Search Results for: German

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY is at the centre of a lengthy critique of global restrictions on the telecommunications sector issued by the United States Trade Representative (USTR), which it warns may form the basis future World Trade Organisation disputes cases. Germany has been criticised regarding access to leased lines and high mobile termination rates, in particular, with the USTR attacking the German telecom regulator RegTP’s “lack of authority to impose certain measures (ie.,…

KEITH NUTHALL
LISTERIA monocytogenes contaminants have been found in Spanish sea bass and German smoked salmon, according to a recent bulletin from the European Commission’s rapid alert service on food safety. The system also publicises alerts on fish imported into the European Union, recently highlighting aerobic mesophiles in Indonesian shrimp, for instance.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SEEN in the context of the past decade, the entry of 10 new member states to the European Union (EU) which took place on May 1 has proved nothing like the disaster for the nuclear industry that was once feared.…

KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY has moved away from an aggressive approach towards cutting industrial greenhouse gas pollution, watering down planned commitments within a national allocation plan under the European Union’s (EU) emission trading scheme. Brokered by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the new agreement earmarks 503 million tonnes of carbon dioxide credits annually to its industry (including power generators) between 2005 and 2007, a minor reduction (0.4 per cent) to current emissions (505 million tonnes).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment by the German government of state aid worth Euro 28.13 million to DOW PET GmbH to extend its PET production site in Schopkau, Saxony, eastern Germany. The aid will be granted as investment premium via the country’s Investitionszulagengesetz scheme and will meet 23.44 per cent of the total Euro 120 million cost of the project.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LORRY drivers driving concealed cigarettes into the European Union are liable for duty, even when duped into smuggling, the European Court of Justice has ruled. The EU’s Community Customs Code requires drivers to declare all goods, “including those hidden in a secret compartment specially made for that purpose…even though the goods were hidden in the vehicle without their knowledge”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the acquisition of French coking plant Cokerie de Carling, by German companies Dillinger Hütte and Saarstahl (SAG), through their iron-making joint venture Rogesa. The Commission has approved the sale unconditionally because of the French state-owned plant’s small production.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THEY’RE not to everybody’s taste, we quite agree, but there’s no doubt that flavoured cigars have a very devoted band of followers and can no longer be dismissed as a passing fancy. Indeed after speaking to a number of the big players it is easy to gain the impression that the flavoured, (or aromatic), segment has (along perhaps with filters) been the only one to buck the cigar sector’s trend of falling or stagnant sales in recent years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOVES to increase the amount of checks that have to be made on driver’s tachographs and working time records are being resisted by the European Parliament’s transport committee. The European Commission wants to increase these checks from covering at least one per cent to three per cent of days worked by drivers, however, MEPs have proposed amendments saying that two per cent is enough.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EURO-ZONE telephone utilities should check how they dealt with the transfer of prices from national to the European single currency for price-per-minute rates, according to a preliminary ruling from a European Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general. Miguel Poiares Maduro advised that under EU law, telecom operators were allowed to round converted rates to the nearest Euro cent, but – crucially – provided this “does not entail a systematic increase in the monetary amounts to be paid.”…