Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW fuel quality standards for vehicles sold in the European Union (EU) from 2008 have been published by the European Commission, which will stop sports utility vehicles (SUVs) operating under laxer emissions rules applying to commercial vans. Instead, under the so-called Euro 5 plan, they would follow tougher regulations for cars.…

KEITH NUTHALL
FINAL appeals by a group of district heating pipe companies to overturn massive fines levied by the European Commission for participating in a cartel have been rejected by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Dansk Rørindustri, and LR af 1998, of Denmark; Isoplus Fernwärmetechnik Vertriebsgesellschaft, Isoplus Fernwärmetechnik, Brugg Rohrsysteme, and LR af 1998 (Deutschland), of Germany; Isoplus Fernwärmetechnik Gesellschaft, and KE KELIT Kunststoffwerk, of Austria; and Switzerland’s ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd, were appealing against a 2002 ECJ Court of First Instance judgment.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH
A FEW recent days on the edge of the Saronic Sea, due West of Athens, is all that was needed to renew the conviction Greece is the European Union’s most sumptuous cliché.

In this, the country is abundant.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IN both the Austrian and Swiss paint industries the European Union’s (EU) chemicals policy, and in particular next year’s introduction of the regulatory framework known as REACH, hang like a grim cloud over the near to mid term future.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PROACTIVE competition inquiry has been launched into the European Union’s (EU) natural gas sector, with the aim of rooting out anti-competitive practices. If the European Commission discovers instances of gas companies breaking existing EU competition law, legal action could follow.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN institutions as riddled with financial crime and mismanagement as the European Union (EU), an in-house anti-fraud unit was always going to have a tough time. But EU fraud-busters OLAF seem to be making a bad fist out of a dodgy job.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SPURRED by the recent OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) report on terrorism risk cover, insurers have begun to wonder about the optimum pattern for cover in this highly unpredictable sector with its potential for catastrophic losses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN still suffers from comparatively high rates of industrial action compared with its European Union (EU) competitors, according to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The EU agency says that whilst the UK lost 904,900 working days through strikes in 2004, Germany lost just 50,673, and the Netherlands 15,000 (in 2003).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GERMAN government is breaking European Union (EU) excise duty laws by allowing a self-assembled cigarette brand to be sold under tax rates for fine-cut tobacco, rather than higher rates levied on cigarettes, a European Court of Justice (ECJ) official has advised.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Italy to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to extend European Union (EU) minimum tax rates to coal, as ordered by directive 2003/96/EC. The system had previously been limited to mineral oils.…