Search Results for: Austria
10 results out of 829 results found for 'Austria'.
BRUSSELS FUMES OVER BLOCKING OF TAX COOPERATION TALKS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) taxation Commissioner Algirdas ?emeta has been angered by Austria and Luxembourg blocking moves to renegotiate the EU’s tax cooperation deals with Switzerland, Andorra, Monaco, Lichtenstein and San Marino. These countries currently transfer withholding taxes of 35% on savings accounts held by EU citizens.…
GAZPROM SHORES UP POSITION IN PROMISING CZECH GAS MARKET
BY MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE
EASTERN and central Europeans often have mixed feelings about dealing with the Russians – and for good reason, given their 40-plus-year domination of the region after the Second World War. It has encouraged many governments to seek alternative energy supplies other than Russian gas, but – as the Cold War recedes into memory, old scars are healing and joint energy ventures with Russia’s energy giant Gazprom are increasingly being assessed on their merits.…
TOBACCO INDUSTRY CALLS FOR EVIDENCE BASED DIRECTIVE
BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS
As the European Commission considers the shape of a new tobacco products directive, the industry and health groups clash over its content. The industry wants this legislation to be science-based and fair to the manufacturers of a legal and popular product.…
AUSTRIAN SCRAP METAL DEAL APPROVED BY EU
BY ALAN OSBORN
A takeover in the Austrian scrap metal sector now looks likely to go ahead after the deal secured competition approval from the European Commission. It has green-lighted without conditions the purchase by Scholz Austria of Recyclingpark Eisenerz (RPE), which operates a mechanical waste treatment plant in the mountainous Styria area of Austria; the Commission fast-tracked its decision under its ‘simplified procedure’.…
BRUSSELS PONDER FORCING MEMBERS STATES, CONSUMERS AND MANUFACTURERS TO RECEYCLE MORE METAL
BY MJ DESCHAMPS
THE EUROPEAN Commission is considering the introduction of laws that would force European Union (EU) member states, consumers and producers to increase the amount of metal that is recycled and re-used from waste streams. These would include EU mandated taxation on waste; compulsory ‘pay-as-you-throw’ schemes charging consumers who fail to recycle metal waste; and enforced producer responsibility schemes, obliging manufacturers to support the costs of organising the collection and recycling of specific waste streams.…
CHINA 'GUTTER OIL' SCANDALS A BOON TO BIOFUELS; BUT COLLECTION REMAINS DIFFICULT
BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING
DINERS in Beijing were appalled recently to discover that restaurants on the city’s most famed dining street have been using recycled – or so called ‘gutter’ – cooking oil processed by an underground industry of oil collectors.…
BRUSSELS NEGOTIATES RESTRICTIVE OPEN SKIES DEAL WITH SRI LANKA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RESTRICTIVE open skies agreement has been negotiated between the European Commission and Sri Lanka that incorporates existing bilateral civil aviation agreements struck with individual European Union (EU) member states. The agreement includes deals previously struck by Sri Lanka with Austria, Belgium, Britain, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden.…
ASSET TRACERS CHEW THE FAT ON OFFSHORE EUROPE
BY ROBERT STOKES
SWITZERLAND just signed a so-called ‘Rubik deal’ with Austria to safeguard Swiss banking secrecy in return for it levying withholding taxes anonymously on undeclared savings and investments held in Switzerland by Austrian nationals.
The bilateral treaty with Austria, start date 2013, follows those with Britain and Germany, and has raised the hackles of the European Commission, which has questioned these agreements’ legality under the European Union (EU) Savings Tax Directive, which tries to erase loopholes allowing depositors to squirrel money away from tax assessors.…
BRUSSELS CONSIDERS MANDATORY RECYCLING LAWS, BUT INDUSTRY WARNS ABOUT IMPACT OF INCREASED TAXATION
BY MJ DESCHAMPS
WHILE laws that would require European Union (EU) member states, consumers and producers to increase the amount of raw materials recycled and re-used from waste streams are being considered by the European Commission, one industry expert warns that increasing taxes on waste could have a negative impact.…
BRUSSELS SLAPS EURO 85 MILLION FINES ON METAL PRODUCTS CARTEL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission has fined nine key European Union (EU) metal consumers Euro EUR85.8 million for operating a cartel, allowing them to inflate profits from their purchases and sales between 1999 and 2007. The fines have been imposed on European (mostly German) producers of window mountings, metal parts used to open and close windows and window doors.…