Search Results for: German

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the purchase of joint control of the Italian charter airline NEOS, (which has been wholly-owned by NHT New Holding for Tourism B.V.), by the German travel company Preussag AG. The Commission has not imposed any conditions on approving the deal, having carried out a streamlined review of the case.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN UNCHARACTERISTIC failure to be punctual is the reason why the German government lost a bid at the European Court of Justice to overturn last year’s European Union directive on tobacco manufacturing and labelling.

Berlin officials had until last October 11 to launch an appeal against the law, which had been published in the EU Official Journal on July 18.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for a European Union book-pricing directive protecting existing national systems from being undermined by cross-border sales from Member States which have no such controls.

In a formal motion, it has called upon the European Commission to propose this law, although the EU bureaucracy can ignore the appeal if it chooses; under EU treaties, the parliament cannot itself table legislation.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union Commissioner for competition policy, Mario Monti, has

stated his willingness to consider a postponement of the key location

clauses of the proposed reform of the block exemption system for new car

sales, with implementation being delayed beyond 2003.…

KEITH NUTHALL
IN a reversal of its earlier position, the European Commission has agreed that the German grid feed-in laws on the promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources and from combined heat and power are legal under EU state aid rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A LONG-RUNNING German coal industry case involving the acquisition in 1998 of Saarbergwerke AG and Preussag Anthrazit GmbH by RAG Aktiengesellschaft (RAG) took another turn on Tuesday (May 7), when the European Commission approved the deal, nullifying a European Court of First Instance ruling.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SLOWLY but surely, the world is becoming a little more open and honest in its business transactions. Bribery and corruption have existed as long as people have traded with each other and in some parts of the world remain as matter-of-fact as ever.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GERMAN, Italian, Greek and Portuguese governments may soon be ordered to pass laws insisting that motorised outdoor gardening equipment used in their countries abide by European Union noise legislation.

Formal legal proceedings at the European Court of Justice has been threatened against all four governments by the European Commission, which claims that they failed to meet a July 2001 deadline to implement the directive 2000/14/EC on noise emissions from outdoor equipment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s fish processing industry should become an integral concern of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), a European Parliament report has claimed, with Member States being directed to encourage its companies to become financially independent. MEP’s have voted to accept the report by German Christian Democrat Brigitte Langenhagen who said that state aid should only be paid out to processors in underdeveloped regions “which heavily depend on fisheries.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission and OLAF are again deciding how to handle allegations about professional wrongdoing in Brussels by EU whistleblower Paul van Buitenen. This time, instead of being suspended, the official was given eight week’s grace from regular duties and a special office to compile his brief.…