Search Results for: Polish

The Polish can manufacturing and filling industry continues to attract attention from major buyers and investors from around the world, aware that this strong and innovating national sector is able to rely on a strong, reliable workforce.

Global beverage giant PepsiCo, for example, has been drawn to the Polish can manufacturing industry.…

Eastern Europe is often a region of diversity when it comes to paint and coatings sector trends, but in the past year, the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted most sectors in a similar way. They experienced booms in DIY decorative sales, weaker industrial coating sales and are mow struggling with increased input costs.…

With global markets and daily consumer habits being disrupted for almost a year due to the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, some oils and fats sales have grown – and a key example is soybean oil. This is true worldwide, from North and South America, to Africa, Asia, and Europe.…

REGULATIONS affecting what information can, should and cannot be placed on personal care product packaging are among the most demanding of compliance issues facing beauty manufacturers.

One reason is that this is both a very international field and a dynamic one – rules change all the time and vary widely from market to market.…

CONSTRUCTION projects likely to generate major purchases of paints and coatings are likely to be a focus of a new ‘Next Generation EU’ budget commanding EUR750 billion between 2021 and 2024, financed by borrowing through bond issues against European Union (EU) direct revenues from sources such as import duties.…

ANTI-money laundering maybe a career that financial and legal professionals increasingly follow, but the training and qualification structure for AML/CFT is still emerging and solidifying, and there are doubts whether it will ever coalesce into a formal global structure, akin to FATF recommendations.…

Digital printing is still a relatively new concept to Poland’s traditional fabric finishing sector – but national pride in the country’s well-established textile sector is sparking a desire to modernise so it can maintain its competitive edge. Much of the resulting investment has been focused on local and independent textile printers located throughout the country – but a significant number of these are based in Łódz, central Poland, a key textile manufacturing hub, with the port-town of Gdynia also being home to upgraded finishing plants.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on EU member states and other EU institutions to work harder to fight the scourge of food fraud, which can damage the commercial health of legitimate manufacturers and risk consumer health. In a detailed policy statement (called ‘council conclusions’ in EU jargon), ministers said an EU “legal definition of food fraud” should be created that would underpin future regulatory actions fighting such wrongdoing, which can include deliberate mislabelling and the use of illicit ingredients.…

ITALY’S cosmetic and personal care product market remained strong through 2019, with major players in the industry focused on strengthening digital retail and production strategies to further connect with consumers, while deepening their presence in foreign markets, particularly in Asia. 

The year 2019 was also dynamic in terms of acquisitions, with a handful of Italian BPC (beauty and personal care) companies buying businesses that specialise in new and different products to extend their reach in new product categories, both domestically and abroad.…

SLOVAKIA may have been facing European Commission legal action over foot-dragging in implementing European Union EU AML/CFT legislation and has been striving to improve its AML/CFT weaknesses, but its general reputation in combating money laundering is solid. The Basel Institute of Governance AML Index 2019 ranked this central European country 109 out of 125 countries assessed, with the highest number being the top performer.…

GLOBAL and regional public policies promoting environmental good practice and fighting climate change have long encouraged the growth of renewable energy production. And with concern about global warming sharpening, these goals – pushed by international and regional organisations and development banks – are here to stay.…

Beauty markets in sub-Saharan Africa are becoming more sophisticated, and with this comes an increasing desire by consumers to use cosmetics that better match their own skin and hair characteristics, rather than utilising products that of more universal appeal.

Nigeria’s personal care product industry continues to grow, and given its population is the largest in Africa – now estimated by the United Nations at 200 million – this market inevitably has the most potential in the continent.…

IRISH farming accountants will not only be monitoring Brexit as a current important European Union (EU) policy change, they will be scrutinising potential reforms to the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), now under discussion for remaining member states, like Ireland. They will be advising their agricultural clients to be prepared for potential shifts in CAP subsidies.…

THE NEW European Commission, which is now expected to assume office on December 1, is expected to push the further harmonisation of European Union (EU) food labelling rules regarding nutrition. Incoming EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, of Cyprus, said she wanted to see the Commission act against pack claims declaring that products were healthy when they contained “a high level of sugar, fat or salt”.…

THE EUROPEAN dairy industry will be looking closely at the policies of the new European Commission that is now expected to assume office on December 1 – it is likely to increase pressure on the sector to improve its environmental performance.…

POLAND maybe eastern Europe’s most reliable economy – with uninterrupted growth since 1992 – but the European Commission has accused it of being a laggard in implementing European Union (EU) anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism legislation (AML/CFT).…

FAR from being the zone of volatility of the 1990s, eastern and central Europe’s economies and hence their paint and coatings markets, are enjoying stability and steady growth. In Croatia, for instance, according to market researcher Euromonitor International data, the paint and coating industry posted revenues of USD147 million, USD 2 million more than in 2017.…

THE INDIAN cosmetics market is becoming increasingly focused on environmental issues and personal care product companies are being forced to adapt accordingly. “‘Water conservation’, ‘anti-pollution’, ‘plastic ban’ and ‘paraben free’ are the claims that more and more consumers like and brands are getting very savvy of,” Koyel Mukherjea, new business development specialist for the beauty and personal care sector, at market intelligence company, told Soap Perfumery and Cosmetics (SPC).…

INTERNATIONAL, regional and national regulators are cooperating more widely as they create strategies and operations to fight fraud that is often conducted on a trans-national basis.

For instance, European Union (EU) police agency Europol has worked with financial intelligence units (FIUs), such as the USA’s FinCEN, and FIU umbrella organisation the Egmont Group to raise concern about business email compromise fraud (BEC).…

GREECE’S cosmetics sector showed significant resilience during the country’s long financial crisis and is currently expanding, as the country’s overall economy pulls ahead (1.9% GDP growth in 2018 and 2.1% projected for this year). However, problems afflicting the country’s personal care product regulations and a duty imposed on cosmetic producers might impact the sector going forward.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved a new European Union (EU) directive drafted to extend EU gas market competition rules to pipelines that enter the EU from non-member states. The legislation may impose conditions on the operation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, and should the UK quit the EU as it currently plans, the law would apply to pipelines linking Britain with the remainder of the EU.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) paint and coatings sector will be offered research funding from an EUR15 billion budget for industrial, space and digital sector studies from 2021-2027 under the Horizon Europe research programme. This EUR94.1 billion total programme has now been approved in principle by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers, with final authorisations anticipated after the European elections in May.…

THE PLASTICS industry in Poland is expected to continue to its recent strong growth in upcoming years according to market forecasts.

In 2018, the turnover for production of plastic products by Polish manufacturers reached Polish Zloty PLN83.5 billion (USD21.9 billion), up from PLN 76.7 billion (USD20.2 billion) in 2017 according to Euromonitor International.…

Turku-based Hesburger is now building sales in Belarus, having announced it would move into this country in 2017. This follows launches in Ukraine in 2015, and Bulgaria in 2016. Having branched abroad into Estonia first in 1996, now has 207 overseas outlets in eight countries (also including Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, as well as Germany, close to 271 it has in Finland.…

A FINNISH burger chain that has taken the plunge into some of Europe’s most challenging eastern markets now has almost as many outlets abroad as in its home market.

Turku-based Hesburger is now building sales in Belarus, having announced it would move into this country in 2017.…

THE SCANDAL that has erupted over a Polish TV documentary showed an abattoir killing sick cows, sending the meat on for human consumption, should be treated as an isolated incident, say industry bodies scrambling to mitigate harm to the sector’s reputation.…

EASTERN Europe remains a highly diverse market, where major beauty brands must think strategically to achieve economies of scale and a regional presence that really deliver profits. This is also a region where some markets are significantly bigger than others – with Russia and Poland being key targets.…

There are two displays in the Moscow office of the CFO of Volvo Car Russia, Vladimir Lagutin, that catches the attention, immediately: a large elegantly-framed poster of UK electronic music band Depeche Mode and a case of tennis balls.

“Those things – music and tennis – keep me from being stressed,” says Lagutin.…

Centre right members of the European Parliament’s special committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance (TAX3) have hit out at the 18 EU member states, that offer citizenship or residence in exchange for investments. The MEPs, members of the European People’s Party (EPP), spoke out November 14 as the committee handed down a draft report*, with findings and recommendations, including phasing out such rights.…

With traditional universities increasingly using web-based learning as a way of recruiting students world-wide, University World News spoke to the head of Italy’s top online university to see how it has developed a successful model for international higher learning

Enrollments for the 2018-2019 school year at the Rome-based International Telematic University, Uninettuno, have exceeded expectations, university rector Maria Amata Garito, shared with UWN: “I can confirm that enrolments have jumped quite a bit this year – up by circa 200% compared to last year,” said Garito.…

TIME was when dairy farming in Ireland was a family affair, with smallholdings and local dairies predominant. But those days are long gone. The Irish dairy sector is now big business, not just on Republic of Ireland’s 4.8 million population, but also overseas, with big brands targeting foreign markets.…

EASTERN Europe is always a tough market for major paint and coating manufacturers to crack, containing multiple national markets, some in the European Union (EU), some outside, and all with differing cultural and language requirements for marketers to master.

Poland, with its 38 million population and robust economy (projected by the World Bank to grow at 4.2% this year – 2018), remains the region’s most important market, with researcher Euromonitor International saying that Polish paint and coatings sales were worth Polish Zloty PLN1.29 billion (USD352.7 billion) in 2017, up slightly compared to the PLN1.25 billion (USD342.5 billion) sold in 2016.…

The Indian beauty and personal care industry is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.6% until 2022, according to research conducted by market analysis company Euromonitor International, down from the 9.1% year-on-year growth to USD14 billion that the sector reported in 2017.…

WITH its huge agricultural hinterland and distinctive products – tvoroh (curd cheese), sour cream, kefir (a fermented milk drink) and syrniki (fritters made with curd cheese) – Ukraine has a unique local dairy market with an appeal beyond its national borders.…

SPAIN’S personal care product market is continuing to grow after years of post-financial crisis weakness. Spain’s skincare, cosmetic and perfume industry continues to mature, and has turned in solid sales figures for 2017, reflecting the optimistic mood of the economy after the ‘lost’ years of the recession.…

THE DECISION of the Polish government to build a 1,200-kilometre-long fence along the country’s eastern border as a tool to fight African Swine Fever (ASF) by blocking the migration of infected wild boars has been condemned as too-little-too-late by Poland’s meat sector.…

THE ORGANISERS of Italy’s premier beauty trade fair, Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, are claiming a record number of visitors and international buyers attending this year’s 51st edition of the event from March 15-19. Exceeding the 250,000 visitors from last year’s Cosmoprof, attending foreign buyers, distributors and retail representatives grew 11% in 2018, year-on-year.…

THE DECISION of the European Commission not to propose a harmonised European Union (EU) approach for excise duty on e-cigarettes and other novel tobacco products has been welcomed by the tobacco sector for avoiding punitive taxation on a nascent segment.

But should such rules ultimately be introduced the tobacco sector may not oppose them if they reflect the lower health risks involved in consuming such products by enabling lower excise duty bands.…

THE EUROPEAN confectionery industry will later this year face hard evidence about the veracity of claims that certain brands sell lower quality products in eastern Europe than they do in the richer west. These claims – dismissed by many manufacturers as urban myths – are widely believed in eastern Europe, promoting the European Commission to act and set up a testing system.…

PROTECTIONISM and currency problems are posing challenges for north Africa’s beauty and personal care market, often forcing consumers to change their purchasing behaviour and turn to locally manufactured products, when they are available.

In Egypt, the region’s most populous country, the fall in value of the local currency, the Egyptian pound, against the Euro, has helped increase the price of imported products.…

THE HONG Kong financial secretary has proposed a 75% reduction of profits tax, salaries tax and tax under personal assessment for the 2017-18 assessment year, up to Hong Kong dollars HKD30,000 (USD3,820) per case. In his annual budget speech, Paul Chan also proposed widening tax bands, adding one more (HKD150,000 to HKD200,000); adjusting marginal tax rates for salaries tax; introducing a personal disability allowance; increasing basic, additional child allowances, dependent parent/grandparent allowance and additional allowance.…

THE EUROPEAN confectionery industry will later this year face hard evidence about the veracity of claims that certain brands sell lower quality products in eastern Europe than they do in the richer west. These claims – dismissed by many manufacturers as urban myths – are widely believed in eastern Europe, promoting the European Commission to act and set up a testing system.…

CONSUMERS do not like sales tax, and they are particularly sensitive to tax-based price increases when new taxes are introduced. So, it is maybe no surprise that personal care product sales in the Middle East have been dampened by the introduction of value added tax (VAT) in both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January 2018, inflating beauty product prices.…

ACCA is pressing for clarification on some key outstanding issues regarding Britain’s impending departure from the European Union (EU), as the European Commission consults on a draft withdrawal agreement released on February 28.

Of key interest to Chas Roy–Chowdhury, ACCA’s head of taxation, is the length of time that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will retain jurisdiction over elements of British tax law, following the UK’s planned departure date on March 29, next year (2019).…

Efforts to safeguard the security of supply of gas to the European Union (EU) and its countries are gathering pace after recent EU regulatory changes. Gas transmission system operators (TSOs) are now developing a new, collaborative system for managing supply crises.…

THE CONCEPT of building circular runways with a slight camber to keep planes on the ground as they land and take-off, has received significant attention, but is the idea a practical solution to airport capacity problems? Practical tests on the idea are being discussed, with their use for drones rather than piloted planes maybe being the focus of initial assessments and prototypes.…

Cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) are still very common in Russia, despite its continued ban on European Union (EU) pigmeat exports, imposed since January 2014 following a handful of cases in Poland and Lithuania. While outbreaks have continued in the EU, Russia – whose ban was imposed on live pigs, pork and pig products over fears importing ASF-infected meat and livestock, has from last July (2017) to today (January 30) notified to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) around 2,800 ASF cases of domestic pigs, and 90 cases in wild boars.…

AFTER years of slow growth since 2008, eastern Europe’s now mature cosmetics and personal care market has continued to show marginal gains in products sales in the past year, according to experts.

