Search Results for: Greece

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released official guidance on how to protect the environment when ‘fracking’ for shale gas. It has given European Union (EU) member states 18 months to follow its suggestions, saying it will “review the effectiveness” of this voluntary approach after this deadline.…

CORRUPTION hurts the European Union (EU) economy to the tune of Euro EUR120 billion a year, the first pan-EU anti-corruption report issued by the European Commission has argued. Indeed, no EU counties are free from corruption, the EU home affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who is from Sweden – usually regarded as one of Europe’s cleanest countries.…

DETAILED reports on the kind of corruption occurring in European Union (EU) member states have been released by the European Commission. It estimates that graft costs the EU economy Euro EUR120 billion-a-year. The report does not make pan-European anti-corruption reform proposals, but detailed country-based recommendations, for instance, proposing that Greece boosts the authority of its national anti-corruption coordinator.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has increased legal pressure on Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, France, Slovenia and Finland to ban individual pregnant sow stalls, claiming they have flouted European Union (EU) law by continuing to allow the practice.

A Commission note to these countries says it is prepared to invoke legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) should piggeries in these six countries continue to seclude pregnant sows in separate stalls.…

THE FINAL investment deal on piping gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II field has been struck, confirming Europe will receive 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually from 2019. The gas will be shipped via the upgraded South Caucasus Pipeline through Georgia and the new TANAP pipeline across Turkey, linking with the planned Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) through Greece and Albania to Italy.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to consult with ministers and MEPs on whether to draft a law insisting that such information must be included on all food products using meat as an ingredient. It follows the release yesterday (Tuesday) of a report on origin labelling for meat.…

THE DIPLOMATIC stand-off between the European Union (EU) and Russia over their respective links to Ukraine throws into stark light the EU’s desire to secure energy security of supply and to decrease its reliance on an unpredictable Russian government. These needs were reflected in the announcement in October of a list of 248 energy infrastructure projects that the EU wants built in in the next decade, all in some way connecting EU member countries through electricity, gas and oil links.…

A DETAILED report on tax rates levied in 30 rich countries has been released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). It said that ratios of tax revenues to GDP rose in 21 of these 30 countries in 2012 (the largest in Hungary, Greece, Italy and New Zealand), falling in nine countries, with the steepest falls in Israel, Portugal and Britain.…

THE RECENTLY concluded Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada may bring opportunities for European producers of Oriental tobacco, Antonio Abrunhosa, chief executive of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) has told Tobacco Journal International.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) economy and finance ministers (ECOFIN) said at their meeting on Friday (15 November) in Brussels that they wanted to agree the text of the proposed EU fourth anti-money laundering directive with the European Parliament before May 2014.

That would enable negotiations to be concluded before the current parliament’s terms office ends – and elections are held between May 22 and 25, after which committees will need to be re-elected and standard business will be stalled, in some cases until September.…