Search Results for: Austria

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NORWEGIAN company dominating European markets for high-end automatic can and bottle recovery machines for recycling programmes has failed to persuade European judges to reduce or annul a Euro 24 million fine. The Tomra group was penalised by the European Commission in 2006 for illegally pushing competitors out of the market for its equipment in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Norway from 1998 to 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission’s ‘stock taking document’ called Towards a new Energy Strategy for Europe 2011-2020, tries to take the recession and its effect into account when looking at EU energy policy for the next decade.

It warns that the economic crisis has temporarily depressed gas prices and created a gas supply glut and this could undermine political momentum towards making investments in infrastructure and supply sources.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE PROCESS of ‘unbundling’ in the European Union (EU) gas industry as called for under the EU’s third energy package, notably the gas directive 2009/73/EC, adopted in 2009, has come to a bit of a standstill. This will not last.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMAGINATION and guile continue to help fraudsters milk hundreds of millions of Euros from the European Union’s (EU) well-stocked budgets, explains the latest report from EU anti-fraud agency OLAF, writes Keith Nuthall.

OLAF spends a lot of money sniffing out fraud in the institutions and programmes of the EU and the payment of duties earmarked to fund this spending.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A US Geological Survey expert has warned environmental difficulties could prevent Europe harvesting significant reserves of shale gas maybe in Britain, Germany, Sweden, Poland, France, Hungary and Austria. Research geologist Don Gauthier told a French Institute for Foreign Relations conference in Brussels the "high density" of wells required, including horizontal wells, could anger urbanised Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CREATION of a European [Union – EU] Investigation Order (EIO) for criminal matters has been proposed by seven EU member states. It would allow national courts to order judicial or police investigations in another EU country, collecting evidence for a possible trial.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF is claiming focusing on larger frauds and referring smaller scams to national law enforcement agencies is paying off. More than 75% of cases closed in 2009 led to judicial or financial recovery proceedings, according the agency’s latest annual report.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) may be legally a single market, food prices range widely across its 27 member states. The most recent survey of 500 comparable products by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, shows last year (2009) the price of a comparable basket of food and non-alcoholic beverages was more than twice as high in the most expensive EU country than the cheapest.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is helping the USA deal with the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Coordinated by the EU emergency response group, the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), the EU will send oil skimmers and oil spill experts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined 17 producers of prestressing steel Euro 518 million for operating a cartel that lasted 18 years until 2002 and covered all but three of the then 15 European Union (EU) member states – Britain, Ireland and Greece.…