The region’s cosmetics and personal care products sales edged to USD23.67 billion in 2017 from USD21.74 billion in 2016, counting sales in Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Georgia.…

China will boast the world’s number one cosmetics market in 2018 according to global financial services firm Morgan Stanley: it will account for 20% of total sales, compared to 17% for the second-placed USA and 10% for third placed Japan – overtaking America for the first time, it said.…

THE RECENT Paradise Papers scandal should lead to more regulation of the offshore sector and corporate secrecy, experts have told Commercial Crime International. This should make tax evasion harder, even if many of the embarrassing revelations in the leak were technically legal.…

Transparency International and European Parliament members are warning that the latest tax dodge revelations unveiled by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists show where criminals could exploit loopholes for corruption and money laundering. Published November 5, the so-called ‘Paradise Papers’ stem from 13.4 million files leaked to German newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’ and include financial data showing how the British monarchy, Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton and rock star Bono, among others, have minimised their taxes through offshore tax gambits.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states are hindering the fight against money laundering and tax evasion, the European Parliament’s committee of inquiry into money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion (PANA) concluded yesterday (October 18). These comments came as the committee adopted its report and recommendations after more than a year’s work following the Panama Papers leak of personal financial information revealing offshore business entities had been used for illegal purposes.…

Millennial consumers – the key driver of demand in today’s personal care product market – love personalisation, customisation and ‘do it yourself’ lines, and maybe nowhere more than in Germany. This ‘maker movement’ trend has inspired Cosnova, the Sulzbach, Hesse-based producer of cosmetic brands such as essence, Catrice and L.O.V.,…

The Egyptian Pounds EGP1.6 billion (USD90.5 million) Egyptian colour cosmetics market has had steady growth over the past year despite the downturn in the economy, the depreciation of the Egyptian pound and some serious regulatory challenges.

According to market researcher Euromonitor International, in 2016, this market grew by 18% in value terms, year-on-year, mainly influenced by the positive performance of lip care products, primarily lipsticks.…

THE CARIBBEAN may be a small and fragmented regional market but it is a hotbed of innovation in the personal care product industry, and a potential source of inspiration in formulation and ingredients for major brands.

Its island nations, politically independent and dependent territories, have long relied especially on the nearby USA for imports.…

Poland is facing a Salmonella crisis this summer but its poultry sector is unhappy that the European Commission is opposing the use of formaldehyde – an efficient tool to fight against the bacteria in animal feed. The European Union (EU) executive has drafted a regulation preventing its use because the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) fears its possible inhalation might cause cancer in farm workers.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

RUSSIAN air traffic controllers in Smolensk have been blamed by Poland’s Deputy Prosecutor, Marek Pasionek, for the 2010 air crash in Russia that killed Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski and 95 other senior Polish politicians. Speaking at a press conference on April 3, Pasionek said that a detailed investigation had revealed “evidence that has allowed prosecutors to formulate new charges against air traffic controllers, citizens of the Russian Federation”.…

Shocking media images of dead animals and birds, killed by ingesting plastic in oceans have pricked the collective conscience of personal care product manufacturers and consumers as industry self-regulation over the use of harmful microplastics appears to have outpaced formal governmental regulation.…

For nearly 10 years now, Poland has been Europe’s most surprising economic growth story. It even avoided recession during the 2009 financial crisis, and its gross domestic product (GDP) has continued to rise since, increasing by 2.8% in 2016. Unemployment has been dropping steadily since 2013, reaching 8.5% in February 2017 – lower than pre-crisis levels. …

EUROPEAN Union (EU) exports of textile products to Russia have stabilised, despite a sharp fall between 2014 and 2015, as diplomatic relations between Brussels and Moscow worsened amidst financial sanctions imposed on Russian companies and banks over the Ukraine crisis.

New figures passed to WTiN.com…

THE EUROPEAN wipes market is a complex affair. This is a varied segment, in itself, but wipe use varies between countries with contrasting consumer cultures – meaning that in some states, wipes sales are increasing; in others decreasing; and in others, the kinds of wipes being sold is changing.…

GERMANY’S paint and coatings companies, backed by the country’s formidable research organisation the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM), are pushing forward with developing innovative environment-friendly products. They are developing water-based protective coatings, sustainable coatings, biocide-substituting microbial protection and radiation curing, among other initiatives in the search to develop new products. …

POLAND’S beauty and personal care market is fragmented, highly competitive and extremely price sensitive, but continues to grow faster than that of most other countries in central and eastern Europe. Poles spent about EUR3.6 billion (USD 3.85 billion) on cosmetics and personal care products in 2016, according to the latest estimates from London-based market research firm Euromonitor International.…

Japan’s Kewpie Corp is acquiring Polish food maker Mosso Kwasniewscy Sp.J as part of its overseas expansion efforts, the company confirmed to just-food.com.

Mosso will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Tokyo company, renowned for its mayonnaise products, and will be known as Mosso Kewpie Poland Sp.…

Sun protective clothing is continuing to move from its health-focused niche origins to become a general and versatile product, protecting consumers of all ages from the harm of prolonged sun exposure. What first began as products for children or for people with varying skin ailments, such as melanoma or xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), a rare disease where the body is unable to repair damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) light, the market has been expanding robustly.…

European Union (EU) lawmakers in a key European Parliament committee are split over how to amend proposed reforms to the 28 country bloc’s automotive type approval controls. These members of the parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee discussed on Thursday (September 29) changes suggested by British Conservative MEP Dan Dalton on proposals from the EU executive, the European Commission, to overhaul EU type approval rules – its key goal is making them sufficiently tight to prevent a repeat of the Dieselgate scandal where emissions controls were circumvented.…

TURKEY’S carpet sector continues to thrive according to recent trade data, with the industry association saying the sector was not harmed by the recent attempted military coup against the elected government.

According to recent figures from the European Apparel and Textile Confederation, Euratex, Turkey was once again Europe’s leading supplier of carpets in 2015, with a 3.5% year-on-year increase in sales from 2014, to EUR378 million last year.…

MILLIONS of Euros have been released by the European Union (EU) to fund projects deepening the international gas pipeline network in eastern Europe, a key element of EU plans for forge an ‘energy union’.

One major project is a EUR179 million plan to create the Bulgaria–Romania–Hungary–Austria (BRUA) system of gas lines.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has completed the first phase of an assessment designed to help the European Union (EU) frame its own blacklist of jurisdictions deemed un-cooperative over tax evasion and avoidance. Brussels has released a ‘scoreboard’ of non-EU jurisdictions judging whether they exchange information with foreign tax authorities, have preferential or low tax regimes, have close and important economic and financial links with the EU and are politically stable (and hence more attractive as a tax haven).…

THE DEVELOPMENT of electricity interconnectors crossing national borders is simultaneously a technical and geo-political act, requiring careful planning and skilled installation of technology, along with an eye towards promoting security of power supplies.

Such investments are a priority of the European Union (EU) and its member states under its Energy Union programme.…

South America’s cosmetics and personal care sector is looking to bounce back from a slowdown caused by the region’s macroeconomic troubles, but political pressures and regional trade alliances are driving individual country markets down divergent paths.

Over the last year, countries across the region have been buffeted by economic turmoil that has had a knock-on impact on the cosmetics sector.…

CONFECTIONERY and sweet bakery industry chiefs have moved beyond their initial shock at the UK Brexit referendum vote to leave the European Union (EU) to consider their best case scenarios for a future with Britain outside the 28 country bloc.

As an immediate step, employers and industry associations have been trying to reassure staff who are non-UK EU nationals working in Britain about their status.…

A European Commission proposal for a European Union (EU) ‘geoblocking’ regulation designed to prevent tobacco companies from refusing to sell to consumers in a foreign EU member state, if a distributor is prepared to export the product, could cause more illegal transactions, tobacco industry experts have warned.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused six European Union (EU) member states of failing to detect enough fraud in EU spending programmes where their governments have a significant management role. In its latest annual report on the ‘Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – Fight against fraud 2015’, the Commission said Austria, Britain and Finland had reported “a very low number of fraudulent irregularities, in particular in relation to the amount of frauds allocated to them” for  EU agricultural spending.…

Scandinavia’s colour cosmetic sector is poised to grow between 2016 and 2019 after two years of slumping sales, with Sweden being the stronger national market, according to UK-based market intelligence firm Mintel.

Even Sweden has had a bumpy ride, however: in 2013, Sweden’s SEK41.12 million (USD4.78 million – at current exchange rates) colour cosmetics market up from SEK35.9 million (USD4.18 million).…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has urged the European Commission to propose European Union (EU) policies and legislation preventing the exploitation of comparatively small meat and livestock producers by larger retailers and wholesalers. Unfair trading practices highlighted in a detailed resolution adopted yesterday (June 7), for instance include delaying payments, restricting access to the market, unilateral or retroactive changes to contract terms, sudden and unjustified cancellation of contracts, unfair transfers of commercial risk and transferring transport and storage costs to suppliers.…

As the European Union (EU) dairy industry continues to face challenges, it is calling for EU institutions and member governments to have a greater focus on resolving Russia’s ban on EU agricultural goods, while continuing to open up new markets. In the meantime, the Russian ban has not helped an oversupply problem that is depressing prices.…

MULTI-COUNTRY regions such as eastern Europe do not always follow the same script when it comes to market performance. Sometimes, when major events happen, such as the global financial crisis, it is difficult for national coatings markets to buck the trend, but with the recovery now established, weakening economic headwinds, the latent differences between national markets can become clear.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has threatened European Court of Justice (ECJ) legal action against Belgium and Poland over claims they have broken the European Union (EU) airport charges directive (2009/12/EC). The Commission says Belgium has failed to establish an independent supervisory authority to settle charge disputes between airports and airlines, as required by the law.…

MEXICO and central America are often regarding as manufacturing centres for the USA, the world’s largest personal care product country. And while it remains true that brands take advantage of lower costs in these countries to make competitive exports, Mexico (population 122 million) and the seven countries of central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama – population 45 million) are significant markets in their own right.…

Poland has requested measures to help boost its struggling pigmeat sector at an European Council of Minsters’ agriculture and fisheries meeting, expressing “deep concern at the development of the situation in the pigmeat market.

A document circulated to EU ministers by the Polish delegation to the council said additional financial resources, or “exceptional support”, from the EU for the pigmeat sector to compensate for producers’ continuing losses resulting from Russia’s embargo and a drought in 2015.…

It has taken more than half a decade for the cosmetics markets of eastern Europe to finally shrug off a long-running period stagnation that has characterised the regional market. Two underlying features – the financial crisis of 2008 and the completion of multinational takeovers in the noughties that saturated these post-communist markets – lay behind the extended period of slow, low or non-existent growth.…

Chinese consumers are buying more of their cosmetics online on China’s top two ecommerce sites Tmall.com and JD.com and also specialist sites Lefung.com, Tiantian.com and Jumei.com, forcing bricks-and-mortar own brand retailers to rethink their strategy. Market leading retailer – AS Watson, a Hong Kong-based chain which operates 14,000 stores in greater China and worldwide and which sells a wide range of Watson’s own brand personal care products, has also been adjusting to compete.…

COMPETING fastfood chains are snapping at McDonald’s heels in Finland as the global player closes branches. McDonald’s now has just 72 outlets after chopping 10 in 2015. The remainder largely consists of franchises (59) with the rest owned by the Finnish subsidiary (13).…

Online sales of unbranded personal care products that are either clearly counterfeit or sold in a way that alludes to an established brand are legion, as the industry well knows.
But how easy is it to spot such products on the internet?…

BRUSSELS DETAILS UPCOMING EU VAT REFORMS

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a statement outlining the subject of planned VAT legislative proposals to be made next year (2016). These will reduce the administrative burden on businesses through VAT regimes varying between European Union (EU) member states.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have suffered unevenly from Russia’s ban on EU food exports from last August, according to European Commission data.

While Finnish and Estonian extra-EU food and drink exports fell sharply in August-November 2014 compared to the same period in 2013 (32% and 22% down respectively), other EU food exporters saw only moderate falls in such sales, or even gains.…

THE POLISH, Scottish, Austrian and Belgian meat sectors are significant winners in the latest announcement of European Union (EU) marketing financing designed to help food companies seize more sales within and outside the EU.
They will benefit from multi-million Euro sales and marketing programmes, 50% funded by the EU, announced yesterday (Tues April 21).…

EXPORTERS of liquid milk and associated products to the European Union (EU) will have to work harder to secure sales in future from April 1, with the EU finally scrapping its production quotas from that date. They may also have to fend off new tough competition from EU exporters in their domestic markets.…

Of all the countries that made up the old Soviet Union, the central Asian republics have proved the slowest to open up to the outside world. For the personal care product industry, this represents opportunities, but also significant hurdles and barriers.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) health and food safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis called yesterday (March 23) for solidarity between EU countries in dealing with the Russian ban on exports of EU pig and food products.
“We cannot accept any situation under which different conditions might apply to different member states,” the Commissioner told the European Parliament’s agriculture committee yesterday evening in Brussels.…

The European Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee has called for the maintenance of tariffs protecting energy intensive industries in the European Union (EU), such as the industrial minerals sector, following trade deal talks with the USA.
This committee is one of 14 that will be giving detailed opinions in the coming weeks on the negotiations to force a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement between the EU and USA.…

The European Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee has called for the maintenance of tariffs protecting energy intensive industries in the European Union (EU), such as the manufacture of key paint ingredient titanium dioxide, following trade deal talks with the USA.…

The European Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee has called for the maintenance of tariffs protecting energy intensive industries in the EU such as the ferrous metal sector following trade deal talks with the USA.
This committee is one of 14 that will be giving detailed opinions in the coming weeks on the negotiations to force a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement between the EU and USA.…

In the latest in a string of bans on cheese products entering Russia, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights and Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) has banned cheese products made by Poland’s Ostrowia.
But this latest dairy ban is not all it seems, and Milkiland, the Netherlands-based dairy products producer owning Ostrowia, has called for “dialogue” with Russian authorities because its banned ‘Wesola Krowka’ (‘Jolly Cow’) is made from vegetable fats.…

Milkiland, a Netherlands-based dairy products producer with operations in Poland, has called for “dialogue” with Russian authorities after Moscow’s consumer rights agency put an embargo on all non-dairy cheese imports from Poland, after examining one of its products.

