Search Results for: European Union

Keith Nuthall
ACCOUNTING procedures within the European Commission are to be speeded up and made tougher, with ministers and MEP’s being asked to approve a new package of reforms to Brussels ‘Financial Regulation.’

This is the rule-book that governs the Commission’s accounting practices, and which has been under review since 1999.…

Keith Nuthall
A SET of comprehensive guidelines on the recovery of debts owed to European Union institutions has been adopted by the European Commission, which wants to avoid the unnecessary and expensive writing off of money owed. Debts to Brussels can amount to millions of Euro, and the in-house rules have especially been designed to prevent the recurrence of a case such as the Flechard Russian butter aid scandal, where a tender security of Euro 17.6 million was claimed, but only Euro 3 million was actually paid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Authority should play a key role in seeking to allay the fears of European Union consumers about purchasing genetically modified foodstuffs, a senior official within the European Commission has claimed. The director general of the Commission’s directorate general for health and consumer protection, Robert Coleman, told a round table in Brussels that the unwillingness of EU consumers to buy GM food is because many are no longer “convinced by….…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN has been told by the European Commission that its administrative procedures for the parallel import of pesticides, herbicides and other plant protection products constitute a barrier to the free movement of goods and could lead to legal action against the UK in the European Court of Justice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EXISTING European Union countries could share Euro 6.5 billion savings in reduced environmental costs once eastern European countries have become Member States and have adopted EU directives, a Brussels report has claimed. It said that resulting reductions in trans-boundary air pollution would benefit current EU Member States and other neighbouring countries to this great extent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INSTITUTIONS of the European Union should be given an explicit authority to help formulate and shape its Member States energy policies, the European Parliament’s industry committee has said. Responding, to the European Commission’s green paper on energy supply, the committee has called for energy to be made a key priority of the EU, by including a chapter on the subject in the next revision of the EU treaties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee has called for the European Union to have a comprehensive water pricing policy, with meters being installed on farms, industry and private households across its territory.

A report adopted by its MEP’s says that such a move is crucial, if the threat of acute water shortages over the coming decades is to be averted.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE INSTITUTIONS of the European Union should be given an explicit authority to help formulate and shape its Member States energy policies, notably by promoting co-generation and renewables, the European Parliament’s industry committee has said.

Responding, to the European Commission’s green paper on energy supply, the committee has called for energy to be made a key priority of the EU, by including a chapter on the subject in the next revision of the EU treaties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Council of Ministers has agreed proposals to further harmonise manufactured tobacco sold within the EU, albeit a watered-down package compared with that tabled by the European Commission earlier this year.

Ministers accepted that the fixed minimum amount of excise duty per 1,000 cigarettes would be Euro 60 from July 1, 2002, rising to Euro 64 from July 1, 2006.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN UPDATED list of sensitive “dual-use” products and technologies published by the European Commission will allow some exporters a little more marketing freedom than in the past, despite the recent heightened concern about terrorism.

The revised list of items that are considered to be dangerous in the wrong hands allows for higher thresholds in a number of areas and this will permit some exporters, notably of computers, to increase sales without having to seek prior permission from Brussels.…