Search Results for: european union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PHILIP Morris and EU’s Altadis, (formerly Spain’s Tabacalera and France’s Seita), have loosened a licensing agreement granting the European company the right to produce L&M and Marlboro cigarettes in Spain. Following pressure from the European Commission, Philip Morris will now have the right to manufacture the brands itself outside Spain and export them there.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PERFORMANCE of OLAF, the European Union’s new and supposedly independent anti-fraud office, has been criticised by the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee; it has suggested that it has not worked more effectively than its predecessor UCLAF, the European Commission’s in-house fraud busting unit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN manufacturing industries 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 1 billion for aeronautics and space – if proposals from the European Commission for a new framework research programme, are agreed.…

Keith Nuthall
A COMPROMISE deal has been struck between the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers over a new tyre noise directive, which will lead to reduction by one decibel of the maximum noise that can be created by tyres on road vehicles and their trailers.…

KEITH NUTHALL
DISCUSSIONS are to be held between the European Commission and ACEA, the European car producers’ association, on striking a voluntary agreement on guidelines for car front designs, that will minimise pedestrian casualties in accidents.

A statement from the Commission, following a meeting with manufacturers, said that there were benefits in a voluntary deal over a regulation, in that “a negotiated agreement can be considerably faster to implement and thus more lives could be saved faster.…

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.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union health and safety laws should be extended by a new EU directive to cover the 90 per cent of fishing boats that are currently exempt from them, a report from Spanish socialist MEP Miguélez Ramos has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIGITAL third generation mobile operators are likely to be disappointed by the result of the first EU joint telecoms-transport council, which has refused to abide by their concerns over the European Commissions new draft guidelines regarding Significant Market Power (SMP).…

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 lost its appeal at the World Trade Organisation against last year’s disputes panel ruling, which censured its imposition of anti-dumping duties on cotton-type bed linen from India. The Appellate Body of the WTO disputes procedure has agreed that the EU did erect duties via procedures that broke international anti-dumping regulations.…