Search Results for: Ireland

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INCREASING political pressure is being applied on eastern European governments to raise fuel prices, so as to improve their environmental performance and promote investment in energy efficient industries.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe recently addressed the issue, with its Committee on Sustainable Energy and the Committee on Environmental Policy agreeing to produce guidelines on price reform.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT was telling that the first step taken by President Bush against Islamic terror groups following the World Trade Centre disaster was to freeze bank accounts. The international community has now responded by agreeing common controls to stop terror groups laundering funds.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN is being threatened with fresh legal action over its failure to comply with a European Court of Justice ruling concerning ground waters and surface freshwaters affected by nitrate pollution. These proceedings could result in London being given massive recurring fines of up to Euro 100,000 a day, until it obeys the ECJ.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE RELIANCE of part of the Irish power sector on the locally sourced fuel of peat is to continue into the next two decades, after a state aid scheme allowing the Irish government to fund its use was agreed by the European Commission.…

BY ALAN OSBORN AND KEITH NUTHALL
A NUMBER of tax regimes run by European Union countries are being investigated by the European Commission, which is following up suspicions that they are so loose, they amount to a breach of the EU’s competition laws.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing a potentially groundbreaking initiative to overcome the problems created by the existence of 15 different tax systems throughout the European Union, which could involve setting a harmonised EU corporation tax. In a report due to be released shortly, obtained by Accountancy Age, the Commission says differing tax national systems have caused losses in economic efficiency, generated compliance costs and contributed to a lack of transparency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has lifted the foot and mouth disease inspired ban on exports of pigmeat from parts of the UK, namely most of Scotland, bar Dumfries and Galloway, eastern England, and parts of north Wales. The ban for Northern Ireland was lifted in June.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union competition Commissioner Mario Monti has announced that Brussels is to clamp down on special tax regimes affecting financial services in 11 Member States, which it claims are probably so lax, they constitute illegal state aid payments that could unfairly favour local companies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
*Final approval has been given for a the spending by the European Commission until 2006 of Euro 15.4 million on rural development projects in Northern Ireland under the EU LEADER plus initiative. The scheme covers all province rural areas and will especially focus on farm families, women, young people and the long-term unemployed, funding training programmes, advice and assistance for rural enterprises, processing of local products and e-commerce initiatives.…

KEITH NUTHALL
LEGAL pressure is being brought to bear on the Irish government to force it to prepare anti-pollution programmes for shellfish waters, under the EU Shellfish Water Directive. The European Commission is threatening Dublin with possible legal action at the European Court of Justice, if it does not by the end of this month, (September), advise it of a plan to implement the directive.…