Search Results for: Ireland

KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVE reform of the European Union’s VAT package for travel agents has been proposed by the European Commission, which would change the special rules that apply for the sector. Because their services are often consumed in a foreign Member States where different sales tax rates can apply, travel agents are allowed to pay VAT on the profits that they make rather than handing over the VAT charged directly on services that they supply, minus the VAT they paid when incurring allowable business expenses.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A STRING of cases have been launched by the European Commission against Member States of the European Union to try and force them to comply with EU water legislation; under existing rules, failure to abide by the court’s rulings can see national governments being hit with huge daily recurring fines of up to Euro 100,000.…

BY PHILIP FINE

GUINNESS UDV is facing federal regulatory scrutiny in the United States after a competitor complained that its Smirnoff Ice TM malt based product misleads consumers, because in the US, it does not contain vodka; the New York State advertising industry’s self-regulatory apparatus has now referred the matter to the US Federal Trade Commission and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after Guinness refused to take part in the review.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE CO-GENERATION of electricity from waste oil is being promoted in the European Union through excise duty exemptions, which have been erected in the face of official EU environmental policy, a new European Commission report says.

Its “Critical Review of Existing Studies and Life Cycle Analysis on the Regeneration and Incineration of Waste Oils” points out that Council Directive 75/439/EC on Waste Oils tries to make Member States prioritise regeneration over burning.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HEALTHY market in the use of waste oil as a fuel to generate electricity is being promoted in the European Union through excise duty exemptions, erected in the face of official EU environmental policy, a new European Commission report says.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
MORE people are drinking wine in the Irish Republic according to the latest figures from the Wine Development Board of Ireland.

The Board reported growth in the country’s wine market the first four months of 2002, with women driving up sales, consuming 57 per cent of all wine sold in Ireland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SIGNIFICANT trend towards the consolidation in the European Union’s insurance sector has been highlighted by a report from the EU’s statistical agency Eurostat, which has released detailed data about 1999.

In that year, said the study, the number of EU insurance businesses decreased by 8.4 per cent between 1996 and 1999, with a particularly sharp decline in Britain, where numbers fell by 23.7 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has voted to impose definitive 22.5 per cent anti-dumping duties on imports of ferro molybdenum from China. Sweden opposed the move, with Germany, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Britain abstaining. The European Commission investigation leading to the decision was sparked by a complaint by EU producers association Ferro-alliages.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Ireland to the European Court of Justice, accusing its government of flouting the EU Waste Framework Directive, notably by allowing uncontrolled waste disposal operations in County Louth, Dublin, Co Waterford, Co Laois and Co Cork.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN has been ordered by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to “devise, as appropriate, measures to prevent pollution of the marine environment” maybe resulting from the operational launch of a new MOX (mixed oxide fuel) plant, in Sellafield, next summer.…