Search Results for: Finland

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
WATER pricing reform is on its way in the European Union. The water framework directive passed last year imposes a commitment on Member States by the year 2010 to ensure that their pricing policies “provide adequate incentives for users to use water resources efficiently.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN comes fourth in an international league of 17 developed countries which ranks them according to their achievements, resources and capacity for future development in the field of innovation, the European Commission said today Monday. Sweden comes top followed by the US and Finland.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN ADVOCATE General of the European Court of Justice has ruled that by using the value of a new car as a yardstick for determining the taxes on an imported second-hand vehicle, Finland is violating EU treaty regulations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening to take Belgium and Finland to the European Court of Justice, claiming that their mandatory no-claims bonus systems for motor insurance breaks the EU’s third non-life insurance directive.

Brussels claims that the regulations deny insurers the freedom to set scales of premiums allowed in the EU legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE TERRORIST attacks on New York and Washington DC have not just galvanised the developed world into military action, it has encouraged governments and international organisations to pass new anti-terror laws affecting travel, data protection, criminal investigations and money laundering.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has blocked the planned takeover by London-based CVC Capital Partners Group Ltd, (CVC), of Austrian man-made fibres manufacturer Lenzing AG. Because CVC already controls Acordis, Lenzing’s principal rival in Europe, and only rival in the United States, Brussels has ruled that a merged company would have a dominant position in a number of fibres markets, that could “reduce choice and lead to higher prices for customers and end consumers.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing a potentially groundbreaking initiative to overcome the problems created by the existence of 15 different tax systems throughout the European Union, which could involve setting a harmonised EU corporation tax. In a report due to be released shortly, obtained by Accountancy Age, the Commission says differing tax national systems have caused losses in economic efficiency, generated compliance costs and contributed to a lack of transparency.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union competition Commissioner Mario Monti has announced that Brussels is to clamp down on special tax regimes affecting financial services in 11 Member States, which it claims are probably so lax, they constitute illegal state aid payments that could unfairly favour local companies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINLAND is the world’s most technologically advanced country, according to a United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP), report, which puts the UK at number seven in its league table, also behind the USA, Sweden, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has re-launched its civil case against Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, teaming up from the start with Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg, to scupper any further defence that the EU had no substantive complaint against the tobacco firms.…