The Russian agency, Rospotrebnadzor, released a statement in late February declaring that it had found that the ‘Wesola Krowka’ (‘Jolly Cow’) imitation cheese product did not meet Russian requirements for dairy products.…

EGYPT’S USD1 billion cosmetics and perfume market – regulated and unregulated – has still to recover from the country’s 2011 revolution. Ongoing instability and weak economic growth has stymied a hoped-for robust rebound in sales. That said, demand is starting to pick up and the country’s large population of 85.5 million is making significant purchases of mass market toiletries.…

Climbing the career ladder in finance and accounting takes a willingness to take on new, difficult challenges, acquiring varied experience and clear long-term goals. No one knows this better than Grzegorz Mączyński, an ACCA fellow and the financial director and member of the board of Alstom Konstal, Alstom Transport’s branch in Poland.…

AS concerns continue to emerge about the extent to which common security measures such as passwords can be breached, biometrics are gaining attention across a range of services and law enforcement teams preventing fraud.

Isabelle Moeller, CEO of the London and Sydney-based Biometrics Institute, stressed to Fraud Intelligence that “biometric authentication has the potential to ease the burden of security given its simplicity and usability, particularly when compared to username and password.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to allow individual European Union (EU) member states to reject the cultivation of genetically modified food on their territories, independent of what the situation is at EU level. This law, negotiated with the EU Council of Ministers, leaves room to national governments to ban the GMOs from being produced in their countries for other reasons than environmental or health risks.…

THE PERSONAL care product industry will be hoping that US President Barack Obama’s “new chapter” in relations with Cuba, announced in December (2014), will revive sales and trade, amidst tightening rules on Cuban travellers from the US.

It is currently not certain just what specific changes in policy on either the US or Cuban side will occur, let alone when, but it is already clear that travel restrictions to Cuba will at least be lightened. …

EUROPEAN Union (EU) regulations on certain textile products Belarus and North Korea should soon be clearer and more user-friendly, according to members of the European Parliament trade committee. At a meeting in Brussels this Wednesday (Dec 3), Jaroslaw Walesa, the Polish centre-right MEP in charge of negotiating these reforms for the parliament, backed the liberalisation proposals as “technical but not controversial”.…

While eastern Europe’s cosmetics sector seems in general to be emerging from its post-recession doldrums, the conflict in Ukraine has begun to significantly impact that country’s cosmetics industry. Analysts warn that tit-for-tat sanctions with Russia and uncertainty over the annexed Crimea and the future of the contested east of the country is halting investment.…

Given today’s uncertain global economic environment, it is up to CFOs to manage expectations and push for their companies’ long-term growth through clear planning and a responsible corporate culture. Business leaders from across the globe discussed how to navigate these issues at the seventh ACCA Poland CFO European Summit, staged in Warsaw, on November 19.…

DOCUMENTS obtained by Confectionery Production from the European Union (EU) indicate that Ukraine has lost up to USD126 million’s worth of confectionery export sales to Russia this year, because of Russian trade restrictions.
EU briefing papers note that Ukraine has been complaining to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since October 2013 about alleged “unjustified barriers to trade caused by the measures of the Russian Federation, in particular, on Ukrainian confectionery products.”…

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to invest Polish Zloty PLN550 million (USD162 million) in Warsaw Chopin Airport, helping fund a PLN1.1 billion improvement plan. This includes work to reconfigure terminal one, improve its integration with terminal two, resurface the main runway, build new taxiways and aprons, construct a second airport hotel and provide a new aviation fuel supply line.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s response to Europe’s African swine fever (ASF) crisis was criticised at the European Parliament yesterday (Tuesday Oct 7) for being too weak. The disease has brought about considerable economic damage to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, members of the parliament’s agriculture and rural development committee warned in Brussels.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced a further four European Union (EU)-funded marketing programmes promoting sales of EU-produced meat, within member states and abroad. These are in addition to the Euro EUR7.7 million programme promoting lamb sales run by British beef and lamb levy body Eblex, Ireland’s Bord Bía, France’s Interbev, announced earlier this week.…

THE NEW European Commission of president Jean-Claude Juncker, which will take office for five years on November 1 is expected to be more political than its predecessors and certainly has a clear brief from its boss: more growth and jobs.

Juncker, a consummate European Union (EU) insider, a former president of the Eurogroup of Euro-zone finance ministers, and an ex-prime minister of his native Luxembourg, will use powerful vice-presidents to keep his team in line.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) commissioner-designate for industry, internal market, entrepreneurship and small and medium sized-enterprises (SME) – Elżbieta Bieńkowska – has promised to stop the revolving door of EU legislation that has complicated the life of EU cosmetics firms.

Speaking to Soap, Perfumery & Cosmetics after her confirmation hearing in the European Parliament on October 2, Polish centre-right politician Ms Bieńkowska promised there will be no new legislation impacting the sector if confirmed in her position: “No new legislation, because I would always want to have less legislation than more,” she said, noting that Europe’s cosmetics market was growing and left relatively unscathed by the economic and financial crisis.…

FOUR Baltic-rim states have reached an agreement on a programme of joint measures to combat the outbreak of the fatal African swine fever virus (ASFV) in the region. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia established a Baltic-Polish taskforce on July 30, to eliminate the spread of the disease, which was detected at a piggery in Eastern Lithuania on July 22.…

Chinese construction firms have cornered plenty of business in Africa and Latin America, but they need upskilling to consolidate their position. Anyone who observes the queues of nervous young men lining up in the early morning in Beijing’s tree-lined Sanlitun diplomatic district will be in no doubt of the intensity of Chinese activity in Africa and Latin America.…

One consequence of the ageing population in many parts of the world is a significant increase in demand for nonwoven adult incontinence products, notably adult nappies. Indeed, in Japan, which has one of the most rapidly ageing populations, there have been reports of adult diaper sales exceeding those of babies for some manufacturers.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) oil refining industry is looking at September as the time when the European Commission may propose a new way to implement the bloc’s fuel quality directive (FQD). This would break a deadlock of almost three years, with Brussels tabling its last proposed technical rules on how the 2009 law should work in October 2011.…

ECUADOR, an important confectionery exporter to the European Union (EU), has struck a new bilateral free trade agreement with the EU, which will eliminate tariffs on imports to Europe. The new trade deal is supposed to take effect in late 2016, and until then a system of preferential tariffs will be in place.…

THE MIDDLE East cosmetics market is weathering the region’s current political and economic instability in the region. While the markets in the Levant are experiencing tough times, Gulf sales continue to grow. Retailers and manufacturers are also offsetting the losses incurred in depressed and unstable countries by exporting to burgeoning African markets.…

RUSSIA is challenging the European Union’s (EU) third energy package at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), claiming its requirements for market access and unbundling break EU WTO commitments for open trading with other countries. Moscow is concerned the law will, for instance, allow competitors access to infrastructure such as the South Stream pipeline it wants to build across the Black Sea.…

The Nordic paints and coating market is competitive and growing, being dominated by a handful of strong players headed by Tikkurila and Teknos in Finland and Jotun in Norway. In Dyrup, the region could boast a fourth major local player, although American corporation PPG Industries paid the Danish firm’s parent, Monberg & Thorsen, EUR115 million for the company in 2011.…

RUSSIA has today (Monday April 7) effectively extended its African Swine Fever (ASF)-justified ban to include processed pork meat products from Poland and Lithuania, two Polish members of the European Parliament (MEP) have revealed.

Speaking during a meeting of the European Parliament’s committee on agriculture held today in Brussels, the Polish centre-right MEP Czesław Adam Siekierski said that last week the Russian Veterinary Office released an order saying it would ban processed pork meat products coming from Lithuania and Poland as of April 7, extending the existing Russian ban on fresh pigmeat products from the whole European Union (EU).…

Innovations in sustainability for cosmetics and packaging were highlighted at the 47th Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna (April 4-7), in Italy. From natural, innovative materials to using traditional materials specifically designed to protect sustainable and organic products, Cosmoprof and its related Cosmopack exhibition emphasised the latest in cosmetics and personal care innovations, and offered a look at trends to come in 2015.…

AUSTRIA

The location of ECC Austria in central Vienna means many consumers drop by to receive advice or lodge complaints in person with the ECC’s five staff members. A top priority in 2013 was increasing public awareness about e-commerce fraud; a brochure aimed at combatting the problem was published and more than 600,000 were distributed throughout Austria.…

BUDGET airlines have a major impact on airport expansion or contraction across Europe, but their importance can be particularly pronounced in countries towards the east, whose economies are still catching up with the west of the continent.

Even in Poland, which avoided recession since the financial collapse of 2008, some airports have asked city and regional governments for help when they cannot attract enough trade – in one recent instance following a decision by Ryanair to cut routes.…

Polish pigmeat producers operating in zones subject to movement controls because of the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in local wild boars will be guaranteed payments of Euro EUR35.7 per 100kg for pigs slaughtered starting February 26, the European Commission has announced.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) RASFF food safety alert service has warned of e-coli being detected in Brazilian meat cargoes exported to Europe. Dutch customs officials rejected three consignments of chilled beef from Brazil after discovering they had been contaminated with shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli.…

A RUSSIAN ban on European pork imports is having serious consequences, the European Union (EU) health Commissioner Tonio Borg warned last night (Monday) in Brussels. “The price of meat in Europe is going down and the price of meat in Russia is going up”, he told journalists after an EU Council of Ministers agricultural meeting.…

THE COUNTRIES of eastern and central Europe that came in from the cold in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall have felt the economic chill in recent years, with recession affecting the fortunes of the cosmetics industry.

Across a wide range of countries – for instance – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia – the retail value of the beauty and personal care products market has remained at around Euro EUR10.70 billion in both 2012 and (according to provisional data for these five countries by market analysts Euromonitor International) in 2013; and is forecast to grow to EUR10.85 billion in 2014.…

EASTERN and central Europen markets for biocosmetics are a key growth area for personal care product companies, with some markets growing and others relatively untapped.

The region’s largest country, Poland (38 million people) is witnessing sales of bio-cosmetics surging at rates of 10% to 30% annually, according to producers and distributors.…

BY MARK ROWE; JONATHAN DYSON, in Zagreb; and ANDREW KURETH, in Warsaw

THE COUNTRIES of eastern and central Europe that came in from the cold in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall have felt the economic chill in recent years, with recession affecting the fortunes of the cosmetics industry.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

WHILE the European Union’s (EU) ban on sales of cosmetics with ingredients tested on animals was imposed as recently as March 2013, its impact has been felt as far away as east Asia.

Japan’s cosmetics firms, for instance, prepared well in advance for the change in legislation.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed a proposed European Union (EU) programme to boost nuclear safety outside the EU, but has called for neighbouring countries to be given priority in spending.

In a series of consultative amendments approved yesterday (Wednesday November 20), the parliament said that said countries would get preferred funding if they already benefited from EU ‘pre-accession assistance’ for countries wanting to join the EU and those eligible for ‘European neighbourhood instrument’ spending.…

THE POLISH energy sector is assessing the appointment of a new environment minister in Poland, as a year-end deadline for deciding whether to green-light two nuclear power plant approaches.

Optimism surrounding these plans has risen this week, with a government reshuffle appointing Maciej Grabowski, an economist, in place of a lawyer Marcin Korolec, as environment minister.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed a proposed European Union (EU) programme to boost nuclear safety outside the EU, but has called for neighbouring countries to be given priority in spending.

In a series of consultative amendments approved yesterday (Wednesday November 20), the parliament said that said countries would get preferred funding if they already benefited from EU ‘pre-accession assistance’ for countries wanting to join the EU and those eligible for ‘European neighbourhood instrument’ spending.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian oil exporters are to benefit from a new free trade deal struck between the EU and Canada. Once the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been ratified (probably in 2015), it will lead to all existing non-food duties imposed on goods traded between the parties being scrapped.…

POLAND has become one of the hottest destinations in Europe for commercial real estate investment as investors look to capitalise on the country’s continued economic stability and potential for growth. Given the financial fragility of many other European Union (EU) states, this 38 million population country, which avoided recession during the credit crunch, is increasingly regarded as a key commercial property market.…

The 5th European Innovation Summit, organised by Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) and held at the European Parliament (EP) 30 September-2 October, found the big names in EU research agreed that it was high time for a “wake up Europe” call.  A five-point declaration addressed to EU policy-makers and the EU member state governments was agreed at the summit after several speakers had sought to identify and suggest ways of removing the obstacles standing in the way of Europe becoming a successful innovation economy.…

Poland’s new reverse-charge VAT law on certain steel products is causing confusion within the Polish steel industry. Introduced on October 1 to curb growing tax frauds, some producers and distributors fear they are unsure how to implement the new rules and that an incorrect interpretation could even spark bankruptcy.…

THE DIRECTOR of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has said continued pathogen contamination involving meat traded across Europe underlines the need to fight opposition to European Commission proposals to modernise meat inspection systems.

