Search Results for: Greece

Keith Nuthall
THE LATEST government debt figures from European Union (EU) statistical agency Eurostat shows that Italy and Greece have a long way to go before breathing easy over their governments’ indebtedness. Under the Growth and Stability Pact underpinning the value of the Euro, any country using the currency with debt exceeding 60% of GDP must ensure they are steadily moving towards the black.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched an infringement proceeding against Greece to “prevent (future) incorrect or incomplete data transmission” about its government’s public finances. Greece has admitted that it made “errors” in its national statistics, allowing it to remain within the good housekeeping rules governing the Euro.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Greece with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over its alleged failure to establish an independent national supervisory authority to carry out important tasks under the European Union’s (EU) single European sky regulation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union and Norway have divided up common stocks within the North Sea for 2006, overcoming difficult conservation problems, especially regarding cod. Brussels and Oslo have agreed on a long-term management plan for cod, to come into effect when the stock has returned to safe biological levels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INSTITUTIONS of the European Union (EU) always say they are getting a handle on the fraud that riddles their operations, but are they? Keith Nuthall looks at the latest annual report from EU fraud-fighters OLAF.

MEASURING fraud is notoriously difficult, given that the aim of this crime is to be as undetectable as possible.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Greece to the European Court of Justice asking judges to order a separation of the Greek Public Power Corporation’s accounts for its lignite mining and its electricity generation. Brussels says Greece is breaking the European Union electricity directive, which outlaws common accounts possibly masking illegal cross-subsidies between two separate business activities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LAST people most farmers would like controlling European agricultural policy are glib public relations experts, armed with palm-top digital personal organisers and a sheaf of focus group studies. Such complaints have often been levelled at the Blair government, accused of bending with the wind of public opinion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will table accounting reforms for all European Union (EU) national statistics offices, following the recent revelation of errors in Greece’s public spending figures. The proposals will underline national offices’ “independence, integrity and accountability”, granting EU statistical agency Eurostat control and inspection rights.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is largely on track for a timely start to its emissions trading system on January 1, with the unconditional approval in late October of six more CO2 emission allocation plans, from Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Portugal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ECSTASY has become Britain’s number two illicit drug, overtaking amphetamines, warns a new European Union (EU) narcotics report alerting public health professional across Europe to increasing abuse of most recreational drugs. The best news highlighted by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is that heroin use and new HIV infections are falling in western Europe, although they are increasing in many eastern European countries, such as the Baltic States.…