Search Results for: Belgium

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REQUIREMENTS on national telecommunications regulators within the European Union (EU) to analyse a list of specific markets to see if controls are required on a dominant operator are to be frozen for 18 months. The European Commission had been due to review this so-called ‘ex ante’ recommendation last month, but has postponed this until December 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NETHERLANDS, Ireland and Belgium are facing legal action by the European Commission over their alleged failure to implement a series of utility-related European Union (EU) directives. The announcements come before Brussels’ long summer break, when member states are often sent legal notices.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND has struck a deal with the European Union (EU) over the controversial savings tax issue, agreeing to levy a flat tax on EU citizens holding accounts in the country. The decision means the Swiss have joined Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino in imposing withholding taxes rather than change their laws on banking secrecy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GREEKS may be European football champions, but they are bottom of the league for tax honesty, said a European Commission report, with more than 20% of work by value being undeclared. ‘Undeclared work in an enlarged Union’ shows Britain is much more honest, with only 2% of its GDP concealed from the tax authorities, second only to Austria (1.5%).…

Keith Nuthall
THE GREEKS may be champions in European football, but they are bottom of the league for tax honesty, a European Commission report has concluded, with more than 20% of work by value being undeclared. The paper ‘Undeclared work in an enlarged Union’ shows that Britain is much more honest, with only 2% of its GDP being concealed from the tax authorities, second only to Austria (1.5%).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TELECOMMUNICATIONS investment is being attracted to European countries with the least state involvement in dominant operators, according to a survey from the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA). It says that Britain, Denmark and Ireland are the most popular countries for telecoms investors, with Belgium, France, and Germany the least, (other countries surveyed were Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOVERNMENTS should avoid forcing national telecommunications utilities to make broadband services available to rural and remote areas, but rather rely on boosting competition in the sector, an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report has claimed. Indeed, making such demands “would reduce competition and innovation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is bankrolling the development of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas reserves, a key alternative supply for the European Union (EU). It wants to lend Tasbulat Ltd Euro 60 million to help develop three medium-sized oil and gas fields in Mangistau region, western Kazakhstan, producing up to 8,000 barrels/day in 2006; Tasbulat is owned by SNP Petrom, Romania’s national oil company.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LOCAL authorities in Camden and Nottingham have been held up as good practice examples in the promotion of environmentally sustainable transport by the European Union’s (EU) SMILE project, which concluded last week at a conference in La Rochelle, France (27-28 May).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RELIABLE statistics are of course vital to any insurance company’s assessment of risk, and nationally produced figures in countries such as Britain and the USA can usually be counted upon in actuarial calculations. But what about comparing countries when managing international policy portfolios?…