Stephen Rossides called on meat inspectors not to block future progress: “The current meat inspection system is focused on old risks,” Rossides said.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) food and feed safety rapid alert network (RASFF) has warned of continued detections of salmonella contamination of imported meat and meat products across Europe. In most instances, consignments were exported from other EU member states. It reported six salmonella meat contamination cases between October 21 and 24 for instance.…

The Russian government has once again questioned the quality of Polish meat imported into its territory, raising concerns in Poland that Russia might impose import restrictions or a ban. On October 4 Russia’s meat inspectorate, Rosselkhoznadzor, said laboratory tests had turned up pathogenic bacteria in poultry and frozen pork from two plants in Poland.…

POLAND, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will collectively receive EUR2.5 million from the European Commission to prevent spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) from Russia and Belarus.

The Commission said the money is for “preventive measures which include cleansing and disinfection of vehicles, surveillance and laboratory testing, awareness campaigns and even the use of wild boar repellents and preventive early slaughter of pigs in risk backyard farms”.…

The Polish government has introduced reverse-charge VAT mechanisms for the steel sector, to crack down on tax evasion in Poland’s steel market.

This means steel consumers rather than producers will pay VAT to the government. Warsaw acted using new powers granted by the EU in July, which allow national governments to impose reverse charges without asking the EU Council of Ministers permission, as in the past.…

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.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released documents showing that it wants the US to ban future export restrictions on selling energy products raw materials to the European Union (EU), during negotiations for the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This would be the world’s largest bilateral trade deal.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has now formally approved a new European Union (EU) offshore oil and gas drilling directive, designed to prevent accidents such as the Deepwater Horizon spill happening in coastal EU sea waters.

These new rules will require oil and gas firms to prove they can cover potential liabilities from accidents and submit major hazard reports and emergency response plans to regulators before drilling operations start.…

EASTERN European textile and clothing companies used to have a cost advantage in serving wealthy western European markets, but that has long been eclipsed by Asian competition – added value technical textiles may offer them a sustainable future.

In Poland’s hard-pressed textile industry, its fast-growing technical branch may constitute the future of the national industry, experts in the country’s industry say.…

Poland confirmed plans in 2012 to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with a view to importing supplies from Qatar, it seemed like the latest example of eastern European energy ministries trying to avoid energy dependence on Russia. Plans to develop shale gas in Poland and the Baltic States fall into the same category, along with policies to build energy infrastructure linking Poland and its Nordic and Baltic neighbours.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition of Polish personal care products retailer Polbita by Austrian banking group Erste and the Italian-owned Polish bank Alior Bank. Brussels waved through the deal imposing no conditions using its fast-track simplified merger review procedure.…

AMIDST the financial crises of various European Union (EU) member states in 2009, Poland was the only country that did not enter recession. In fact, Poland hasn’t posted negative growth in over 20 years. Although its economic progress has slowed in recent years, Poland is still the envy of much of the EU, which continues to struggle with economic stagnation and recession in some countries.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted for a regulation insisting at least three groundhandling operators should offer services at European Union (EU) airports processing more than 15 million passengers and/or 200,000 tonnes of freight annually. The current legislation insists on only two competitors.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have suffered unevenly from Russia’s ban on EU food exports from last August, according to European Commission data.
While Finnish and Estonian extra-EU food and drink exports fell sharply in August-November 2014 compared to the same period in 2013 (32% and 22% down respectively), other EU food exporters saw only moderate falls in such sales, or even gains.…

A COMPLEX international supply web supporting an illicit business of tobacco counterfeiters, losing European Union (EU) governments Euro EUR50 million in duties, has been unveiled in a German court. Details were revealed in a case at the Berlin-Moabit criminal court convicting a German-Russian co-national to nine years jail.…

POLITICAL battle-lines are being drawn over the oncoming debates at the European Parliament and the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers on the shape of the revised tobacco products directive. While formal amendments have yet to be proposed, preliminary discussions are giving the industry a good idea of the challenges to be faced over the coming months.…

As Poland’s shale gas rush ramps up in earnest, companies offering locally-sourced minerals used in hydraulic fracturing look set to profit. The industry, nascent as it is in Poland, comprises a hodgepodge of contractors and subcontractors, each sourcing different materials from different places.…

THE RANGE of penalties for fraud as well as the exact definitions of the offence that apply throughout western Europe are considerable. Within the European Union (EU) alone for instance, the maximum sentences for fraud range from from “at most two years” in Sweden to up to 12 years in Romania.…

AFTER months of speculation about the future of Poland’s nuclear program, the New Year has brought an encouraging sign of progress.

On January 9, PGE EJ 1, the special purpose vehicle handling the construction of Poland’s first of two planned nuclear power plants, announced the result of a public tender to select a contractor to assess possible sites, looking at a shortlist of three.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s employment and transport committees are combining to hammer out a draft European Union (EU) groundhandling law that has a chance of being passed by MEPs and EU ministers. The move follows December 12’s rejection of the current proposed law by the parliament’s plenary.…

BY MARK ROWE

ANYONE looking for straightforward conclusions about the impact of the recession on eastern Europe’s cosmetics market is likely to be disappointed. Some countries, such as Poland, fared relatively well in the crisis, while others such as Latvia faced punishing economic contraction, therefore signals coming from the region in these uncertain and ever-changing times, are hugely varied.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN ADDIS ABABA

WITH Africa’s second largest population – around 85 million – and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies (expanding 7% annually over recent years), the potential of Ethiopia as a market for cosmetics products is beginning to be realised by the personal care products sector worldwide.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

MAJOR personal care product brands are targeting Finland for expansion, feeding off the country’s strong domestic demand economy, with Kiehl, The Body Shop and Denmark’s Tiger all expanding sales outlets.

The Bank of Finland is forecasting a 6% increase in consumer spending on middle to high-end luxury goods in the fourth quarter of 2012, and a 3% increase January-June 2013.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Japanese paint and coatings exporters could benefit from a future free trade deal, with the European Commission announcing that formal trade talks between these two developed world giants will go ahead. Brussels’ directorate general for trade is stressing that Japan must make offers to remove its notoriously tough non-tariff barriers – such as trade licensing and other red tape – for the talks to succeed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Japanese plastics exporters could benefit from a future free trade deal, with the European Commission announcing that formal trade talks between these two developed world giants will go ahead. Brussels’ directorate general for trade is stressing that Japan must make offers to remove its notoriously tough non-tariff barriers – such as trade licensing, declarations, inspections, labelling, certification, port clearance and other red tape and other red tape – for the talks to succeed.…

BY MARK ROWE

TO describe recent times as difficult for the eastern European cosmetics industry would be something of an understatement. Since 2010, some countries have experienced dizzying declines in production and sales that indicated the industry was more or less in tune with the wider economic mood across the region.…

BY BLAKE BERRY, IN WARSAW; JOHN PAGNI, IN HELSINKI; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA, ITALY; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND ALAN OSBORN

IF you are a biofuel manufacturer, you could be forgiven for being frustrated with the complexity of the market in Europe.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW; LEE ADENDORFF, IN ITALY; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; AND ALAN OSBORN

STANDARDIZATION remains the main hurdle European Union (EU) countries will have to pass to see an increased uptake of electric vehicles, auto industry specialists at a recent conference in Brussels organized by the Public Policy Exchange has determined.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THERE are no reasons for the European Union to restrict or even ban the use of crystalline silica or talc in workplaces across Europe, Michelle Wyart-Remy, secretary general of Industrial Minerals Association Europe (IMA-Europe) has said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s energy committee has rejected attempts to introduce a moratorium on offshore gas drilling in the Arctic, overruling a contrary vote by the EP’s environment committee last month. Instead, the committee proposed new amendments to a proposed law on European Union (EU) oil and gas exploration, ensuring that companies have ‘adequate financial security’ to cover liabilities from any drilling accidents in all EU waters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A FORMAL call for the European Commission to propose eight hour journey-time limits for livestock being carried across the European Union (EU) has been made at the European Parliament.

Its agriculture committee approved a report requesting Commission action on Friday.…

BY ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW

ONE day after Poland’s treasury minister said Poland would delay decisions over pushing ahead with its plans to build two nuclear power plants, the country’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk insisted that the country’s nuclear program was still on the table.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

In eastern Europe, with its Soviet-era reliance on communal heating systems, co-generation continues to have strength.…

BY ROBERT STOKES IN MÁLAGA

THIS year I have abandoned my premium brand sun screen in favour of a Deliplus private label product sold by the Spanish supermarket group Mercadona for around EUR 5.00, saving around EUR 12.00 into the bargain.…

BY ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW

MAJOR international nuclear-energy technology providers are signing a wave of agreements with Polish energy companies and research institutes to curry political favour as they compete in the race for the tender to supply Poland’s first nuclear power plant, set to come on line in 2023.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

NANOMATERIALS have been finding their way into cosmetics and personal care products for years now, but until recently, the term meant different things to different manufacturers – and almost nothing to consumers. It is not until the European Commission came out with a common European Union (EU) definition for nanomaterials last October – materials whose main constituents have a dimension of between 1 billionth and 100 billionth of a metre (or 0.000000001 metre) – that cosmetics companies finally gained a clear guideline under which to define certain properties of their products.…

BY E BLAKE BERRY, IN POLAND; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; AND MJ DESCHAMPS,

WHILE southern and western Europe’s economies falter, being mired in debt, eastern Europe’s coatings market is now growing solidly amidst economic performances that are recovering from a recession that hit the region hard.…

BY KACI RACELMA

WHILE the majority of north African paint and coatings markets have been disrupted by the wave of political and economic unrest brought on by the ongoing Arab Spring revolution, relatively stable Morocco has generated modest growth.

The country’s paint companies predict an increase in domestic paints and coatings production and sales in 2012, following sluggish sales since the international financial crisis hit in 2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing to release calls for research proposals commanding millions of Euros of European Union (EU) funding, offering opportunities for innovative liquid fuel and oil production. The initiative is the last batch of funding under the outgoing EU seventh framework programme on research, which ends next year.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE FINAL battle over the proposed European Union (EU) energy efficiency directive will be fought article by article over the next weeks in Brussels, Martin Lidegaard, Denmark’s climate and energy minister said on Thursday. "There’s still a lot of work to be done, a lot of compromises that should be achieved and it will need flexibility from our side, but also from the [European] Parliament and the Commission’s side if we shall succeed in ending [the negotiations for] this directive," Lidegaard told a press conference.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has told the Polish government to stop allowing sales of imported medicines that are similar to those approved within Poland, but cheaper. Polish law allows sales of foreign medicines with the same active substances, dosage and form as medicines carrying marketing authorisation in Poland, if the imported drugs’ price is "competitive".…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN MÁLAGA; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; LEE ADENDORFF, IN LUCCA; BLAKE BERRY, IN WARSAW; AND ALAN OSBORN

RISING energy prices and Europe’s continuing economic malaise has increased fuel poverty across the continent. The UK government defines fuel poverty as where to heat a home to an adequate standard of warmth, a household must spend more than 10% of its income.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA; AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

KNOWING how to speak two languages in a country where there are two official languages is always going to be a good bet. But as well as the delights of knowing you peanuts from your arachides and your gelée from your jelly, there are whole host of additional cognitive advantages to mastering two tongues rather than one.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered that a chemical used by the cosmetics industry to make nail polish – diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP) – be only used in the European Union with specific permission from the European Chemicals Agency. The plasticiser is such a health risk, it will be controlled by ECHA’s special authorisation process, under EU chemical control system REACH.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is coming under pressure to act against child labour in the global cocoa sector, with proposals being debated at the European Parliament to track cocoa produced with the help of children. That could mean an EU law creating a monitoring system making it clear to consumers where cocoa products risked being tainted by child labour, maybe through the "possible introduction of ‘child-labour free’ product labelling," said a draft report from the EP’s international trade committee.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has for the first time protected a traditional food product from being copied outside its home region which has historically been made in two countries. This groundbreaking protected designation of origin (PDO) and geographical indication has been awarded to a honey made in Poland and Lithuania: called Miód z Sejne?szczyny/?o?dziejszczyzny…

BY MARK ROWE, IN LONDON; ZLATKO CONKAS, IN NOVI SAD, SERBIA; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; AND BLAKE BERRY, IN WARSAW

DURING the spring of 2011, the prevailing view throughout eastern Europe’s personal care and toiletries market was that while business was not exactly buoyant, the worst of the recession was over – then came the credit crises and the faltering Euro.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FUTURE of the natural gas sector is guaranteed in any viable European Union (EU) energy mix, the European Commission has said in a major policy paper. In its ‘Energy Road Map 2050’, Brussels argues that gas is the relatively clean fuel that will buy the EU time to adopt new energy technologies.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

A POLISH beverage company has been banned from trade marking its energy and alcoholic drinks under its name Viaguara, after the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) General Court ruled Wednesday the name was too similar to anti-impotence drug Viagra.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is coming under pressure to toughen its action against high mobile roaming charges, as its latest proposals are debated at the European Parliament.

MEPs want the Commission to go further in its action to foist more competition on the roaming market while capping bills.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

EUROPEAN energy ministers meeting in Brussels have declared they were less than satisfied with rigid efficiency targets contained within the European Commission’s proposed energy efficiency directive.

Poland, which currently holds the EU presidency, presented a progress report at the meeting of the EU Council of Ministers (Nov 27) for energy on the work done over the past several months on a draft directive concerning energy efficiency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EU food producers organisation COPA-COGECA has welcomed the likely accession of Russia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), following a weekend deal over membership struck with Georgia over the weekend. This was the last key obstacle preventing Russia joining the WTO, hopefully at a Geneva ministerial meeting, December 15-17.…

BY DAVID HAYHURST

HOPES and expectations run high among leading European green energy lobbyists and environmentalist ahead of Denmark’s assumption of the presidency of the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers for six months from in January.

