Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMERICAN beer giant Anheuser-Busch has welcomed proposed changes to the European Union’s register protecting geographical references attached to traditional EU drinks products, which would allow it to challenge any application for inclusion by its Czech rival Budejovicky Budvar of its Budweiser brand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE REQUIREMENT that 20 per cent of fresh beef meat and offal imported into the European Union from the USA should be tested for banned hormones is to be lifted, after EU vets approved a European Commission proposal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HIGH Court bid by British Sugar to recoup UK Pounds 6.6 million production levies, demanded by the UK’s Intervention Board, could have been damaged by the European Court of Justice. Its judges have ruled that the board had the authority to refuse paying export subsidies to British Sugar on 16,600 tonnes of sugar exported under a special ‘c’ quota.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DUTCH and Luxembourg governments will have to defend themselves at the European Court of Justice against claims by the European Commission that they have broken European Union law by failing to implement key European Union legislation guaranteeing lawyers the right to work across the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER States of the European Union have been accused of dragging their feet while implementing 1976 a directive on the discharge of dangerous substances, which includes a comprehensive list of pollutants that should be removed from water sources.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union heads of government have decided that Member States should agree an energy taxation directive by the end of this year, ending discussions that have been staged since 1992. The legislation will probably impose minimum duty levels on fossil fuels, with rebates available for green energy sources and uses such as biofuels and co-generation.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission announced today (Wednesday) that under the EU Merger Regulation it has approved the acquisition of the whole of the insurance business of the Deutsche Bank of Germany by the Zurich Financial Services Group of Switzerland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Council of Ministers has unanimously agreed the proposed directive on insurance mediation, a decision that almost guarantees its passage into EU law. The proposal will now receive a second reading by the European Parliament; if it does not make many changes, final approval could come before Brussels’ political summer recess.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that the international Cartegena protocol on the safe transfer, handling and use of genetically modified organisms is incorporated into EU law. Its suggested regulation would oblige exporters to notify authorities about GM consignments, which would have to be labelled.…

KEITH NUTHALL
HAULIERS are likely to escape the full burden of an energy taxation directive imposing minimum duty levels on petrol and diesel because of an about turn performed by European Union heads of government. A short but significant clause in the communiqué drawn up at the recent summit in Barcelona not only commits Member States to approving an energy tax law by this December, but crucially says that they should “bear in mind the needs of professionals in the road haulage industry.”…