Search Results for: Finland

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SECOND attempt is being made by the European Commission to criminalise counterfeiting and piracy across the European Union (EU), following the rejection of similar plans by the European Parliament last year. The Commission has re-tabled legislation insisting EU member states impose jail terms or significant fines on offenders, whilst ensuring their police and customs officers can confiscate fake goods and close businesses involved in their manufacture.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PROACTIVE competition inquiry has been launched into the European Union’s (EU) natural gas sector, with the aim of rooting out anti-competitive practices. If the European Commission discovers instances of gas companies breaking existing EU competition law, legal action could follow.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the abolition of registration taxes that it says impede the transfer of vehicles to the 16 European Union (EU) member states that impose them. Britain is not among the countries concerned, but they include Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Austria and Poland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend Euro 26.1 million on 26 programmes promoting the sale within the EU of organic food products, olive oil, milk and cheese, ham, fruit and vegetables, plus some drinks products. There will be matching funding from participating countries Britain, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Cyprus.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HEAVYWEIGHT European international consortium will spend Euro 20 million on trying to develop commercially-viable flat plastic light sources, that could be moulded to fit spaces in homes and offices. The OLLA project (‘high brightness Organic Light-emitting diodes for information technology and Lighting Applications’) aims to build on basic research into these materials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition of paper merchants Scaldia, of the Netherlands, and Papeteries de France, by Finland pulp and paper group Stora Enso. The Finns had bought Scaldia from US-based International Paper (IP) in 2004, and the Commission launched a partly retrospective inquiry after Enso also decided to buy the French group from IP.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance has rejected a bid by Spain’s Duarte y Beltrán SA to secure European Union (EU)-wide trademark rights to sell cosmetics, soaps and perfumes under the brand ‘INTEA’. Judges backed the EU’s Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs) -OHIM – in supporting the complaint of Italian rival Mirato SpA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIVISIONS over the EU sugar regime reforms have been clarified at a European Union (EU) Council of Ministers (agriculture) meeting. British, Danish, German, Swedish, Latvian and Maltese delegations wanted “rapid reform, to make the sector more competitive”, though concerns of ex-European colonies in the African Pacific Caribbean (ACP) bloc “should be taken into account”.…

BY MARK ROWE
IN the days of the Soviet Union, Russians would make jokes about the shades of “concrete” grey available for any internal redecorating you planned to do. No longer. Disposable incomes are higher, so Russians are discovering DIY, while a vast face-lift has been given to many of the country’s cities and towns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused nine European Union (EU) governments of dragging their feet over promoting biofuels in their countries. It has sent critical formal notices to Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovenia accusing them of failing to submit national reports framing 2005 targets for biofuel consumption, as required under the Biofuels Directive.…