Search Results for: France

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATIONAL governments in the European Union (EU) are being offered the power to close a tax loophole involving the processing of investment gold, which has in the past lost their treasuries hundreds of thousands of Euro in VAT.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been tasked with drafting a politically acceptable increase of the European Union’s (EU) minimum excise duty rates, rationalising the system, but not touching wines and sparkling wines. These are currently exempt from the system, and the Council of Ministers for finance (ECOFIN) last week (April 12) concluded there was no majority to include them, with opposition from 12 mostly wine producing countries including France and Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WORKING hours in Britain exceed those in most new European Union (EU) member states from eastern and southern Europe says a report showing how western Europe workers generally work fewer hours. Britain’s usual weekly work hours, said the European Industrial Relations Observatory are 43.1, only exceeded in the expanded EU by Latvia’s 43.3.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) governments could be given the power to demand waste metal and scrap buyers hand over VAT rather than their suppliers, under proposed reforms tabled by the European Commission. It wants changes to the EU sixth VAT directive making this system available on demand to member states for the industry, even though it conflicts with the standard EU rule that suppliers pay VAT.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN OPPORTUNITY for British accountants to work in other European Union (EU) countries under their own standards and professional bodies, appears to have been lost at last week’s (March 22-23) EU summit in Brussels. Heads of government agreed to rewrite a proposed services directive proposed last year by former internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, after pressure from Germany, France and others.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A BID by the French government to overturn the European Union’s (EU) long-debated cosmetics directive over its restrictions on animal testing has been rebuffed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ). An advocate general Leendert Geelhoed has recommended that judges throw out France’s arguments that directive 2003/15/EC is illegal because it conflicts with the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN OPPORTUNITY for British lawyers to work in other European Union (EU) countries under their own standards and professional bodies, appears to have been lost at last week’s (March 22-23) EU summit in Brussels. Heads of government agreed to rewrite a proposed services directive proposed last year by former internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, after pressure from Germany, France and others.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels
PROPOSALS for a new European Union (EU) wine regime, which are currently under review, will be unveiled in 12 months’ time according to the recently installed European Commissioner for agriculture, Mrs Mariann Fischer Boel.

In a wide-ranging interview in her Brussels office she admitted that the present arrangements are not working.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRENCH cosmetics giant L’Oréal has lost a legal bid to secure the European Union (EU) trademark registration of the term ‘Flexi Air’ for shampoos, conditioners, mousses and other hair products. This was successfully opposed by rival Revlon, of Switzerland, which had previously secured the registration of the word ‘Flex’ for hair products in Britain and Sweden and a range of cleaning and cosmetic products in France.…

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.…