Search Results for: Germany

BY ROBERT STOKES

SWITZERLAND just signed a so-called ‘Rubik deal’ with Austria to safeguard Swiss banking secrecy in return for it levying withholding taxes anonymously on undeclared savings and investments held in Switzerland by Austrian nationals.

The bilateral treaty with Austria, start date 2013, follows those with Britain and Germany, and has raised the hackles of the European Commission, which has questioned these agreements’ legality under the European Union (EU) Savings Tax Directive, which tries to erase loopholes allowing depositors to squirrel money away from tax assessors.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

INDUSTRIES with disposable products such as the personal care product sector have had to re-assess their packaging to meet national recycling quotas and help reduce unnecessary waste, especially in the European Union (EU) with its packaging and packaging waste directive.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN MÁLAGA; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; LEE ADENDORFF, IN LUCCA; BLAKE BERRY, IN WARSAW; AND ALAN OSBORN

RISING energy prices and Europe’s continuing economic malaise has increased fuel poverty across the continent. The UK government defines fuel poverty as where to heat a home to an adequate standard of warmth, a household must spend more than 10% of its income.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s plans to lavish Euro EUR9.1 billion on developing energy transmission networks that link the energy systems of the European Union’s (EU) 27 member states go to the heart of the EU’s raison d’être: that Europe’s compact countries can achieve more in concert than in competition.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

Intermediary dealers of scrap metal have been dealt a blow by a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling. It has said that intermediary dealers arranging a shipment of scrap metal have to disclose the names of waste sources to the buyer even if the suppliers wanted to remain anonymous, thereby protecting their business secrets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed the development by a European Union (EU)-funded research project of a novel drug delivery method based on mini-spheres in capsules. These contain active pharmaceutical ingredients that are solubilised as an emulsion, microemulsion or suspension and coated either by conventional or novel coating technologies.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

BILATERAL trade agreements between European Union (EU) and emerging economies have helped cushion EU plastics moulders and machinery suppliers as more important domestic markets have weakened in recession and the Eurozone crisis.

It is a two-way street: lower priced machinery from China and India has made inroads into EU markets for applications requiring less technologically sophisticated kit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission has fined nine key European Union (EU) metal consumers Euro EUR85.8 million for operating a cartel, allowing them to inflate profits from their purchases and sales between 1999 and 2007. The fines have been imposed on European (mostly German) producers of window mountings, metal parts used to open and close windows and window doors.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OFFSHORE wind energy has moved with astonishing speed from being little more than an environmentalist’s dream a few years ago to a vast industry set to provide 4% of Europe’s electricity by 2020 with commensurate growth in jobs, associated industries and port development.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has signalled it is prepared to launch World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes actions should non-EU governments impose import bans on European meat and livestock over Schmallenberg Virus outbreaks. A meeting of the EU’s Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health late last week (Thursday and Friday) concluded such restrictions would be "disproportionate and scientifically unjustified".…