Search Results for: Ireland

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened legal action against Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal for exempting all book lending institutions from their obligations to pay fees to copyright holders. If the countries do not within two months say how they intend to limit this universal right, the Commission could ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to order them to comply.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EMISSIONS trading plans for eight European Union (EU) countries – including Britain – have been approved by the European Commission, enabling 5,000 industrial plants to buy and sell pollution permits by January 2005. Brussels accepted national plans from Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden unconditionally and another three – from Austria, Britain and Germany – on condition that technical changes are made, which would make them automatically acceptable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government is being threatened with the levying of large daily recurring fines from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) if it continues to ignore a ruling telling it to cease overgrazing by sheep in protected bog areas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government is being formally threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice over refusing to scrap its excise stamp system, where tobacco manufacturers pay duty by ‘buying’ stamps from tax authorities. The European Commission says this illegally prevents traders moving Irish-stamped tobacco around the European Union, where different excise rates may apply.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NETHERLANDS, Ireland and Belgium are facing legal action by the European Commission over their alleged failure to implement a series of utility-related European Union (EU) directives. The announcements come before Brussels’ long summer break, when member states are often sent legal notices.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IRISH government is being formally threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice over its refusal to scrap an excise stamp system, where tobacco traders pay duty on their products by ‘buying’ stamps from tax authorities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is resorting to legal action to push the British government into prioritising a law guaranteeing environmental impact assessments on development projects on publicly owned Crown Land. These are generally excluded from UK planning legislation and so not subject to regulations implementing the European Union (EU) environmental impact assessment directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ANTI-TOBACCO European Union (EU) health Commissioner David Byrne will release a report this autumn proposing further EU measures to restrict smoking, as his official term expires (on October 31). Speaking at a Tobacco Control Conference, at Limerick, the Irishman said a Commission Strategic Tobacco Control Report would propose ways of “denormalising” tobacco and promote measures helping smokers to quit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening seven European Union (EU) countries with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to apply EU law and give local companies the option of applying International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 on financial instruments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN’S tax burden as a proportion of GDP fell sharply in 2002 to 35.8% from 37.3% in 2001, confirming the UK as among the lightest taxed jurisdictions in the European Union (EU). The contrast is especially marked with its key competitors Germany (40.2% in 2002), France (44.2%), and Italy (41.7%), according to the latest available comparative figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat.…