Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has ignored strong pressure from the American government to abandon its plans to exempt EU-based suppliers of digital products, (including e-books), from charging VAT when they sell to customers in non-EU countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has ruled that the imposition by France of heavier duties on light-tobacco cigarettes, (which are mostly imported), than for dark-tobacco cigarettes, (which are almost exclusively home produced), breaks EU law. Ordering the French government to harmonise the taxes, the court dismissed France’s arguments that light and dark tobacco are essentially different products and liable to different tax regimes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPLIT has emerged in the European Union Council of Ministers over the possible scrapping of subsidies to tobacco producers under a possible review the common market regime, which should happen this year. On one side in a debate at a recent agriculture council were a group including many of the EU’s tobacco growing countries, (Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal), who are opposed to cuts, whilst other Member States, (notably Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden), backed a recital to a current proposal to adjust subsidies over the next two years that calls on the EU to review the regime this year “to allow the progressive deletion of subsidies.”…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union companies alerting European Commission investigators about cartels of which they form a part, will find it easier to escape being fined for their crimes in future, because of a new so-called “leniency policy” launched to promote whistle-blowing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU’S anti-fraud organisation OLAF has held its annual Task Group Cigarettes meeting, in Seville, Spain, with European customs departments, to discuss the targeting of their collective fight against cigarette smuggling.…

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States government has informed the disputes settlement body of the World Trade Organisation that it “intended to comply” with the final Havana Club ruling issued at the start of this year, although it warned diplomats that it “would require for that purpose a reasonable period of time.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GENERAL sale to the public of special paints, printing inks, varnishes and adhesives containing 43 dangerous chemicals is to be banned from April 2003, if a proposal from the European Commission is accepted by the EU Council of Ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GROWING thaw in relations between Spain and Britain over the future of Gibraltar and its airport, has prompted the European Commission to retable a long-standing proposal to establish a European Union regime on the safety inspection of aircraft from non-EU countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given Germany permission to pay state aid of Euro 3.5 million to introduce a new quality label for beef sold in Bavaria.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EXPOSURE of European Union citizens to man-made radiation increased by about 76 per cent between 1987 and 1996, a new European Commission report has claimed, citing discharges from reprocessing plants in Britain (Sellafield) and Normandy, France, (Cap de la Hague) as the “most important” sources of this pollution increase.…