Search Results for: European Court of Justice

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fixed Greece’s cotton production this year at 1.25 million tonnes, resulting in EU aid of Euro 571 million (Pounds 354 million) and a minimum price of Euro 593-a-tonne (Pounds 368). New rules have been introduced to prevent a volume of cotton being placed on the market which, said the Commission, “could have an adverse effect on the environment and cause significant falls in the price paid to growers.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN INTERNATIONAL team of scientists based at Galway, in Ireland, has made a surprising discovery that could have significant consequences for future climate change.

The EU-sponsored Parforce research project, led by the National University of Ireland, has found that iodine vapours released by marine algae can help thicken haze and cloud layers, blocking sunlight and thereby partially offsetting global warming from greenhouse gases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the creation of a new Euro 13 million per annum scheme to monitor the health of Europe’s forests. The programme would run from January 2003 until December 2008. The Commission would establish a Scientific Co-ordination Body within the EU’s Joint Research Centre to collect and assess data on forest health and pollution.…

BY PHILIP FINE

The US Justice Department, on behalf of the country’s Internal Revenue Service, has filed suit against the US member companies of KPMG and BDO International. It says the accounting firms failed to provide the government with key tax shelter information.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LONDON-based CVC Capital Partners and Cinven Group Ltd have been moving ahead with the acquisition of Sweden’s AssiDomän AB’s container board and corrugated business units company, Alpha, following approval of the deal by the European Commission. The buyers are investment companies jointly controlling Kappa Holding BV, which is already involved in the manufacture and sale of paper products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PLANS to impose 100 per cent retaliatory duties on US exports of ball-point, felt-tipped, fountain and stylograph pens, as well as propelling or sliding pencils, pen-holders, pencil-holders, plus caps and clips have been postponed from June 18 to September 30 after Washington started backing down and removing a number of its steel tariffs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission says that in 2001, 95 million counterfeit or pirated goods worth Euro 2 billion were intercepted at EU external borders, up 900 per cent on 1998. Brussels said that there had been customs improvements, but “it is becoming more and more difficult to establish the real origin of counterfeit and pirated goods.”…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERNATIONAL organisations are supposed to help business fight off sophisticated crime networks, but now the fraudsters are turning the tables and using the good name of these institutions as part of their scams. Mark Rowe reports.

IT STARTED with a fax from a Chinese businessman to the Vienna headquarters of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP).…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has filed an appeal against the dismissal of its cigarette smuggling action in the US against three tobacco companies: Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds and Japan Tobacco. Notably, it has received formal support in the proceedings from the US Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association for its action, along with the World Health Organisation, the US Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has imposed protective anti-dumping duties of 32.3 per cent and countervailing duties of 10 per cent on Indonesian supplies to European Union companies of certain ring-binder mechanisms. The Council however scrapped plans to impose such protective duties on Indian ring-binder exports.…