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BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union steering group has been launched to help protecting the European single currency, the Euro, against counterfeiting. It includes representatives of the Commission, the ECB and Europol. It will try to promote co-ordination between these bodies by overseeing their anti-counterfeiting work, developing a common strategy and proposing a series of concrete priority measures.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EXEMPTION from European working time regulations for self-employed drivers, could last a lot longer than the three years that was agreed in the informal deal struck in the EU Council of Ministers last year.

Looking at the detail of the amended directive that has now been accepted formally by the Council, the three-year deadline only gives the European Commission the right to propose an end to the exemption.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union has lifted all quotas on imports of textile and clothing products from Ukraine, in line with the agreement struck between Brussels and Kiev last December. The move follows confirmation that Ukraine has lowered its tariff levels for EU textile exports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN utilities will be able to apply for grants from budgets of Euro 1.7 billion, which has been earmarked for energy, transport, sustainable development and global change and of Euro 3.6 billion, for information society research – including telecommunications – if proposals from the European Commission for a new framework research programme, are agreed.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE LOCAL Council – what are the worst images conjured up when thinking of those words?

Let me make it easy for you.

Lazy employees that take forever to process requests, generally unhelpful and bored, unfulfilling positions that can transform a new recruit full of fresh ideas and faith in the system, to the jaded staff that many of us have encountered at our local councils.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH the European farming industry facing more fundamental change than it has in decades, it could be said that funding research into ways of making this transformation less painless has to be a good thing. Whatever the view on this fairly facile assumption, the eyes of the agricultural sector should at least be partly turned on Brussels thus year, where debates for the preparation of a new five-year EU research programme are being staged.…

Keith Nuthall
A REPORT on allegations of irregularities and fraud regarding EU subsidies paid for the production of flax in Spain, has been sent to the Spanish authorities by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). The report, which is expected to lead to criminal proceedings, has also been sent to Michaele Schreyer, the EU budget commissioner, the European Parliament and to the European Commission’s DG agriculture.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IN an attempt to stamp out smuggling and fraud, the European Commission is proposing that excise duties on popular cigarettes sold throughout the 15 EU countries should be brought much closer together. In a proposed new directive, the Commission says there should be a minimum fixed amount of excise duty of Euro 70 (about Pounds 42) per 1,000 cigarettes in the most popular price category, which would be in addition to the existing minimum excise requirement of 57% of the retail price.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
PROPOSED new European legislation that would make it compulsory for motor vehicle registration documents to carry an adjective and alphanumeric code specifying the colour of the original paint is not expected to cause major problems in the UK paint or motor industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union Tacis programme grants are to fund much of the Euro 33.3 million contract for the construction of a radioactive waste management facility near the Chernobyl power plant that has been signed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy (represented by Energoatom, the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company) and the German contractor NUKEM Nuclear GmbH.…