Search Results for: European Parliament

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT release by the International Labour Organisation has claimed that EU hotel, catering and tourism workers earn on average 20 per cent below the European Union average for workers in other sectors. Together, the hotel, catering and tourist sectors produce 3-4 per cent of gross domestic product in most countries worldwide, according to the ILO, but most of their workers are unskilled, in part-time or low-wage jobs.…

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 NEW Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) introduced in the UK on 27

March have begun smoothly, in spite of warnings earlier in the year from

electricity companies that insufficient testing of the system had taken

place and that market conditions were not favourable.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL
PHILIP Morris has launched a case at the European Court of Justice, which seeks to stop the European Commission from launching its own law-suit in New York, claiming damages from it and RJ Reynolds for allegedly promoting smuggling within the European Union and hence losing it customs revenue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RIGHTS of clothing retailers to sell re-exported products, against the wish of a manufacturer, are likely to be strengthened by an oncoming European Court of Justice ruling on parallel trading.

In a preliminary legal opinion, ECJ advocate general Stix-Hackl said that the right of a trade-mark holder to “control the initial distribution of goods within the European Economic Area,” (the EU, plus Norway and Iceland), was “not unlimited.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SHIPPING companies will be able to source information about European Union research projects focusing on the computerisation of maritime transport systems, via a new Internet site. Managed by Brussels’ SWAN project, the site includes information on maritime research, technology and development projects funded by the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies Programme (IST).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PUBLISHERS Association has welcomed the final agreement – after four years of discussions – of the EU digital copyright directive, but has warned that the debates are not finished, the focus will now shift to its implementation by Member States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DRAFT guidelines have been released by the European Commission, to help competition regulators decide when an Internet or telecommunications company is so large and powerful, it has to abide by special rules on the sharing of networks and on takeovers and mergers.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
VINEYARDS in Kosovo are bearing fruits for the first time in more than a decade because of a joint regeneration programme developed from the Commission, the United Nations and the European Agency for Reconstruction.

In 1990, nearly 10,000 acres of vineyards produced high-quality wine to traditional recipes, 80 per cent of which was exported creating a thriving wine industry in the region.…