the European Commission, in a bid to reduce delays. Its proposals include sanctions against abusive practices and incentives for airlines to use slot portfolios efficiently through exchanges and re-timing.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A COMPROMISE has been agreed by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament over the proposed bus safety directive, on the “carriage of passengers: vehicles comprising more than 8 seats or maximum length 15m, (amending directive 70/156/EEC).…