Search Results for: Netherlands

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPLIT has emerged in the European Union Council of Ministers over the possible scrapping of subsidies to tobacco producers under a possible review the common market regime, which should happen this year. On one side in a debate at a recent agriculture council were a group including many of the EU’s tobacco growing countries, (Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal), who are opposed to cuts, whilst other Member States, (notably Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden), backed a recital to a current proposal to adjust subsidies over the next two years that calls on the EU to review the regime this year “to allow the progressive deletion of subsidies.”…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE CO-GENERATION of electricity from waste oil is being promoted in the European Union through excise duty exemptions, which have been erected in the face of official EU environmental policy, a new European Commission report says.

Its “Critical Review of Existing Studies and Life Cycle Analysis on the Regeneration and Incineration of Waste Oils” points out that Council Directive 75/439/EC on Waste Oils tries to make Member States prioritise regeneration over burning.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HEALTHY market in the use of waste oil as a fuel to generate electricity is being promoted in the European Union through excise duty exemptions, erected in the face of official EU environmental policy, a new European Commission report says.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MARITIME Museum of Finland and Britain’s Mary Rose Trust have teamed up with four other archeological groups to explore four important European shipwrecks, creating what will be a virtual exhibition of their findings.

Internet sites will publish pictures and information about the sites, which include:

*A late 13th Century cog, (small, trade vessel), off Mecklenburg, Germany;

*The Vrouw Maria, a Dutch sailing ship that sank off Finland in 1771, carrying artworks and treasures from Amsterdam to St Petersburg for Catherine the Great.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS acts of international largesse go, the expansion of the European Union eastwards and southwards must rank as being one of the most generous in history. With research estimates claiming that the size of the EU budget will soar to accommodate the needs of the former communist republics, (plus Cyprus and Malta), we are talking Marshall Plan here; billions of Euro’s being transferred from national coffers in western Europe to the east, via Brussels.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVE reform of the European Union’s VAT package for travel agents has been proposed by the European Commission, which would change the special rules that apply for the sector. Because their services are often consumed in a foreign Member States where different sales tax rates can apply, travel agents are allowed to pay VAT on the profits that they make rather than handing over the VAT charged directly on services that they supply, minus the VAT they paid when incurring allowable business expenses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has voted to impose definitive 22.5 per cent anti-dumping duties on imports of ferro molybdenum from China. Sweden opposed the move, with Germany, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Britain abstaining. The European Commission investigation leading to the decision was sparked by a complaint by EU producers association Ferro-alliages.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MORATORIUM in the trade of illegally exploited Congolese minerals has been proposed by a panel of experts, which has examined how the stripping of resources by foreign military forces has prolonged the ongoing war in the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PANEL of company law specialists has made recommendations to the European Commission about a possible future EU takeover directive, which Brussels is to propose this Spring. The revamped legislation will draw on their ideas and follows the rejection by the European Parliament of a six-year-old takeovers proposal last summer.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW report from the European Environment Agency has tried to explain why there is indeed a wide gulf between Member States’ performance on renewables; for instance, Britain has more wind than Germany, but significantly less wind power electricity generation and Greece has failed to develop solar panels as quickly as fellow southern Mediterranean EU Member State Spain.…