Search Results for: Spanish

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted competition clearance to the acquisition by Spain’s Vidacaixa of Swiss Life España (SLE) from the Swiss Life Insurance and Pension Company Holding. Brussels has investigated concerns that the merged company could be too dominant in the Spanish life insurance sector, but concluded that highest possible combined market share would “not exceed 20 per cent” and that “there remains a sufficient number of strong competitors”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SPANISH nut and locust bean producers are to be paid up to Euro 241.50 per hectare in aid to improve production under proposals approved by the European Commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S legitimate tobacco trade may face a renewed increase in black-market supplies, if renewed pressure from the European Commission on the British government to reduce customs seizures of EU-duty-paid tobacco is successful.

The Commission has started formal European law infringement proceedings against the UK, seemingly unimpressed by concessions from its government over the amounts of tobacco and alcohol that can be imported from other member countries for personal use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Commission president Romano Prodi has announced a string of reforms designed to further toughen his organisation’s ability to fight internal fraud and mismanagement. Stung by criticisms following the Eurostat scandal that he has failed to deliver on his goal of squashing European Union (EU) financial misconduct, he told the European Parliament’s budgetary affairs committee that the Commission would increase the political responsibility of Commissioners for the actions of their officers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Commission president Romano Prodi has announced a string of reforms designed to further toughen his organisation’s ability to fight internal fraud and mismanagement. Stung by criticisms following the Eurostat scandal that he has failed to deliver on his goal of squashing European Union (EU) financial misconduct, he told the European Parliament’s budgetary affairs committee that the Commission would increase the political responsibility of Commissioners for the actions of their officers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has started European law infringement proceedings against the British government, formally demanding confirmation it will continue to seize alcohol brought into the UK from other EU countries by citizens shipping alcohol for other people, but not for profit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission has granted clearance under the Merger Regulation to the acquisition by the Italian energy company Enel Produzione S.p.A of a stake in Spanish electricity producer Unión Fenosa Energías Especiales S.A., which is currently wholly controlled by Unión Fenosa Generación S.A.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released details of a deal struck with the Ivory Coast that will allow European Union (EU) fishing boats access to its rich tropical fish reserves this year and next. It has asked EU ministers to approve a deal allowing 600 GRT of Spanish demersal vessels to fish of the west African country, along with 18 tuna seiners from France and 21 from Spain; five Portuguese and 15 Spanish surface longliners and seven pole-and-line tuna vessels from France and five from Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Commission proposals to boost nuclear energy safety in Europe have come under fire from the British and German governments as well as the European Parliament, making it highly unlikely that they will be approved unscathed. In an unusual joint letter to the Commission, UK prime minister Tony Blair and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder criticised Brussels’ proposed directive, claiming that it would not deal tangible benefits in nuclear security.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT is an odd and depressing fact that employees who expose corruption, negligence and other malpractices in their work-place usually end up more reviled and outcast than those actually responsible for the wrong-doing in the first place. The institutions of the European Union offer excellent case studies in this regard.…