Search Results for: Portugal

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided to come out fighting in its row with Member States over the liberalisation of energy markets. Calling on EU Ministers and the European Parliament to “rapidly adopt” its March 2001 proposals to completely liberalise gas and electricity markets by 2005, the Commission threatened to use exceptional powers granted to it under EU treaties to pass directives and decisions on market fairness, bypassing opposition from national governments and MEPs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPETITION officials are examining a proposed German joint-venture merging the downstream and petrochemical operations of Deutsche Shell GmbH and its rival RWE-DEA. The German Competition Authority has been given the right to adjudicate on the downstream elements by the European Commission, which is itself handling the deal’s petrochemical implications.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has sent second warning letters to the UK and seven other EU countries for their failure to adopt an EU directive aimed at providing new car buyers with information about fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that Portugal be allowed to apply a lower rate of excise duty levied in its two Atlantic island autonomous regions on locally produced and consumed spirits: rum and liqueurs in Madeira, and liqueurs and eaux-de-vie in the Azores.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has dismissed a claim by Portugal that its system of landing fee discounts for some domestic flights is justified under EU law. In one of the last legal disputes on this issue, judges ruled that the fees for Lisbon, Oporto and Faro airports illegally discriminated against foreign carriers and so broke EU fair trade regulations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action against the British government, claiming that it has failed to write the updated EU drinking water directive into UK national legislation. If Whitehall does not persuade the Commission within two months that it has satisfactory plans to implement its rules, it could face a case at the European Court of Justice.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE COMPLETION of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing in 2005 will usher in a new world order for the industry, in which Europe will have to meet the challenge of unrestricted imports from major suppliers like China, India and Indonesia for the first time.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WILL there come a day when a genuine European market in health care takes its place among the other landmark achievements of the European Union?

In terms of economic efficiency and the functioning of the internal market, does it make much sense for a million patients in Britain, say, to have to wait sometimes for a year or more for important operations while people in France or Luxembourg can book them for the next day and some German hospitals have barely half their beds filled?…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE PORTUGUESE government has been ordered to scrap its reduced five per cent rate of VAT on equipment designed for research into alternative forms of energy, with the European Court of Justice ruling that it contravened the EU’s Sixth VAT Directive, which attempts to harmonise the application of sales taxes.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening six EU Member States with legal action at the European Court of Justice for failing to implement a directive harmonising the imposition of road charges for heavy goods vehicles.

It has ordered Belgium, Germany, Spain, Greece, Ireland and Portugal to explain within two months how they intend to incorporate the European rules in their own legislation, or maybe face a case at the ECJ, which can order compliance and levy huge fines on governments refusing to obey.…