Search Results for: Germany

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London

AFTER years of tests and international negotiations, Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation network at last has announced the technical details of its signal, crucial information for auto and component suppliers wanting to develop components to exploit the system.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has renewed its European Union (EU) fishing access deal with Mauritania, initialling a new six year deal that involves a two-year protocol, but which should be renewed twice automatically, unless serious political problems emerge.

Brussels is being bullish about the deal, claiming: "It is the most important fisheries agreement concluded by the EU with a third country both in financial terms and as regards fishing opportunities for EU vessels"

And the agreement does will provide fishing rights for about 200 EU vessels on crustaceans (mainly shrimps), hake and other demersal species), cepaholopods, small pelagics and tuna.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOTHING manufacturers without trademark rights to a brand in a particular European Union (EU) country, cannot rely on such rights in another EU state to prevent rivals transporting goods carrying this mark: this principle has been recommended to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by an ECJ advocate general saying "in the absence of uncertainty" that rival manufacturers will not sell such brands in the transit country, EU law stops original manufacturers using local trademark rights to block transports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project has developed special technology to coat aluminum auto parts, making them tough enough to replace the steel that is usually employed, reducing vehicle weight and hence boosting fuel economy.

Automakers have long looked to use aluminum and related alloys where they can, but coating surfaces to make this non-ferrous metal sufficiently strong and durable to withstand the pressures exerted in a working auto has long been too expensive.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE GERMAN company Fläminger Liquors, based in Zahna in the former East Germany, and best known for its Fläminger Jagd herbal liquor which has been a best-seller in recent years, has been placed under the control of a Berlin lawyer pending a possible declaration of bankruptcy.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SPANISH-made body lightening lotion called NIUMA has been withdrawn from sale in Germany because its ingredients include the potentially harmful substance hydroquinone (at a proportion of 5.7 %; +/- 0.1 %). The European Commission’s RAPEX consumer-alert service reported there had been a "voluntary withdrawal from the market", with "information/warnings displayed" at retail stores.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states must ensure that foreign EU companies that wrongly pay them VAT, are able to reclaim that money after the mistake has been discovered, a European Court of Justice advocate general has said.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

GERMAN tobacco company Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken could win a long-running attempt to recover VAT paid after being invoiced in error by an Italian advertising agency. Reemtsma had in 1994 handed over Italian Lira 175,022,025 (Euro 90,391), but subsequently discovered the services should have been invoiced without any demand for VAT.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IN an unusual intervention in a legal case involving a European Union (EU) member state, the European Ombudsman has criticised the European Commission for not taking action against a German packaging regulation. Nikiforos Diamandouros has accused the Commission of failing to uphold EU laws (one of its key roles) by not pushing Germany to implement a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that it broke EU free trade rules through its former mandatory drinks packaging returns system.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union food safety alert service RASFF has warned of nut aflatoxin contaminations, as global food standards agency Codex Alimentarius develops guidelines on the problem. RASFF highlighted aflatoxins in Iranian pistachio nuts, Israeli groundnuts, and Azerbaijani hazelnuts sold in Italy; Iranian pistachios sold in Spain and Germany; American almonds in Spain; amongst other incidents.…