The country is a world leader in wind energy, a long-time proponent of other renewables, a founding member of the North Seas Offshore Grid Initiative (NSOGI), and a trailblazer in electric vehicle (EV) use and infrastructural investment.…

BY MARK ROWE and MJ DESCHAMPS

POLAND’S historic Gdansk Shipyard, which has long been the site of construction of solid steel structures and shipbuilding, is now working towards becoming the leading steel structure solutions supplier for onshore and offshore wind projects in Europe.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, BLAKE BERRY, MONIKA HANLEY, MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

EASTERN Europe is often regarded as developing in the slipstream of richer western Europe – and so far the model seems to be fitting with biofuels. That said, significant biodiesel manufacturing capacity is in place in the region, according to the European Biodiesel Board.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers this week authorised the European Commission strike a gas supply deal with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, which have substantial reserves under and near the Caspian Sea. The agreement would focus on a pipeline system running under the se from Turkmenistan to Azerjaijan.…

BY E BLAKE BERRY and MARK ROWE

NURSES working in Britain, and western Europe like to think their professional standards are high. And largely this is true. But what of nurses working in eastern Europe? With most countries in the region in the European Union (EU), it had been hoped EU nursing training and practice rules would raise professional standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken another step towards focusing the European Union’s (EU) support for biofuel production on those fuels that create at least 35% less carbon emissions than fossil fuels. A key part of this process is using certification schemes to ensure that biofuels are green, taking account of the environmental impact of their production as well as use, and the Commission has now recognised seven of these systems.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

The recent 100% acquisition of UK voice and data communications company Airwave Solutions by Australian-based banking group Macquarie Group is the latest example of an investment company taking over a telco, writes MJ Deschamps. The Australian group’s Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II (MEIF II) already owned just over 50% of Airwave, and is now buying all the stock.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is staging a re-evaluation of the sweetener aspartame after it agreed to bring forward from 2020 a scheduled inquiry, despite recent scientific assessments failing to reveal fresh concerns about the sweetener.

Indeed, EFSA reviewed the latest studies on aspartame only in April, but accepted a European Commission request for a new study.…

BY ANDREW KURETH

POLISH telecommunications specialists predict that the European Commission anti-trust fine levied last week against Poland’s dominant telecom operator, Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (TPSA), could open the door to compensation claims from competitors.

Brussels hit TPSA with a Euro EU127.5 million penalty, saying it had illegally stymied competitors’ access to its network.…

BY MARGUERITE-JEANNE DESCHAMPS, MINI PANT ZACHARIAH and WANG FANGQING

While sales of alcohol in pubs and bars in North America, Europe and the UK have seen a steady decline since the global economic downturn, experts are saying the shift from on-trade to off-trade sales of alcohol has not really had a financial impact on the alcoholic beverage industry as a whole.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ENERGY companies and non-government organisations (NGOs) participating in the development of a European Union (EU) long-term energy plan to 2050, have identified fossil fuel costs as the main motor of change in future public policy. In consultation staged by the European Commission for developing an ‘Energy Roadmap to 2050’, about half of all respondents believed "global fossil fuel prices in relation to costs of domestic energy resources and long term security of supply will be the most likely key drivers…" This conclusion comes in a summary of responses released by Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NUMBER of personal care products reported last year through the European Union’s (EU) RAPEX consumer alert service as being potentially unsafe or breaching the EU cosmetics directive fell in 2010 – to 66, down from 86 in 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has laid down the gauntlet to the fossil fuel sector, releasing a comprehensive long-term strategy that would halve the use of ‘conventionally-fuelled’ cars in urban transport by 2030, phasing them out in cities by 2050.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UKRAINE-owned Polish steel-maker ISD Polska has lost a final appeal at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against a European Commission order that it repay Polish zloty 19.6 million (USD6.9 million) in state aid from its government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

International tobacco crime fighters combine their muscle

Criminals make a fortune out of smuggling and counterfeiting tobacco products. The USA and the European Union have specialist crime-fighting bodies charged with fighting this crime. They are increasingly cooperating with each other and using smarter tactics and tougher laws to make a difference.…

BY TRICIA OBEN

THE DIFFICULTY of luring the cream of ‘Generation Y’ into the accounting profession worldwide is a widely recognised problem, but in countries where opportunities can be sparse such as west Africa’s Cameroon, this can be very tough. The issue was discussed at an ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) employer forum on March 22 in the economic capital Douala.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DESPITE having set a clear goal of ensuring 20% of the European Union’s (EU) energy consumption is drawn from green sources, such as biogas and biofuels, more money and resources must be wheeled into action. That is the claim of the European Commission, in a long-awaited policy paper from its energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, assessing the EU’s renewable energy directive.…

BY MARK ROWE and E BLAKE BERRY

GIVEN Poland’s reputation as a reliable member of the international community, it is perhaps surprising Poland was (until 2009 at least) reckoned by the European Commission and the US Department of State to have one of the EU’s poorest records for tackling money laundering.…

MINI PANT ZACHARIAH

NV Distilleries & Breweries, the major Indian distiller, has confirmed to just-drinks it will launch Polish Sobieski vodka in India from April 2011. It will be distilled under licence at Ambala, Haryana, one of the company’s five distilleries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

18

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the takeover by Unilever of Sara Lee’s body and laundry care businesses, on condition it sells off the US company’s Sanex brand and related business in Europe. Following an inquiry as the European Union’s (EU) lead competition authority, Brussels concluded there were particular concerns regarding Unilever’s future dominance of some EU deodorant markets.…

BY MARK ROWE

Recession forced eastern European smokers to ditch premium brands for cheaper smokes

Tobacco majors have long targeted eastern Europe as a soft emerging market for premium brands. But times got tough during the recession, when smokers swapped aspiration for economy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) consumer protection network RAPEX has warned of a series of hair-care products being discovered containing substances banned by the EU cosmetics directive. Czech authorities banned Polish product hair dye 111 Noix Dore for containing 2-nitro-p-phenylenendiamine and hydroquinone.…

BY WANG FANGQING

Japan’s Lotte Group’s new Polish subsidiary the Warsaw-based chocolate maker E.Wedel has confirmed the company is planning to expand in eastern Europe, following reports that it is to build five new plants in Poland. "With the acquisition of Wedel, the Lotte Group gained a toehold to secure production base in the European market for the future development and intends to expand this business throughout European market," Wedel’s spokesperson Marta Pokutycka-M?drala…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TARGETED investments aimed at improving energy self-sufficiency and efficiency maybe the key result of a grand European Union (EU) ‘Energy 2020’ strategy, released this month (November 10) by the European Commission. Building on existing reforms to liberalise and green EU energy production and delivery, the policy paper proposes ensuring energy efficiency is a criteria of public procurement by member states, and also that energy efficiency certificates are created to encourage sustainable energy investment by industry.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

SALES of new cars are still holding up surprisingly well despite the global downturn, but within a few years of their purchase, how many of them will be running on retread tyres?

The signs are that the market for retread and recycled tyres will grow, as world demand for rubber grows, particularly in China.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THREE of the world’s major public financing institutions have started due diligence on the Nabucco gas pipeline project, work that could release billions of Euros into the troubled project. If they are happy, the European Investment Bank (EIB) could invest Euro EUR2 billion, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) EUR1.2 billion and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, EUR800 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is to combine forces with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the coming year to examine offshore oil and gas safety in the light of the Gulf of Mexico spill.

At an ‘Energy Dialogue’ meeting in Brussels, senior OPEC and EU officials agreed to organise an international roundtable on minimising offshore safety risks early 2011, which could spark new regulations.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE EUROPEAN Commission is planning to take the Polish government to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) claiming it is breaking key European Union (EU) pharmaceutical market approval controls. Brussels is upset that Poland allows non-authorised medicinal products to be sold that are similar to an approved product, just because they are cheaper.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

JUST six years ago, in March 2004, Ireland was the first country in the world to impose an outright ban on smoking in workplaces. A lot of European governments have followed its lead though Ireland (plus the UK and, surprisingly, Turkey) remain the only countries in Europe where the ban is total – that is it applies to smoking in all enclosed public and workplaces without exceptions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is lending Euro 52.8 million to the operator of Poland’s Wroclaw airport to build a new terminal and make other improvements, expanding annual capacity to 3.1 million passengers. Port Lotniczy Wroclaw SA will also use the money to extend and modify terminal one; improve aprons, taxiways, de-icing facilities, drainage and navigation systems; and boost car parking and access roads.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TURKISH-MADE coral-coloured nail polish ‘Marabu’ has been withdrawn from sale in Germany for containing 0.5% by weight of dibutyl phthalate (DBP), banned in cosmetics by the European Union’s cosmetics directive. Meanwhile, India-made ‘Moon Star’ brown herbal henna has also been withdrawn in Germany over health concerns reported European Union consumer alert system RAPEX.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ANCA GURZU and DAVID HAWORTH

THE CONFECTIONERY manufacturing sector in the European Union (EU) has a new political boss in the shape of Romania’s Dacian Ciolo?, who became the EU’s latest agriculture Commissioner on February 10. Appointed amidst pledges he would be willing to use EU money to guarantee food production, he has promised to undertake a swift review of the EU’s reformed sugar regime.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED States is claiming victory in a trade dispute with China, after Beijing announced it would scrap subsidies for products including body lotion, liquid detergent, soap and fancy soap. Washington had argued these China-christened ‘famous brands’ handouts were export subsidies banned by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA and Ukraine appear to have headed off an oil transit dispute that could have created a repeat of last year’s major disruption of European natural gas supplies. Moscow and Kiev have signed an agreement increasing by 30% the fees Ukraine charges on transporting Russian oil to the European Union (EU) – this alters a 2004 contract and the change had sparked a diplomatic tussle.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

HAILING from arguably Europe’s most egalitarian country, Finns take equality seriously. So when it appears that some are being treated differently from others, even the normally phlegmatic, taciturn Finnish trucker may be roused into voicing an opinion.

Being a large country with a small population and a good road network, congestion is rare.…

By Keith Nuthall, International News Services

So the Treaty of Lisbon has been ratified. With the Czech Constitutional Court backing its contents as legal and a new national opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights portion of the treaty given to his country, Czech president Václav Klaus has at last signed the treaty.

It should now come into force by the end of the year. So we will see a permanent president of the European Council of Ministers (albeit probably low profile Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy rather than pushy ex-UK PM Tony Blair); an EU foreign minister; and more power for the European Parliament.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TREND of the European Union (EU) loosening its purse-strings to help hard-pressed food producers has taken another two steps forward. The European Commission has approved a German government scheme that will earmark Euro 100 million for German farmers suffering from the recession in interest rate subsidies, subsidised loans and subsidised guarantees until December 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPOL’s Organised Crime Threat Assessments have not always contained a wealth of detailed useful information – but its 2009 report shows how crime groups are adopting innovative technology and organisational skills: international business should take note. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed letting fishing crews from Germany, France, Poland and Spain avoid detailed cod catch controls and potentially time-consuming statistical declarations for catches in the North Sea and off western Scotland. Brussels wants European Union (EU) ministers to allow selected groups of vessels to avoid following special fishing effort rules imposed by the EU’s 2008 regulation 1342/2008 on cod stock conservation.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, LEE ADENDOORF, E. BLAKE BERRY, SYMON ROSS, MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL

CONSUMER issues have been a key focus of European Union (EU) initiatives regarding utilities of late. The European Commission’s Citizens’ Energy Forum has been busy, recently focusing on improving billing practices, promoting good practice and calling for "clearer, more understandable and accurate bills".…

BY E BLAKE BERRY

THE POLISH beer market saw a 12.5% fall in sales during the first half of this year, according to data recently released by the Union of the Brewing Industry Employers in Poland (ZPPP). That’s the first drop since before the Iron Curtain fell.…

By David Haworth, in Brussels

By the time you read this, Ireland’s second attempt to ratify the Lisbon Treaty may have succeeded and thunderous pieties about the nation’s wisdom, maturity and farsightedness in reaching the “right” decision will be heard in all the continent’s chancelleries.

Thus the only European Union (EU) member to hold a referendum on this agreement will have been punched to the canvas by fear (the devastating recession) and loathing (the EU institutions and other capitals).

True, the Treaty’s legislative journey is not yet over.…

BY MINDY RAN

IT could be a workingman’s cafe just about anywhere: pool tables, basic food where everything is served with chips, TV permanently tuned to football. Except for one thing: this is one of two big truck stops in the Netherlands, nestled between the cross points of two main motorways in the centre of the country.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

REAPPLYING perfume ten times a day may not count as an addiction, but the ingredients found in your favourite scent could certainly lead to one: cosmetic ingredients have been historically targeted by clandestine drug manufacturers as sources of chemicals used to produce illicit street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POLISH and Finnish governments have come under intense legal pressure from the European Commission to implement European Union (EU) directive 2008/39/EC on plastic materials and articles in contact with food. Brussels has sent legal final warnings to Warsaw and Helsinki giving them two months to explain how they will bring their national laws in line.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MAJOR development works, which should see Poland’s airports improved for visitors to the Euro 2012 football championship it is hosting with Ukraine, have received a major boost. The European Commission has approved Euro 500 million in public development aid to 10 airports across the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POLISH confectionery industry is pushing the European Commission for a loosening of the rules allowing national European Union (EU) governments to give confectionery manufacturers financial assistance when buying sugar inputs.

