Search Results for: European Union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH government has been ordered by the European Commission to change legislation that disqualifies car passengers from insurance cover when the driver is drunk and involved in an accident. Brussels says this exclusion of passengers’ injuries contravenes the EU’s second motor insurance directive, which seeks to harmonise national regulations for the sector and to safeguard the interests of persons who may be injured in a motor vehicle accident.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking France to the European Court of Justice for applying a reduced rate of withholding tax on income from investments and contracts with a debtor who is resident or established in France, while not allowing this tax break when the debtor lives in another EU Member State.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken no decision yet on whether to review the possible merger between Arthur Andersen and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a spokeswoman for the competition commissioner Mario Monti told Acountancy Age, although its rules suggest that it would almost inevitably do so.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NETHERLANDS Shipbuilding Industry Association (VNSI) has welcomed the oncoming agreement of the Euro 16.2 billion EU Sixth Framework Programme for research as giving the European industry a chance to compete effectively against far East suppliers, such as those from South Korea.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission today told Accountancy Age that it is “fairly certain” to investigate the proposed merger between Andersen’s non-US operations and KPMG and warned that its competition authority could well insist that the accounting giants sell off some of their European operations as a condition of clearing the deal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FRENCH government will have to defend itself at the European Court of Justice against claims by the European Commission that it has broken European Union law over tough personnel regulations, restricting the employment of special needs teachers from other EU Member States.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is to update its administrative systems for monitoring its trade in textiles and clothing with the limited number of countries with whom it does not have trade agreements covering the sector, which include Taiwan.

In particular, the European Commission has asked EU ministers to update rules on surveillance and the use of electronic documentation.…

KEITH NUTHALL
CONTINENTAL hauliers competing unfairly with British companies because of the low rate of duty of fuel in their home countries, may escape seeing tough rises in excise when the EU passes its long awaited energy taxation directive.

Agreeing that the legislation should be passed by December, heads of government at the recent Barcelona summit also performed an about-turn and said that the directive should “bear in mind the needs of professionals in the road haulage industry.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has proposed reforms to the World Trade Organisation’s trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement that would enable developing countries with no domestic drug production to gain access to essential medicines. At a meeting of TRIPS council, Brussels proposed an amendment allowing the importing council to licence manufacture of medicines in another country, in case of an emergency.…

Keith Nuthall
BEER, cider and perry producers from outside the European Union will be able to oppose the registration of EU-made products on a Brussels register of geographical indications, under reforms to the system tabled by EU agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler.…