Search Results for: Portugal

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SPECIAL Ecodesign Regulatory Committee has backed European Commission proposals to toughen mandatory energy performance requirements for televisions and ‘white goods’ – such as washing machines and dishwashers. This means some existing models will from mid-2010 be banned from European Union (EU) shops.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have approved Euro 3.9 billion in EU spending on energy investment projects, after they finally finished wrangling over the detail of this keystone of their economic stimulus package.

As expected, the final programme has more projects in southern and eastern Europe than in previous drafts.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, LUCY JONES and KEITH NUTHALL

INTRODUCTION

CLOTHING and textile production and trade subsidies are under pressure today, as they have not been for many years. There has been a steady trend towards liberalisation in the sector worldwide, stemming from the abolition of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) in January 2005 and with it, then end of restrictive quotas for imports for the WTO’s 152 member countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) claiming that special rights held by its government in utility GALP Energia break European Union (EU) freedom of investment treaty rules. Brussels is particularly concerned about state veto rights on takeovers or joint ventures and any moves Lisbon considers could threaten the secure supply of oil, gas and electricity or other derivatives to Portugal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has narrowly opposed allowing all European Union (EU) member states to levy reduced VAT rates on alcohol served in restaurants, rather than the generally mandated full rate. Under proposals from the European Commission to boost labour intensive industries, restaurant food will become a low-rate option for all countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed allowing a doubling of the duration of its planned cotton production restructuring programme to eight years, and suggested including all cotton ginners in this production-linked subsidy package. It is the latest of a series of initiatives planned by the European Union (EU) executive to use public money to protect industries being battered by the financial crisis and the resulting global recession.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it wants Euro 3.5 billion of the general European Union (EU) economic recovery plan it announced in November spent on energy investment. It has proposed spending Euro 1.75 billion on gas and electricity interconnection projects; Euro 500 million on offshore wind power; and Euro 1.25 billion on carbon capture and storage.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MAXIMUM amount of duty-free or duty-paid tobacco that can be brought into the European Union (EU) from a non-EU country without paying EU excise duty can now be reduced to just 40 cigarettes. That is an option now offered to member states, which can maintain the previous 200 cigarette limit if they choose.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEGOTIATORS are close to forging an international agreement that would ban vessels involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing from ports worldwide. The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has been hosting the talks, and has reported the "general outlines… on ‘port state’ measures that would deny vessels engaged in IUU fishing access to fishing ports are largely in place."…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, DOMINIQUE PATTON and LUCY JONES

The growth in outsourcing within the clothing and textile sector worldwide has highlighted a key issue, and that is the relative merits of running an integrated company that handles basic production and design, or relying on a string of specialist suppliers to deliver the goods, from fibre supplies, to textile manufacture, design, clothing assembly and retail.…