Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released its detailed offer for improving the access of non-European Union accountants into the EU market, as part of the ongoing Doha Development Round at the World Trade Organisation.

If its trading partners offer concessions in return, Brussels says it is prepared to allow “foreign accountants will be allowed to review and compile financial statements and other accounting information for European clients.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has made its formal offer at the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round to boost access to the European Union insurance market to non-EU players. However, following pressure from national European capitals, its services talks liberalisation package is hedged with a large number of exceptions protecting local interests.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE FIVE major European suppliers of chemicals to the cosmetics industry have been raided by the European Commission, which suspects them of price-fixing. Brussels says that its inspectors, along with national competition officials, carried out “simultaneous and unannounced inspections at the premises of the major European producers of the bleaching agent hydrogen peroxide, as well as softening agents, solvents and methacrylates.…

BY PHILIP FINE

TEAMS of microbiologists have concluded that it is not just unsafe to swim in sewage infiltrated waters, but that the amount of sickness caused by such pollution is actually far more predictable than previously thought. The findings have prompted them to call for global health-based legislation on the quality of the world’s bathing waters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is formally threatening France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria and Finland with legal action at the European Court of Justice over claims that they have failed to implement new EU regulations on the release of genetically modified organisms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPARED with the years of tortuous wrangling that slowed the adoption of the first – and legally abortive – European Union (EU) tobacco advertising directive, the EU Council of Ministers has speedily approved its replacement.

The council has accepted amendments tabled by the European Parliament and approved the legislation on its first reading, with Germany and Britain voting against.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE PREMISES of five major European chemical companies have been raided by the European Commission’s antitrust services in a search for evidence of price-fixing in solvents, and a small list of other products. Brussels said the investigation was at a “preliminary stage” and could lead to no evidence of wrong-doing.…

Keith Nuthall
BRITONS work the longest hours in the European Union (EU), even though working time agreed in collectively agreements is below the EU average, according to a survey by the European Union’s European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.…

Keith Nuthall
A MODEL tax system for construction projects that cross national borders within Europe has been devised by the European Commission for work on a new bridge spanning the Rhine between Germany and Switzerland. The Commission has proposed that standard EU VAT laws are suspended, suggesting that all relevant good and services should attract German VAT and no Swiss VAT.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH accountants are the second most lightly regulated in the European Union (EU), with their Danish colleagues having the most freedom according to a European Commission-funded survey, promoting liberalisation in Europe’s professions. Belgium, Austria and Germany – where heavy regulation is often favoured – have the union’s most tightly restricted accountancy professions.…