Search Results for: European Court of Justice

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PERFORMANCE of OLAF, the European Union’s new and supposedly independent anti-fraud office, has been criticised by the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee; it has suggested that it has not worked more effectively than its predecessor UCLAF, the European Commission’s in-house fraud busting unit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN IT companies will be able to apply for grants from a budget of Euro 3.6 billion, which has been earmarked for information society research from 2002-2006, if new proposals from the European Commission for a new framework research programme, are agreed by EU ministers and the European Parliament.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIGITAL third generation mobile operators are likely to be disappointed by the result of the first EU joint telecoms-transport council, which has refused to abide by their concerns over the European Commissions new draft guidelines regarding Significant Market Power (SMP).…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been asked by justice and internal affairs ministers of the 15 EU countries to consider legislation that would make it compulsory to include an adjective and alphanumeric code specifying the colour of a vehicle on the registration certificate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH the European farming industry facing more fundamental change than it has in decades, it could be said that funding research into ways of making this transformation less painless has to be a good thing. Whatever the view on this fairly facile assumption, the eyes of the agricultural sector should at least be partly turned on Brussels thus year, where debates for the preparation of a new five-year EU research programme are being staged.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union is moving towards compulsory introduction of a procedure under which a driver may be traced from a scrap of paint left behind by a car at the scene of a crime or a hit-and-run accident.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union Tacis programme grants are to fund much of the Euro 33.3 million contract for the construction of a radioactive waste management facility near the Chernobyl power plant that has been signed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy (represented by Energoatom, the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company) and the German contractor NUKEM Nuclear GmbH.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
VINEYARDS in Kosovo are bearing fruits for the first time in more than a decade because of a joint regeneration programme developed from the Commission, the United Nations and the European Agency for Reconstruction.

In 1990, nearly 10,000 acres of vineyards produced high-quality wine to traditional recipes, 80 per cent of which was exported creating a thriving wine industry in the region.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IN an attempt to stamp out smuggling and fraud, the European Commission is proposing that excise duties on popular cigarettes sold throughout the 15 EU countries should be brought much closer together. In a proposed new directive, the Commission says there should be a minimum fixed amount of excise duty of Euro 70 (about Pounds 42) per 1,000 cigarettes in the most popular price category, which would be in addition to the existing minimum excise requirement of 57% of the retail price.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE LOCAL Council – what are the worst images conjured up when thinking of those words?

Let me make it easy for you.

Lazy employees that take forever to process requests, generally unhelpful and bored, unfulfilling positions that can transform a new recruit full of fresh ideas and faith in the system, to the jaded staff that many of us have encountered at our local councils.…