Search Results for: Greece

CROATIA became a European Union (EU) member state on July 1, and will be hoping that its significant olive oil sector will grow though eased EU market access and production support from Brussels.

Marta Bogdanic, director of projects for the food business group at the Croatian food and retail group Agrokor, which produces and sells a range of award-winning Croatian olive oils, and owns the largest olive groves in Croatia, told Oils & Fats International that Croatia’s EU accession will pose several challenges for the country’s olive oil sector.…

The European Commission is to ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to order the Greek government to recover EUR17.4 million from Aluminium of Greece paid in 2007-8 through low electricity bills from Greece’s state-owned Public Power Corporation (PPC).

Brussels said yesterday (Wednesday) that Greece had ignored a 2011 order that this handout be repaid because it was illegal under European Union (EU) state aid rules.…

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that patents covering pharmaceutical manufacturing processes cannot be extended to cover the resulting product if the patent was lodged before 1994. That was when the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) came into force, and it says patents must cover a medicine’s content and manufacturing methods.…

The 9.5MW J920 FleXtra gas engine formally installed in May this year by the municipal utility Stadtwerke Rosenheim, in Bavaria, Germany, ticks off a number of important innovations. The largest gas engine yet developed by the Austrian company GE Jenbacher, the unit is seen by the company as an illustration of the role distributed energy is now playing in Germany’s ‘Energiewende’ – the country’s policy to halt all nuclear power by 2022 and replace it with natural gas, renewable energy, and greater use of energy efficient technologies.…

WITH Europe’s economy still struggling to deal with the fall-out of the global financial crisis, its co-generation sector has had to fight to expand, or in some cases hold its position. Tightening national government budgets have meant that the co-gen industry has had to argue persuasively for public subsidies and tax breaks, or even the right to have equal treatment with renewable energies.…

MOBILE communication services have become a significant focus for airports worldwide regarding improving passenger experience, especially as the use of interconnected smart devices has boomed. Airports have been building on previous services, such as improving and expanding their wireless internet coverage and working with airlines to allow for flight check-ins via mobile communication devices.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have agreed reforms to the EU’s VAT directive 2006/112/EC enabling member states to swiftly impose reversed charge VAT mechanisms to fight tax fraud. They would act when faced with a sudden onset of large-scale VAT fraud, forcing suppliers to pay the tax, rather than final consumers.…

‘LA TORRE PUIG,’ the 22-storey Puig Tower now being fitted out in the Plaza de Europa, of the Catalan capital, Barcelona, for Puig SL, the family owned fragrances and fashion firm, will be yet another landmark building for one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament (EP) public health and environment committee, which is handling the draft tobacco products directive (TPD), went a step further from the European Commission on July 10, when it voted to introduce a “positive list” of approved ingredients to be used in tobacco products.…

THE ACRONYM ‘PIGS’ to mean Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, was never very kind. It was abusive European Union (EU) jargon claiming that these countries were poor and their governments, profligate. Sadly, the international financial crisis showed that there was some truth in this and the four countries have since 2008 had to slash public spending to stave off national bankruptcy, and their collective road and public transport sectors have suffered.…