A letter obtained by Confectionery Production from Polbisco – the Association of Polish Chocolate and Confectionery Manufacturers – has warned that last year’s abolition of EU export refunds for its products has been damaging overseas sales.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) consumer alert network RAPEX has released a series of warnings about north American personal care products. Notably, it has told of seizures in Italy of a Canadian talcum powder called ‘Spring Fresh’ that contained arsenic, which is banned under the EU cosmetics directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted European Union (EU) geographical indication protection to the traditional Polish biscuits ‘Andruty kaliskie’. In future these sweet bakery products cannot be sold under this name in the EU unless they are made by specific traditional methods within their historic home region – the central Poland city of Kalisz.…

BY E. BLAKE BERRY

IT looks as though Buczek Automotive’s fate is sealed. The firm, a Polish producer of pipes for the auto industry, has been little more than a husk since June of last year, and industry experts say there is now no hope that it will return to the market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DELICATE state of European Union (EU) and Russia diplomatic and energy relations has been illustrated starkly by the inclusion of eastern European gas interconnection projects within the European economic stimulus package. National governments of these new EU member states threatened to torpedo the entire agreement – seen as the lynchpin of European efforts to shake off the recession – if their gas schemes were not included.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA’S cosmetics industry appears to have taken the international economic downturn in its stride as the US$950 million market grew by more than 15% in 2008-09, according to the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

All the major brands speaking to Soap Perfumery & Cosmetics are registering a positive growth and companies remain confident about the future prospects.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PRINCIPLE of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is of course well established amongst energy suppliers: polluting industries, such as coal, would be able to continue to burn fossil fuels, but carbon dioxide, rather than being expelled into the atmosphere, would be harvested in the energy production cycle and securely locked away.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission has added three new items to its lists of quality food products with protected designation of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indication (PGI) rights, namely Hungarian salami – "Budapesti téliszalámi," Polish cheese – "Wielkopolsky ser sma?ony"…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the payment of Euro 251.5 million from European Union (EU) regional development funds for improvements to eight Polish airports. The money comes from the EU’s Cohesion Fund, which is designed to raise the economic health of poorer regions in member states, and will be augmented by funds from the Polish government.…

By Katherine Dunn

The travails of Roman Polanski in Switzerland this autumn have offered some lessons to the world’s wanted over extradition laws and how to deal with them. The Polish director has of course been living in France, with little fear of extradition, since 1978, when he fled the USA facing statutory rape charges.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SALE of children’s clothes, shoes and accessories in Poland with a low 7% VAT rate could be under threat because of a case being launched by the European Commission at the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Brussels accuses Warsaw of breaking the European Union (EU) VAT directive because although this allows a limited list of items to attract a reduced rate of VAT, these do not include children’s clothes, shoes and accessories.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POLISH government has proposed to the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers that upper and lower limits for CO2 permits within the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme should be established. Supported by the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, Warsaw has argued that a price floor would allow renewable energy companies to continue investing without worrying about a collapse in carbon prices: under the current ETS, prices have fallen far from expectations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have formally approved reductions to total allowable catches (TACs) in the Baltic Sea, with the aim of conserving stocks. That said, ministers did not reduce catches to the levels preferred by the European Commission: western Baltic herring catches have been cut by 39%, while Brussels wanted a 63% reduction: the Commission was mollified by a commitment from ministers to establish a long-term management plan for this stock.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) product safety network RAPEX has reported a series of EU market withdrawals of personal care products because they contain substances banned under the EU cosmetics directive:

*Estonia banned two lines of Turkish nail polish Mirra lux for including dibutyl phthalate (6.17% by weight);

*Ivory Coast-made whitening cream Lightening Beauty Crème has been withdrawn from the Irish market for containing hydroquinone (3.8%); and

*Portugal has blocked the sale of Italian hair colouring cream Color Contrast for containing the banned substance m-phenylenediamine.…

BY E BLAKE BERRY

IT is common knowledge that the flood of Polish workers moving to Britain for well-paid work has started turning, as Poles are lured home by a stronger domestic currency and family ties – many of these returnees are transport workers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) product safety network RAPEX has reported a series of EU market withdrawals of personal care products because they contain substances banned under the EU cosmetics directive:

*Estonia banned two lines of Turkish nail polish Mirra lux for including dibutyl phthalate (6.17% by weight);

*Ivory Coast-made whitening cream Lightening Beauty Crème has been withdrawn from the Irish market for containing hydroquinone (3.8%); and

*Portugal has blocked the sale of Italian hair colouring cream Color Contrast for containing the banned substance m-phenylenediamine.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

GONE are the days of the disgruntled, Soviet style Baltic States truck driver, more interested in taking time off than pushing for more deliveries. Since the fall off communism and the coming of independence to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, a new breed of truckers has come on to the scene, with new trucks and more ambitious attitudes, including the desire to drive west.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has moved to protect three traditionally made Polish meads from being copied by drinks manufacturers based outside the regions where they have historically been made. Brussels has added these products to its protected geographical indication lists preventing such copies being sold in the European Union (EU): Czwórniak, Dwójniak, Pó?torak…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FORMAL negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Russia over renewing the 1997 partnership and cooperation agreement between them are under way at last: formal talks started in Brussels on July 4, following a successful EU-Russia summit at the Siberian oil town of Khanty-Mansiysk..…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved Euro 84.1 million subsidies from the Polish government for constructing a new airport at Lublin, eastern Poland. The state aid – deemed legal by Brussels June 4 on regional development grounds – will help purchase the airport site, then build a terminal, runway and aircraft taxiways.…

By Alan Osborn

The European Parliament is pushing for an outright ban on the commercialisation of the cloning of animals, heading off potentially lucrative research revenue for universities.

It has voted overwhelmingly for a legislative amendment within European Union (EU) legislation to ban cloning animals for economic reasons, preventing their use for manufacturing meat, dairy foods, fibres and skins for clothing and textiles, medicine and other industries.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

THE SUDDEN and phenomenal rise in the cost of raw materials over the past year for the US$2.6 billion Indian paint and coating industry has made business conditions tough for this formerly thriving sector. It is unlikely sustain the 18% growth rate achieved last year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ENVIRONMENTAL impact of the proposed Russia-to-Germany Baltic Sea pipeline should be "carefully investigated" and alternative overland routes considered first, the European Parliament petitions committee has said. Responding to concerns of Polish and Lithuanian environmentalists, the committee concluded if an undersea Nord Stream pipeline did pose real and serious environmental risk, EU institutions and member states should "use every legal means" to prevent its construction.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for a legislative amendment within European Union legislation to ban cloning animals for economic reasons, preventing their use for meat and dairy products. "It’s degrading to animals and causes suffering. Animals are sentient beings and should be treated with respect.…

BY MARK ROWE

NUCLEAR energy production costs a lot of money and so it makes some economic sense for smaller countries interested in this climate-change friendly power supply to combine forces on major projects. So it is in eastern Europe, where in February 2007, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland provisionally agreed to build a new nuclear plant at Lithuania’s existing Ignalina site, initially with 3,200 MWe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament is pushing for an outright ban on the commercialisation of the cloning of animals, preventing their use for meat, as well as dairy and other livestock by-products. It has voted overwhelmingly for an amendment within European Union (EU) legislation to ban cloning animals for economic reasons.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend Euro 130 million to Poland’s Ministry of Infrastructure to fund traffic calming installations within Polish cities, where urban driving is amongst the most dangerous in Europe. An EIB note said Polish roads "have among the highest accident rates in the EU, with more than 50,000 accidents a year."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved a further Polish government subsidy for the development of Poland’s ?ód? regional airport. This time, Euro 11.3 million (Zloty 40.1 million) will improve safety standards, notably air traffic control services. The decision follows last year’s Brussels-approved Euro 2.5 million (Zloty 9.7 million) grant improving security and fire fighting services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMPROVED cooperation between fisheries authorities in the European Union (EU) and Russia is to be established, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Brussels and Moscow. The deal covers fishing grounds in the Baltic and the north Atlantic and involves better contacts between the European Commission and Russia’s state committee for fisheries.…

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA’S new-found belligerence and confidence is not confined to the political and military sphere: in recent years Russia has adopted an aggressive, take-it-or-leave it stance when it comes to fish, seafood and other food products.

The country has imposed a number of bans on fish products from its European neighbours, including salmon and other fresh fish from Norway, fishmeal, frozen fish and canned smoked sprats from Poland and a range of fish products from Latvia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH government has opposed Polish government proposals for introducing export refunds to promote European Union (EU) pigmeat sales abroad, despite recent London demonstrations by UK pork producers. London led opposition to the idea at an EU Council of Ministers meeting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH government has opposed Polish government proposals for introducing export refunds to promote European Union (EU) pigmeat sales abroad, despite recent London demonstrations by UK pork producers. Around 200 pig rearers picketed the 10 Downing Street residence of prime minister Gordon Brown earlier this month, protesting at low prices paid by supermarkets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF, with German and Polish police have broken an international cigarette smuggling ring, arresting 26 people and seizing millions of sticks. The arrests were made in Poland and Germany by the Polish Centralne Biuro ?ledcze…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW fishing agreement has been negotiated between the European Commission and Mauritania, slashing maximum catch allowances, after an earlier deal was poorly exploited by European Union (EU) fishermen. Under the replacement agreement – which should run from this August to July 2012 – catch quotas for EU vessels in Mauritania waters will fall by 25% for cephalopods; by between 10% and 50% for demersal species (mainly shrimp and hake); and by 43% for small pelagic fish.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPREHENSIVE raft of new legislation designed to force the European Union (EU) into further reducing its greenhouse gas emissions has been tabled by the European Commission. As expected, it has proposed targets that biofuels command 10% of the EU’s liquid fuel consumption by 2020.…

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA has engaged in a series of political and economic spats with its former Soviet satellites and the European Union (EU) in the first years of the 21st century. And while stand-offs over Belarus sugar and Moldovan wine might raise eyebrows in the West, disputes over the vast energy resources in Russia and its Central Asian neighbours carry an altogether darker shade, mainly because Russia supplies 25% of the EU’s oil and 25% of its gas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA has agreed to lift its import ban on Polish meat exports, which it has maintained for two years because of health concerns. The agreement could unblock attempts to forge a European Union-Russia trade and energy deal.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HEAVIER vehicles such as SUVs and luxury models will be able to breach a proposed European Union (EU) carbon dioxide cap, under formally proposed legislation now tabled by the European Commission. Pressure from German manufacturers forced Brussels into abandoning an absolute cap for all new models of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometre.…

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA’S booming economy means that those old images of grey queues for low-grade fuel to run Moskvich and other Soviet era cars are long gone. Instead, the country’s fuel retail sector has an incentive for dramatically overhauling the present state of affairs, which predominantly involves poorly established, locally run chains and Western chains fighting – sometimes unsuccessfully – for market share.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening Poland with legal action at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over its system for awarding prospecting, exploring and producing rights for natural gas within its territory. Brussels claims the Polish system is insufficiently transparent and open to all interested parties as regards standards mandated by European Union directive 94/22/EC.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has circulated throughout the European Union (EU) series of consumer alerts made over potentially harmful nail polish receiving retail bans in member states. Using its RAPEX alert service, the Commission warned of a marketing ban in Estonia of US-made nail polish range Pinnacle.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s decision to appoint ‘project co-ordinators’ to try to spark movement in four long-stalled cross-border energy projects in the European Union (EU) has drawn widespread cynicism from many in the industry. However, here and there, there is an admission that these high-level trouble-shooters might just get results where so many others have failed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA’S food inspection agency hopes this weekend’s change in government in Poland will improve relations so that Moscow’s long-standing ban on Polish meat exports can be lifted. In a general election, the business-friendly Civic Platform party beat the outgoing insular nationalist government of the Law and Justice party, prompting a spokesman for Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Inspection (Rosselkhoznadzor) to tell the ltar-Tass news agency: "If Poland’s new government makes a move toward constructive settlement of the problem of livestock products supply, we are ready to reciprocate."…

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA’S new-found belligerence and confidence is not confined to the political and military sphere: in the past four years – and increasingly so in the past 12 months – Russia has adopted an aggressive, take-it-or-leave it stance when it comes to imports of dairy and other food products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has overwhelmingly backed a report calling for the creation of a European Union (EU) ‘high official of foreign energy policy’ to coordinate common diplomatic manoeuvres with neighbouring countries on energy topics, such as Russia. This senior official would work alongside the EU’s existing EU high representative for a common foreign and security policy Javier Solana, said the report by Polish conservative MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

WITH a quick scrubbing motion, Tatsuya Ishihara commits an act that is tantamount to a crime in the vehicle industry. The to-and-fro of the wire brush has etched scars in the black paint on the bonnet of the brand new Nissan X-Trail SUV that would normally require a return to the workshop.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

WITH a quick scrubbing motion, Tatsuya Ishihara commits an act that is tantamount to a crime in the vehicle industry. The to-and-fro of the wire brush has etched scars in the black paint on the bonnet of the brand new Nissan X-Trail SUV that would normally require a return to the workshop.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and CHRISTOPHER JONES

WHEN the idea of creating a European Institute of Technology (EIT) was tabled by the European Commission last year, it provoked intense criticism amongst the European academic community. But now, 18 months after the first formal proposals were released, the EIT looks likely to be established anyway.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

