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A POLITICAL struggle is underway over how universities and research centres should account for their expenses in the upcoming European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 research programme. With a projected Euro EUR80 billion budget from 2014-2020, the sums available are significant. But there is discord over how it should be accounted for.…

EUROPE risks falling behind its international rivals in rolling out high-speed broadband technology because of European Union (EU) policies, warns Erzsébet Fitori, director of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), which represents new telco entrants. In an exclusive interview with European Communications at her Brussels office, Fitori said Europe will not have end-to-end fibre networks if the currently recommended policy approach, which rewards investment in partial network infrastructure upgrades such as VDSL, is endorsed.…

ACCOUNTANTS working for organisations handling loans and grants provided by the European Union (EU) institutions – notably the European Commission – may have something to celebrate this year. Brussels is introducing simplified procedures in spending and reporting on EU grants. A new EU Financial Regulation laying out the simplified rules was announced last October (2012) and entered into effect on January 1.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) should be the second supplier of pork to the Japanese market, up from the fourth place now, once a planned EU-Japan free trade agreement (FTA) is in place, Jean-Luc Mériaux, secretary general of the European Livestock and Meat Trading Union (UECBV) told globalmeatnews.com…

INTERNATIONAL brands have been growing in emerging markets worldwide, but it would appear that where a newly wealthy country develops a local industry with quality products, they can lose market share. Taiwan is a case in point. Its beauty and personal care market – last year worth USD3.4 billion and traditionally heavily dominated by international brands –  has seen domestic players steadily clawing back more market share: extending from a mere 15% in 2007 to a relatively handsome 25% in 2012.…

THE GREEN light has been given to 11 European Union (EU) member states to forge a harmonised financial transaction tax, the first time common taxation has been agreed through the EU’s ‘enhanced cooperation’ system. This allows EU member states to pass EU laws that apply to a limited group of member states – in this case Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) offers a more favourable investment environment compared to north America or south-east Asia in the eyes of Chinese investors, according to a recently released study of Chinese companies investing in Europe. Africa however is seen as the most welcoming destination for Chinese investment, by 85% to 15%, according to the survey of 74 Chinese firms carried out by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), in cooperation with KPMG and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.…

SO diverse are the Middle East’s oil and gas reservoirs and the environmental conditions encountered that companies focused on optimising exploration and production view the region as a giant laboratory for proving new technologies.

Its oil also varies hugely in viscosity, from the Arab Light crude of Saudi Arabia’s Al Khurais onshore field to the heavy crudes in Oman’s Mukhaizna onshore field.…

THE ENERGY sector has been left guessing whether there will be a robust future international climate change agreement after the latest global diplomatic meeting on the subject in Doha, Qatar. Delegates attending the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change were tasked from November 26 to December 7 with solving two key issues: devising a post-Kyoto Protocol agreement that will kick in from 2020; and also devising a holding agreement for countries wanting to reduce emissions from the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol this December until the new agreement comes into force.…

THE BRITISH government is creating a unique regime of energy price incentives to spur commercialisation of carbon capture and storage systems, yet significant barriers remain to unlocking the billions of Pounds Sterling needed to build a CCS industry of sufficient mass in the UK able to create economies of scale for investors.…