Search Results for: European Court of Justice

Keith Nuthall
FINLAND has been ordered by the European Commission to change legislation that disqualifies car passengers from insurance cover when the driver is drunk and involved in an accident. Brussels says this exclusion of passengers’ injuries contravenes the EU’s second motor insurance directive which seeks to facilitate free movement within the EU and to safeguard the interests of persons who may be injured in a motor vehicle accident.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared a scheme to set up a new company specialising in the processing of hot-rolled flat steel products in the Netherlands.

The new venture to be know as Metalix, has been formed by IHC (a subsidiary of the IHC Caland Group) and ODS (a subsidiary of Klöckner & Co.…

Keith Nuthall
THE BRITISH government is facing a possible order to pay massive recurring fines of maybe Euro 100,000-a-day, because it has not notified the European Commission about how it has implemented a court order to pay VAT on privately operated road and bridge tolls.…

KEITH NUTHALL
HAULIERS are likely to escape the full burden of an energy taxation directive imposing minimum duty levels on petrol and diesel because of an about turn performed by European Union heads of government. A short but significant clause in the communiqué drawn up at the recent summit in Barcelona not only commits Member States to approving an energy tax law by this December, but crucially says that they should “bear in mind the needs of professionals in the road haulage industry.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A POLITICAL standoff between the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers is delaying the passage of a proposed ban on feeding catering waste to farm animals, because the European Parliament is resisting the measure, which is backed by the EU Council of Ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DUTCH and Luxembourg governments will have to defend themselves at the European Court of Justice against claims by the European Commission that they have broken European Union law by failing to implement key European Union legislation guaranteeing lawyers the right to work across the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission wants to extend its fight against tax fraud by extending the existing Fiscalis co-operative programme covering VAT and excise duties to direct taxation. Ministers are discussing Brussels’ plans to spend Euro 56 million, (Pounds 34 million), on the plan over he next five years, funding improved electronic information exchanges, co-operation in investigations between national authorities, training seminars for customs and tax officials and exchanges of national officials.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Parliament is resisting European Commission plans to introduce a “lightweight” common market regime for agricultural alcohol production, covering common definitions, improved statistical information, import and export licences and the creation of a sectoral EU committee. The parliament’s agricultural committee has asked the Commission to rewrite its proposal so that it also includes synthetic alcohol, which accounts for 50 per cent of EU alcohol consumption.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Parliament is resisting European Commission plans to introduce a “lightweight” common market regime for agricultural alcohol production, covering common definitions, improved statistical information, import and export licences and the creation of a sectoral EU committee. The parliament’s agricultural committee has asked the Commission to rewrite its proposal so that it also includes synthetic alcohol, which accounts for 50 per cent of EU alcohol consumption.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FOLLOWING the publication by the European Commission on February 5th of its proposed far-reaching reforms to the current block exemption scheme for new car sales in the European Union, the continent’s motor industry is in ferment. Nobody can be quite sure whether the reforms will go through as they have been planned – or when.…