Search Results for: European Union

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Reconstruction – the EU group responsible for Kosovo development aid – has earmarked Euro 35 million from its budget for improvements to the province’s Bardh and Mirash coal mines. Euro 2.9 million has already been spent on rehabilitating the conveyor belt between Bardh and the Kosovo B power station, which had not been working effectively, especially since the 1999 war.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE EUROPEAN Commission has agreed to allow Canadian ice-wine, the specialised dessert wine made from frozen grapes, to be sold within the EU, after a long battle to have the designation of recognised by Brussels was finally won.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted clearance in the EU to the proposed takeover of the Quaker Oats Company by Pepsico Inc. Both are American owned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the acquisition by US-based smart card manufacturer Schlumberger of Sema, the British information technology and business services company. Sema provides primarily standardised software and consulting services, such as data management, customer care, billing and call centres.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided not to oppose the granting of state aid by Italy to the Franco-Italian company ST Microelectronics for three research projects costing the equivalent of some pounds 275 million. The maximum aid permitted under EU regulations is pounds 86 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank has created an anti-corruption department that will investigate allegations of fraud within the organisation’s staff or in projects it funds. The bank has recently appointed a director of the department, Maarten de Jong, a Dutchman, Managing Director of the European Institute for Law Enforcement Cooperation.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
BRITISH supermarket giant Tesco is likely to win a European Court of Justice case over the parallel trading of Levis Jeans.

The preliminary ruling from the Advocate General of the ECJ ruled that the trademark holder should not have the power to dictate where retailers purchase their goods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IMPORTANCE of European Union employment within the UK and other EU Member States is widely accepted and its authority is only going to grow over the next 10 years. This is because of the planned accession of eastern European countries to the European Union, meaning that EU employment directives will shape the law of their lands and that their national courts will become subject to the rulings and case law of the European Court of Justice, a key guardian of EU legislation.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE CREATION of an effective pan-European rail freight network has taken a step forward, with the proposal of common operating systems for railway signalling and telecommunications by the European Commission. These technical standards include the specifications for the European Rail Traffic Management System, which will improve safety, for instance by controlling the spacing between trains and also emergency braking.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Central Bank has concluded that the liberalisation of the EU telecommunications markets has contributed to a sharp cut in prices and that planned additional reforms are likely to make European charges cheaper still; it also concludes that reforms are likely to harmonise future electricity prices.…