Search Results for: European Court of Justice

BY ALAN OSBORN
A SLEW of new measures tightening up the labelling and composition of soaps, detergents and possibly the perfumes used in them, has been suggested by the European Commission. Its ideas are only at the “working document” stage, but are being put up for consultation with the industry, consumers associations and others and could form the basis for legislation later in the year.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a reform of rules on cross-border taxation within the EU, which would give each Member State the responsibility of circulating information about interest paid within their territories to foreign EU nationals. This would have to be provided to tax administrations in the home EU countries of these expatriates.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
GOVERNMENTS may prevent the formation of multi-disciplinary partnerships combining accountants and lawyers under EU law, an Advocate General of the European Court of Justice has suggested. In a formal opinion to the full ECJ, Philippe Léger said that there is a “certain incompatibility” between the two activities, and a law that prohibits collaboration “may be justified.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SUGAR beet processing and production companies from Italy have failed to overturn a EU Council of Ministers decision to phase out by this year special state ‘adjustment’ aid paid to their sector. Sadam Zuccherifici, Sadam Castiglionese, Sadam Abruzzo, Zuccherificio del Molise and Società Fondiaria Industriale Romagnola had claimed that ministers had not followed proper procedures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank has called on eastern European and central Asian governments to improve their woeful record of judicial reform, in a region where independent justice is still struggling to emerge from the region’s communist legacy.

Speaking at a regional conference in St Petersburg, Russia, Johannes Linn, bank vice president said: “It is quite clear…that the countries of the region need to focus much more effort, not only on ensuring the development of clear and comprehensive legislation, but also on strengthening the capacity, independence, and accountability of the judicial system necessary to interpret and enforce the law.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has published guidelines that encourage local and national public authorities to use EU legislation on public procurement to promote the purchase of environmentally friendly goods and services. Brussels’ “interpretive communication” on the subject does not advise local and national governments adapt procurement practices so that environmental good practice automatically becomes a sales condition.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Union government ministers have agreed that from July 2002 a ban on the feeding of restaurant food waste to pigs will apply throughout the 15 EU countries, as part of a directive on the control of classical swine fever.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BOARD of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has been asked to consider granting a new and larger loan, to invest in a Ukrainian developer, so it can build a 271-room four-star international hotel in central Kiev, to be run by Radisson SAS Hotels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NASA and the European Space Agency, (ESA), have adapted their plans for the joint Cassini-Huygens mission, that is supposed to relay scientific data from the Saturn moon Titan. Scientists have had to adapt the path of the Cassini orbiter, and will make several modifications to the Huygens probe – due to enter Titan’s atmosphere in January 2005 – to ensure the maximum efficiency of its communications system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered American medicines information company IMS HEALTH (IMS) to abandon its refusal to allow rivals to copy its pharmaceutical sales and prescriptions data collection system in Germany.

In an unusual step, Brussels has used its powers as a competition authority to tell IMS to immediately licence the use of its 1860 brick structure method, over which it has copyright, “on commercial terms.”…