WITH a quick scrubbing motion, Tatsuya Ishihara commits an act that is tantamount to a crime in the vehicle industry. The to-and-fro of the wire brush has etched scars in the black paint on the bonnet of the brand new Nissan X-Trail SUV that would normally require a return to the workshop.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance of the European Communities has rejected a bid by German cosmetics manufacturer Grether to prevent the EU-wide registration of the ‘FENNEL’ trademark by Thailand’s Crisgo for compact powder, lipstick, eye-shadow, eye-liner, blusher, nail polish and mascara’.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance of the European Communities has rejected a bid by German cosmetics manufacturer Grether to prevent the EU-wide registration of the ‘FENNEL’ trademark by Thailand’s Crisgo for compact powder, lipstick, eye-shadow, eye-liner, blusher, nail polish and mascara’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced heavy fines against the Polish government (Euro 7.7 million) and the Czech Republic (Euro 6.2 million) for the hoarding of excess meat stocks ahead of their countries joining the European Union (EU) in 2004.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced heavy fines against the Polish government (Euro 473,000) and Latvia (Euro 204,000) for the hoarding of excess wine stocks ahead of their countries joining the European Union (EU) in 2004. Accession deals for new member states always insist that new member countries do not import or produce excess supplies of drinks or food products ahead of joining the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLISH government plans to subsidise the development of Lodz airport with Euro 2.5 million (Zloty 9.7 million) have been approved by the European Commission. Warsaw wants to expand the state-owned regional airport’s capacity, increasing its infrastructure, (for instance installing a fire fighting team) while improving security systems.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
The European Commission has implicitly recognised that the proposed take-over of the Polish food supermarket chain Ahold Polska by the French food retailing giant Carrefour could violate Polish competition laws. Carrefour operates internationally and has 42 hypermarkets and 83 supermarkets in Poland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH the key May 18 European Union (EU)-Russia summit in Samara, Russia, looming, the European Commission is continuing efforts to find suitable alternative energy partners to Moscow. Russia and the EU want to start tough negotiations on forging a new energy agreement, with both sides firming up their positions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE
WITH the European Union (EU) securing around 25% of its gas from Russia and natural gas being an ever more important fuel for thermal power plants, the failure thus far of the European Union and Russia to agree a new long-term energy agreement has to be of concern to the electricity industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLAND is fighting a rearguard action to ensure a deal over the labelling and definition of ‘vodka’ drinks in the European Union (EU) gives only limited rights to producers using non-traditional ingredients. In a paper tabled at a recent EU Council of Ministers meeting (April 16) it called for negotiations to “take account of the best interest of consumers” so “information on untypical raw materials” should be included in the product description “or placed directly next to it in the same size [and] font.”…

BY MARK ROWE
FOLLOWING the ‘big bang’ of European Union (EU) expansion in May 2004, when 10 countries acceded to the EU, followed by Romania and Bulgaria this year, analysts were curious to see how those new members with well-regarded drinks industries would cope in the new pan-EU family.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MANDATORY consultations will be staged between Russia and the European Union (EU) in future, should either side be planning to impose health-based import restrictions on the other’s food exports. This is the essence of an agreement expected to be initialled by EU ministers and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting in Luxembourg in mid-April.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN an initiative bound to irritate any lawyer practising in English, a highly connected Francophile international group is pressing for the French language to have precedence in any translation dispute regarding European law. Why? Well, it’s simple, secretary of the Academie Francaise Maurice Druon told the European Parliament this week: “The language of Montesquieu is unbeatable.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend the Polish city of Gdansk up to Euro 91.36 million for boosting the quality and management of its dinking water supply systems and its wastewater collection and treatment networks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will spend around Euro 4.7 million in helping German, Greek, Italian and Polish food producers and processors export to the USA, Canada, Japan, China, India and other big non-European Union (EU) markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE STEEL sectors of Poland and the Czech Republic will be under a microscope wielded by the European Commission in 2007, when Brussels decides whether state aid pumped into these industries was well spent or should be paid back.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PRELIMINARY deal brokered by the European Commission in Moscow covering meat hygiene controls has headed off the immediate threat of Russia banning all imports of European Union (EU) meat and meat products from January 1. The Russian government had warned of an import blockade, because of concerns over the health and safety of meat from Bulgaria and Romania, who join the EU that day and henceforth benefit from pan-EU export rights.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will spend Euro 870,000 over two years in helping Polish meat producers and processors export to the USA, Canada, Japan, China, India and other big non-European Union (EU) markets. As usual in these cases, Brussels is funding 50% of planned marketing programmes, matching financing coming from nation governments or private sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is casting around for allies in central Asia and north Africa in its diplomatic tussle with Russia to secure cheap and reliable energy supplies. EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has flown to Algeria to discuss closer energy ties with this major gas and oil producer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA President Vladimir Putin has signalled a tough fight with the European Union (EU) over a future energy deal as December 1 negotiations approach on renewing the existing EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.

Speaking after an informal EU heads of government summit, Putin stressed an agreement would not involve Russia accepting the terms of the unratified 1991 multilateral Energy Charter Treaty, agreed by Boris Yeltsin in 1991, and involving EU firms breaking Gazprom’s monopoly on Russian and Central Asian gas supplies and accessing Russia energy networks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is casting around for a coherent policy on securing its external energy supplies, and while it is unsure of securing a solid deal with Russia, it is making ever more strident overtures to north Africa, the Caucasus and central Asia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

JEANS company Diesel has lost a case at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) where it was trying to block Polish company Montex from exporting Diesel-branded jeans from Poland to Ireland, where it has no trademark protection. Diesel argued it had the right to stop consignments crossing Germany, even though they were destined for Ireland, because it did control German trademark rights to the brand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has refused to block Polish company Montex from exporting Diesel-branded jeans from Poland to Ireland, where it has no trademark protection. Diesel argued it had the right to stop consignments crossing Germany, even though they were destined for Ireland, because it did control German trademark rights to the brand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POLISH government has been formally threatened with legal action by the European Commission at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) because Poland-based lottery winners of foreign lotteries are stung for what Brussels regards as unfair taxes.

Poland exempts from taxation winners’ prizes paid by Polish lotteries or subjects them to a flat rate tax of 10%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH fishermen have been allocated one of the smaller national envelopes of money from the incoming European Fisheries Fund (EFF), whose money has now been split amongst European Union (EU) member states by the European Commission. Out of the Euro 3.8 billion available from 2007 to 2013, only Euro 122 million has been allocated to the UK.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) food safety consumer alert service RASFF has warned of a series of aflatoxin contaminations in a variety of imported and EU-produced foodstuffs. Aflatoxins have been discovered within: Polish roasted and salted peanuts in Slovenia; Ethiopian mixed spices in Italy; Chinese, Ivory Coast and Ghanaian peanut butter in Britain; American almonds in Italy; Turkish hazelnuts, kernels and paste in France, Germany and Italy; Nigerian ogbono groundnuts in Britain; and Iranian pistachio nuts in Germany, Spain and Poland, among others.…

BY MARK ROWE

ACCESSION to the European Union (EU), with its attendant necessity to comply with environmental directives, along with a surprising surge in water-based coatings, have combined to make the past year an eventful one for the Polish paint industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TV dinners should be quick to prepare, and now a European research project has developed software speeding-up the design of ready-meals. Computer programmes created by Swedish and Polish scientists in the Eureka network, will help instant meal manufacturers assess how their products defrost and cook in microwaves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FUTURE of Polish zinc-lead smelter Huta Cynku Miasteczko ?l?skie (HCM) has been thrown into doubt, with the European Commission launching a "detailed investigation" into whether Euro 5.5 million planned Polish government subsidies are illegal.

In reality, Brussels has already largely concluded that they break European Union (EU) state aid rules preventing governments giving their companies unfair advantages in the EU marketplace.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOTHING manufacturers without trademark rights to a brand in a particular European Union (EU) country, cannot rely on such rights in another EU state to prevent rivals transporting goods carrying this mark: this principle has been recommended to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by an ECJ advocate general saying "in the absence of uncertainty" that rival manufacturers will not sell such brands in the transit country, EU law stops original manufacturers using local trademark rights to block transports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LIVESTOCK and Meat Commission for Northern Ireland will benefit from the latest European Commission grants for promoting food sales within the EU. Brussels will subsidise a Northern Irish meat marketing and information campaign with Euro 207,365 over one year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOTHING manufacturers without trademark rights to a brand in a particular European Union (EU) country, cannot rely on such rights in another EU state to prevent a rival transporting goods carrying this mark across its territory. This legal principle has been recommended for adoption by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by an ECJ advocate general, who has said that "in the absence of uncertainty" that the rival manufacturer has no plans to sell such branded clothing in the transit country, EU law does not allow an original manufacturer to use local trademark rights to block such transports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has demanded that the Polish government reforms a sliding scale determining the cost of original registration fees for cars, that hinders fleet managers’ sale of used vehicles. This rate depends on the age of the car, so new cars – made in or imported immediately into Poland – attract the lowest fees, and cars imported into the country when old incur the highest fees.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOTHING manufacturers without trademark rights to a brand in a particular European Union (EU) country, cannot rely on such rights in another EU state to prevent rivals transporting goods carrying this mark: this principle has been recommended to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by an ECJ advocate general saying "in the absence of uncertainty" that rival manufacturers will not sell such brands in the transit country, EU law stops original manufacturers using local trademark rights to block transports.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WELSH sustainable energy firm has proved ‘where there’s muck there’s brass’ by helping build a heat generator for Polish cities, running on sewage sludge. Sustainable energy consultancy ETP Ltd, of Cardiff, worked with Polish manufacturer ABM Solid, of Tarnow, to build a ‘fluidised bed boiler’ heating a wastewater treatment plant at Poland’s Niepolomice.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IN the space of less than three years the German cigarette market has gone from being Europe’s most stable, profitable and legislation-free into one beset by obstacles almost everywhere you look. In the words of an independent report just issued by the market number two British American Tobacco, the industry has "overnight….found…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POLITICAL battle is underway at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over whether EU import duties on unwrought aluminium should be retained or scrapped. The struggle pits Poland and eight other member states against Germany, which wants the current 6% duties retained.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PRESIDENT of Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency Jerzy Niewodniczanski has told Polish paper Zycie Warszawy that his government was interested in cooperating in building and operating a multi-national nuclear power plant with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

INTRODUCTION

WE’RE barely a third of the way through 2006 but it’s already clear that the year is going to be a hugely important one for European Union (EU) legislation affecting both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POLISH government has banned sales of Chinese ‘ZhenLiPin’ nail varnish art and striper pens, because they contains dibutyl phthalate (DBP), classified "toxic to reproduction" under European Union (EU) directive 67/548/EEC on dangerous substances. It is also prohibited in cosmetics under the EU cosmetics directive 76/768/EEC.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has ordered its committees of national officials to stage a "thorough examination" of the official EU definition of vodka, because of a row between member states over its terms. Poland, supported by Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, is resisting a European Commission proposal to allow vodka to continue being sold in the EU using non-traditional ingredients.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CATTLE prices rose across the European Union (EU) last year, according to the latest figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat, but fell for other livestock. Cattle prices increased by 3%, although with wide variations between member states: up 12.3% in Germany and 2.5% in France, but down 2.1% in Britain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CEREAL production and prices in the European Union (EU) both slumped in 2005, compared with 2004, according to the latest food market figures from EU statistical agency Eurostat. Faced with a bumper harvest in 2004, producers struggled to secure good prices, even by cutting back on production, a process aided by poor weather.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has opened another formal state aid investigation into long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), this time those struck by Polish state-owned network operator Polskie Sieci Energetyczne (PSE) with power generators. The inquiry follows the launch of a similar probe into purchase agreements in Hungary.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE POLISH government has been alarmed by a call from Russia’s Gazprom to renegotiate its long-term natural gas supply contract, which is supposed to expire in 2022. Poland’s freshly-appointed prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said he was baffled by the move: “It’s hard to understand this step.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
OIL and gas companies have called on the European Commission to improve long-term certainty within the European Union’s (EU) global warming emissions trading scheme, in a public consultation attracting over 300 responses from energy producers and consumers. A key concern is predictability regarding allocating national emission allowances, whose award has become less reliable since a recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) case, where judges rejected a European Commission order for the UK to adjust its CO2 pollution limits.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed removing so-called ‘non-hazardous non-inert’ waste from a proposed European Union (EU) directive on managing mining waste, rejecting amendments that would have blocked this exemption. The parliament’s environment committee had claimed this classification has “absolutely no scientific basis”, adding such materials could still pose a danger.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A TEAM of Chinese, German, Danish and Polish scientists claims to have found a cure for SARS in a compound called cinanserin, approved in the US during the 1960s to treat psychopathic diseases, such as schizophrenia. Their claim that cinanserin can halt the SARS virus from replicating has been published the international Journal of Virology, although animal tests or epidemiological testing are needed to produce an effective medicine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed removing so-called ‘non-hazardous non-inert’ waste from a proposed European Union (EU) directive on managing mining waste, rejecting amendments that would have blocked this exemption. The parliament’s environment committee had pushed the tougher line, claiming this classification has “absolutely no scientific basis”, adding such materials could still pose a danger, for instance in unstable slag heaps.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ITALIAN researchers have developed a new technique for producing hydrogen whilst purifying polluted gases. Coordinated by the University of Trieste, the team has found that cerium oxide, a pale yellow-white powder used in ceramics and to polish glass, can be used to store or release oxygen.…

BY MARK ROWE
IT is difficult to separate the present-day Czech paint industry from the industrial heritage of the country. While the rest of the world made jokes about Skoda cars during the Communist era, the Czechs fumed as they saw a once great engineering industry reduced to a laughing stock.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission says “further efforts are still needed” to guarantee the future of privatised Polish steel producer Polskie Huty Stali. Assessing the Poland’s and the Czech Republic’s steel industries, it said “the Polish industry continues to show delays, sometimes significant, especially in relation to investments, which (for) some companies could affect their future viability (in) a significant market slowdown”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening legal action against France, Poland and Austria for allegedly breaking European Union (EU) freedom of trade laws by impeding the import of cars into their territories. Brussels objects to Austria’s double-checking of European certificates of conformity, which are designed to ease cross-border car registration.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NETHERLANDS, Greece and Poland have come under legal pressure from the European Commission to reform their car taxation rules so that it is easier to move vehicles around the European Union (EU). It has sent their governments formal requests to reform their systems, which – if ignored – could lead to a referral to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has effectively cleared the sale of Polish steel producer Huta Czestochowa to Ukrainian steel producer Donbass by declaring its ongoing restructuring and privatisation does not involve illegal state aid. If Brussels had made a negative decision, it could have halted this process.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE REMARKABLY quick approval of the European Union’s (EU) Third Money Laundering Directive this summer has delighted the EU’s law enforcement agencies but it may have done little for the composure of lawyers who had hoped, in vain as it turned out, that the measure would tackle what they see as the deficiencies of the 2nd directive approved in 2001.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved state aid payments planned until the year 2010 by the Polish and Hungarian governments to their countries’ shrinking coal mine sectors. Regarding Poland, Brussels approved its spending of Polish Zloty 6.2 billion (Euro 1.4 billion) in restructuring its coal industry from 2004-6, mainly “financing inherited liabilities”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on the European Commission to frame an action plan on simplifying red tape for the fishing industry, “reducing their bureaucratic workload and the restrictions that bear down on fishermen”.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has conditionally approved the greenhouse gas pollution allocation plan of Poland and the Czech Republic, leaving the European Union (EU) just two countries shy of approving all national components of its emissions trading scheme. Now only Greece and Italy await approval.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a new fishing access deal with Madagascar, allowing Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese to catch tuna in its Indian Ocean waters until December 2006. The EU will pay Madagascar Euro 825,000 this year and next to compensate it for the loss of fish.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend up to Euro 55 million to Poland’s Dalkia Polska to help finance its acquisition of ZEC Lodz, a district heating and cogeneration utility for the Polish city of Lodz.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE GLOBAL Environment Facility (GEF), an independent international funding organisation, is claiming to have converted Polish power consumers to using low energy compact fluorescent lamps. The GEF’s Poland Efficient Lighting Project claims when it started work in 1995, only 10% of Polish homes used such lights, by 1998 this was 33% and now it is 50%.…

