Search Results for: Bulgarian

THE INCOMING European Union (EU) commissioner for budgets and human resources has pledged support for the under-pressure EU anti-fraud office OLAF, assuming she is confirmed to serve a five year term from November 1. Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist and a former vice-president of the World Bank, has pledged to work closely with OLAF, for which she would be the responsible commissioner, and a vice-president under the new commission of Jean-Claude Juncker.…

A NEW European Commission nominated to hold office for the next five years has been told by its incoming president that it must increase transparency and avoid any hint of sleaze.

With fraud against the European Union (EU) institutions still costing taxpayers millions of Euros and the record of the outgoing Barroso Commission marred by the Dalli affair, nominated Commissioners have been told their “conduct must be unimpeachable.”…

Energy savings of up to 30% are possible if clothing and textile producers apply a “simple” system of cost assessment, a Brussels conference of industry experts has been told. Yet too many companies lack fine-tuned energy data and are certainly unable to quantify the money they are losing or know how to focus on the problem.…

ECUADOR, an important confectionery exporter to the European Union (EU), has struck a new bilateral free trade agreement with the EU, which will eliminate tariffs on imports to Europe. The new trade deal is supposed to take effect in late 2016, and until then a system of preferential tariffs will be in place.…

WHEN American personal care product giant Johnson & Johnson opened its shared-services centre in Prague during 2006, it employed 12 people and provided only in-group procure-to-pay services. Currently this Johnson & Johnson finance centre is the largest of the five centres the company operates worldwide in terms of staff numbers as well as the scope of services it provides to internal business partners.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a new European Energy Security Strategy, aimed at further reducing Europe’s reliance on energy imports, notably on politically unreliable trading partners such as Russia.

Its new policy plan was to be debated at the next European Union (EU) summit (European Council) on June 26-27, in Brussels.…

AUSTRIA

The location of ECC Austria in central Vienna means many consumers drop by to receive advice or lodge complaints in person with the ECC’s five staff members. A top priority in 2013 was increasing public awareness about e-commerce fraud; a brochure aimed at combatting the problem was published and more than 600,000 were distributed throughout Austria.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) scientific committee has sounded an alarm about potential health concerns regarding the use of nano-silver in clothing – the substance often used as an antibacterial in knitted socks.

The EU’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks has noted studies indicating that “nanosilver exposure leads possibly to genotoxicity, changes in activity of the immune system and an accumulation of silver in spleen, liver and testes.”…

The European Parliament today (Oct 10) voted to ban cadmium in portable batteries and accumulators used in cordless power tools such as drills, screwdrivers or saws. With the ban already accepted by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers, the EU-wide ban will come into force from December 31, 2016.…

the fanfare that greeted Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union (EU), there was little expectation that membership would eradicate corruption overnight. Six years on, major corruption scrutiny bodies appear to have come to a predictable conclusion: that Bulgaria has made substantial efforts to clean out some of the worst elements of corruption, but there is plenty left to do.…