Search Results for: Belgium

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) pending directive on the control of pyrotechnic substances which activate safety devices in vehicles got a robust public endorsement from the auto supply industry today (3/21).

Addressing a "mini-hearing" of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, Klaus Pilatus on behalf of the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA), told legislators of the industry’s "full support" of the legislation and would like to see it adopted throughout the 25 nation grouping as soon as possible.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHARP decline observed in European butterfly populations by an international study has raised parallel concerns about worsening environmental conditions in general. The report published in the Journal of Insect Conservation says that butterflies "are very good candidates to build biodiversity indicators".…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission has published a set of recommendations designed to make it easier for economically sound small and medium-sized businesses to change ownership. Brussels estimates that a third of EU entrepreneurs will retire through old age within the next ten years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN’S status as a low tax jurisdiction in the European Union (EU) has been reconfirmed in the latest comparative study of developed industrialised countries by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For instance, looking at income tax and national insurance burdens for single people without children, Britain is taxed at 33.5% on average, compared with an old 15-member EU average of 42.1%.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FACT BOX

Population of Cyprus: 793,100

Number of students enrolled at university: 5,000 (see text)

Percentage of university students who are Cypriots: 90%

Percentage of Cypriots (excluding mature students) attending university in Cyprus or other countries: 80%

INTERVIEW

OUT of every ten young people who apply for a place at the University of Cyprus, only three actually gets admitted.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PRACTICAL and regional initiative to remove barriers in trading electricity between neighbouring European Union (EU) countries has been launched by the European Regulators’ Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG). It is grouping states’ regulators and utilities together to focus on regulatory and technical difficulties impeding cross-border sales of electricity for countries sharing frontiers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission has published a set of recommendations designed to make it easier for economically sound small and medium-sized businesses to change ownership. Brussels estimates that a third of EU entrepreneurs will retire through old age within the next ten years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have been authorised to levy until January 2011 low rates of VAT on clothing and household linen repair services. The decision continues for four years an experiment that has thus far been renewed annually and which has been exploited by Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands – who have charged 6% VAT on these services and – Greece, which has charged 8%.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Volvo Trucks, one of the world’s largest truck manufacturers, is to make its assembly plant in Ghent, Belgium, entirely free of carbon dioxide starting 2007. The company said three wind-power generating stations would be built along with a new biofuel production facility to supply electricity and heating "without making any net contribution to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRUSSELS’ usually well-paid Eurocrats are accustomed to taxis, first-class air travel and even chauffeurs, so environment-inspired European Commission plans to buy bicycles for its 22,000 staff may come as a shock. Cycle paths and parking spots will be installed, with the Commission investing in changing rooms, so that pedalling officials are not sweaty and smelly when they attend high powered meetings.…