BY MARK ROWE
CHOCOLATE sells in eastern Europe. One of the curiosities of the old Soviet Empire was that, even in the darkest days of rule by Stalin and Brezhnev, the USSR imported vast amounts of cocoa, simply because the Kremlin thought it was good for the masses.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to create a Euro 50 million fund run by BNP Parisbas Polska, which will feed money into small and medium-sized projects in Poland, promoting energy rationalisation and diversification. Funding would be available from the Polish bank for public and private projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITHIN the newly expanded European Union (EU), Poland is the cheapest country in which to buy a car, although under current trends that honour may not last long. According to the latest European Commission figures, Polish car prices are on average 9% cheaper than those in Finland, the cheapest country using the single European currency.…

BY MARK ROWE
ALCOHOL products are one of the major strengths that the new members of the recently enlarged European Union (EU) bring to its economic table. Of the 10 newcomers, six are wine-producing countries: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.…

BY MARK ROWE
IT is understandable to see how the cosmetics industries in the European Union’s (EU) newest members might view the recent expansion of the EU club with mixed feelings. On the one hand, new markets have opened up: if their products are good enough to sell at home, they can now sell them from the Baltic to the Atlantic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has drawn up plans to lend Spanish steel group Celsa Euro 40 million to help restructure Polish steel mill Huta Ostrowiec (HO), which was liquidated in Summer 2003 having been placed in receivership.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
SARA LEE Corp., the USA-based maker of Kiwi shoe polish, is suing Pell Inc., a group of supermarket shoe-repair stands in the American mid-west, for importing counterfeit polish from China and selling it under the Kiwi label. Sara Lee suspected a problem and sent private investigators to Pell outlets to buy polish and also purchased some from Pell’s website; it was found to be fake.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
The European Commission has launched an in-depth investigation into the restructuring of the Polish steel company Huta Czestochowa saying it doubted that this was being achieved without state aid which is banned under Poland’s treaty of accession into the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE POLISH government has withdrawn its complaint against China at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that an increase in imports of Chinese footwear was of such a level to break China’s WTO’s accession agreement. It means scheduled formal talks will not take place in Geneva.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched its first stranded costs inquiry into the energy sector of an eastern European country joining the European Union (EU) in May. Brussels thinks subsidies paid to Polish power operators by Poland’s government, compensating for the cancellation of long-term supply agreements with the Polish Power Grid Company, could break EU state aid rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE POLISH government may apply for an especially long transitional period from new European legislation extending patent production for new medicines from generic copies. With the European Parliament having approved extending this protection from the existing six to between eight and 11 years and the Council of Ministers poised to approve the regulation, eastern European countries joining the European Union (EU) in May have called for the status quo to apply to them.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFTER a long period of consultation, a comprehensive directive protecting the European Union’s (EU) groundwater reserves has been proposed by the European Commission, which would force Member States to establish and police locally sensitive pollution limits. The legislation would insist that national governments carefully monitor groundwater quality and take steps to reverse its pollution, where it has exceeded these self-imposed thresholds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILS of the European Commission’s plan to create a comprehensive European Union (EU) environmental health strategy have been unveiled by its environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom in a speech to a conference in Warsaw. She told environmental health specialists that a draft action plan would be presented to EU ministers next spring and would be debated in full at the Fourth Pan-European Environment and Health Ministerial Conference in Budapest, Hungary, in June.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has imposed anti-dumping duties on two (Polish and Ukraine) exporters of steel ropes and cables, backing European Commission claims they had broken undertakings made to legitimately avoid paying such tariffs. Poland’s Drumet and the Ukraine’s Silur will now pay anti-dumping duties of 27.9 per cent and 51.8 per cent respectively.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drawn up plans to lend the Polish Electrabel subsidiary Elektrownia im. Tadeusza Kosciuszki SA (NOTE: SPELLING CORRECT) up to Euro 35 million to invest in its eight coal-fired power plants, boosting its competitiveness.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to impose anti-dumping duties on two (Polish and Ukraine) exporters of steel ropes and cables after the European Commission concluded that they had broken undertakings made to legitimately avoid paying such tariffs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Duke Energy Corp, a diversified US energy company based in Charlotte, is in discussions with “several potential buyers” for its European natural gas business, the company has announced. It gave no details of the possible buyers or price.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DEDICATED supplier distributor of electricity used by Poland’s national railway industry is likely to receive a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development loan to help it exploit the liberalisation of the Polish electricity industry. Bank officials are drawing up plans to lend Euro 15 million to PKP Energetyka, which it wants to spend on installing two control and metering centres.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FOR the non ferrous metals industries, the formal enlargement of the EU next May will not be an overnight sensation but rather the end of a ten-year process during which producers in eastern and central Europe have progressively adapted themselves to the western European model.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to officially sanction previously agreed trade concessions for Polish confectionary exporters, until the eastern European country becomes a Member State next year. The European Commission has proposed that concessions – widening low or zero-rated import quotas for many Polish confectionary products and ingredients or removing quantitative restrictions altogether – are written into the existing EU-Poland association agreement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NON-FERROUS metal producers in the existing 15 European Union (EU) countries could see some lowering of labour costs after enlargement of the EU next year as low-paid Polish and other workers move into the higher wage countries like Germany, according to industry sources.…

BY MARK ROWE
IN the days of the Soviet Union, many millions of men and women had a choice of one state-manufactured brand of shampoo, toothpaste or soap. If anything, the authorities managed to limit even further access to such “indulgences” as perfume.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CREATION of an “audit culture” in the public administrations of the 10 eastern and southern European countries planning to join the European Union next May would help ease growing concerns in Brussels that would-be Member States are failing to meet EU financial probity standards, MEPs have heard.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE INSTITUTIONS of the European Union (EU) have invited applications for about 375 lawyer posts to help meet the demands imposed by next year’s enlargement of the EU from 15 to 25 countries which will add 75 million to the EU population.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE POLISH government is launching a disputes case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), complaining about the Czech Republic’s imposition of 50 per cent additional duties on Polish pig-meat exports. Poland says that the duty is illegally discriminatory, as they have not been imposed on imports from other countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s funding institutions are increasingly financially assisting the former USSR’s oil industry. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending US$80 million loan to a key subsidiary of Russia’s Lukoil group – CSJC Lukoil-Perm – to help it cut gas flaring to 20 per cent by 2005, compared with 52 per cent at typical Russian oilfields.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is investing Euro 7 million of new equity into in Dalkia Termika, the Polish subsidiary of France-based Dalkia International, which will make a further investment as a result. Its Polish business will develop energy installations in Poland, especially district heating projects, making them more efficient.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WE are not inclined to disagree with those who say the enlargement of the European Union from 15 to 25 countries in 2004 is to be done on terms much less damaging to present EU farmers, and conversely much less favourable to incoming farmers, than seemed probable a year ago.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is planning to lend Euro 52.5 million in Polish Zloty to Poland’s El-Viv Telecom Sp. z o.o., to provide acquisition finance to its planned new owners, a consortium of private equity investors including Hicks Muse Tate and Furst, Emerging Markets Partnership (Europe) and Argus Capital Partners.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
A TRADE deal smoothing Poland’s planned 2004 entry into the European Union has been agreed, where the EU introduces duty free quotas for products including chocolate, biscuits and confectionery and Poland cuts its import duties for chocolate, biscuits and confectionery by 30 per cent.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
POLAND has agreed to reduce by 30 per cent its preferential duties on spirits and by 50 per cent the duties on vermouths under a deal reached with the European Commission. The agreement, initialled in Warsaw in October, was formally adopted by the Commission today (Friday) and if accepted by EU ministers will come into effect early next year.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has unveiled plans to lend the Polish Airports State Enterprise, (Przedsiebiorstwo Panstwowe Porty Lotnicze) Euro 200 million to construct a second terminal at Warsaw International Airport, Poland. The project should enable the airport to accommodate existing and rapidly rising demand for air transport in Poland, and, said an EIB note “contribute to Poland’s integration into the EU, and to strengthening transport links between the EU and Poland.”…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
A TRADE deal smoothing Poland’s planned 2004 entry into the European Union has been agreed, where the EU introduces duty free quotas for products including chocolate, biscuits and confectionery and Poland cuts its import duties for chocolate, biscuits and confectionery by 30 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to impose definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of certain welded tubes and pipes, or iron or non-alloy steel from Czech Republic, Poland, Thailand, Turkey and the Ukraine. The proposal follows the imposition of provisional duties in March.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND has complained to a key World Trade Organisation committee that its beef imports are being unfairly restricted by the USA because of concerns that they are contaminated with BSE. It has claimed at the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee that the US should not, for example, be insisting on the onsite inspection of Swiss meat plants, because the Office International des Épizooties has classified Switzerland as having a low incidence the disease.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AN INTERNATIONAL campaign group Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) has recently published a report claiming that in tests, 52 out of 72 name brand beauty products contained industrial chemicals known as phthalates; HCWH claims these can cause birth defects.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally proposed stripping immunity from existing EU anti-dumping duties on imports of Polish pallets enjoyed by seven companies, who will henceforth, (assuming EU ministers agree the move), pay the tariffs. Six of the companies were found to have broken promises not to dump pallets on the EU market, while one is an associated company.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The following communication, dated 6 December 2001, from the Permanent Mission of Thailand to the Chairman of the Dispute Settlement Body, is circulated pursuant to Article 21.6 of the DSU.

Status Report on the Implementation of the Recommendations and Rulings in the Dispute “Thailand – Anti-Dumping Duties on Angles, Shapes and Sections of Iron or Non-Alloy Steel and H-Beams from Poland” (WT/DS122) On 5 April 2001, the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) adopted1 the Appellate Body Report and the Panel Report, as modified by the Appellate Body Report, (the Reports) in the dispute Thailand – Anti-Dumping Duties on Angles, Shapes and Sections of Iron or Non-Alloy Steel and H-Beams from Poland (WT/DS122), recommending that the DSB request that Thailand bring its anti-dumping measure found in the Reports to be inconsistent with the Agreement on the Implementation of Article VI of the GATT 1994 (Anti-Dumping Agreement), into conformity with its obligations under that Agreement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ANTI-DUMPING duties imposed by Thailand on imports from Poland of angles, shapes and sections of iron or non-alloy steel and H-beams are to be maintained, despite Bangkok losing a World Trade Organisation disputes appeal earlier this year.

It had stated that Thailand should amend its duties, finding their imposition to be “inconsistent” with the rules of the WTO anti-dumping agreement.…

Keith Nuthall
POLAND has refused to accept a recommendation from the Textiles Monitoring Bureau of the World Trade Organisation that it lift transitional safeguard duties imposed on imports of acrylic/modacrylic staple yarn, pure or mixed with wool or fine animal hair, from Romania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CITIZENS of eastern European countries which have signed association agreements with Brussels, paving the way for their accession to the European Union, cannot be refused the right to live in a Member State, if they can become successfully self-employed, the European Court of Justice has ruled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BRITISH American Tobacco Company is this year’s third new largest investor in Poland, after the French Credit Agricole, and the Casino supermarket company, according to a Polish government report. The company, present on the Polish market since 1991, is the now third largest tobacco producer in the country.…

BY BEATA PLONKA, in Cracow, Poland
THE POLISH Ministry of Defence has banned irregular civilian flights from the airspace above the capital Warsaw. Only controlled regular traffic has been allowed in from October 15, along with aircraft owned by the military and emergency services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HOLIDAYS and pregnancy leave are a serious business, both for the employees who take them and the employers who pay for them. Unfortunately for personnel departments who might want a little more flexibility over whether they should shell out or not, recent cases at the European Court of Justice have underlined the right of EU citizens to take paid leave, rather than erode them.…

BY BEATA PLONKA
POLAND’S two key domestic confectionary players have started negotiations to launch a joint-venture, which would between them control 10 per cent of the country’s robust confectionary market, one of the largest in Europe. The companies Jutrzenka and Mieszko want to compete more effectively with multinational competitors Nestle, Cadbury and Jacobs Suchard, which control 80 per cent of Poland’s confectionary market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LARGEST meat processing company in Poland could receive a Euro 12.5 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Its board has been asked to approve plans to lend money to finance the transfer of best practice know-how to Sokolow SA, to expand its poultry business and promote exports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank is to loan the Polish government Euro 112.8 million to support its Revised Hard Coal Sector Reform Programme, which is aimed at helping the country transform its coal industry into a “competitive and profitable sector.”…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to punish five Polish pallet producers who the European Commission alleges have failed to abide by promises not to dump cheap products on the EU market, thereby escaping anti-dumping duties of up to 10.6 per cent agreed established in 1997.…