Search Results for: France

ONCE upon a time, an overly curved cucumber could not be labelled ‘cucumber’ in the European Union (EU) because it did not comply with ‘official’ definitions of the fruit, which included limits on curvature. The European Commission eventually modified the rules: ugly and misshapen fruit and vegetables now sell freely under their own time-honoured names.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF could have opened the way to a new focus of EU forensic accounting, unveiled a study that claimed in 2010 alone, between Euro EUR1.4 and 2.7 billion was lost to corruption in public procurement tenders within just five sectors in eight EU member states.…

THAILAND’S new tax incentive scheme, due to take effect in just over a year, is provoking mixed reactions from tax experts and foreign investors.

As the country looks to move away from low-cost, low-value, environmentally damaging manufacturing industries towards those that might foster a sustainable, knowledge-based economy, Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) has drawn up a new investment promotion policy that will go into effect in January 2015.…

CANADA’S international environmental reputation has taken a beating in the past decade, dropping out of the Kyoto Protocol and developing emissions-rich production oil sands for a world that is hungry for its energy products. But Canada’s Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) is seeking to address that problem by encouraging environmental reporting, helping to set fiscal terms of reference for the country’s emerging clean energy economy.…

PRODUCERS of confectionery mixing machinery around the world continue to improve their machines, but generally opt for incremental improvements in sanitation and multi-purpose functions rather than creating entire new products.

Dutch confectionery equipment producer Tanis Confectionery, plans to unveil new mixing technology at Germany’s Interpack processes and packaging trade fair in May, Leo Tanis, CEO of Tanis Confectionery told Confectionery Production.…

WHILE the international market for certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) was boosted at a Berlin conference last autumn (2012) when Germany and France established national business forums, there are concerns that this green market system could be failing. And according to the governing body, the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), production of certified sustainable palm oil is now about 9.6 million tonnes annually (16% of global crude palm oil production).…

Online gambling is big business and is forecast to grow exponentially. Where legal, the sector is generally tightly regulated – but there are risks of money launderers abusing gambling websites. However, some analysts suggest the risks are over-hyped, and say there is too little data to really prove that e-gambling is an emerging money laundering threat.…

A major international survey of education standards has found serious weaknesses in the EU countries when compared to levels in other parts of the world. In spite of the heavy investment in higher education in recent years in the EU, the study suggests that a fifth of the working age population has worrying low literacy and numeracy skills and a quarter of adults lack the digital skills needed to effectively use ICT.…

MASSIVE open online courses (MOOCs) are not a threat to bricks-and-mortar universities as some in Europe fear, a conference organised yesterday (Thursday) in Brussels by the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) and the European University Association (EUA) heard.

One reason that should reassure universities is the difference between the students who study on campus and those who choose to study through MOOCs.…

The ongoing investigation into Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera’s involvement in suspected money laundering (ML) and bribery in Uzbekistan has prompted a fresh push by government to introduce tougher reporting rules for a broader range of ML offences in 2014.

Significantly, the new measures will give law enforcement agencies greater powers of arrest and asset seizures where money laundering is suspected.…