Search Results for: Portugal

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken another step to prevent the levying of VAT on car registration taxes charged within a package price by automobile dealers, telling Austria, Finland and Malta to stop this double taxation. It has threatened legal action if it is not obeyed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice alleging illegally excess red tape regarding the export of excisable goods – including perfumes. Lisbon insists that an administrative document is sent to foreign European Union customs officials administering imports of these goods six working hours before their released by exporting Portuguese warehouses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) alleging illegally excess red tape regarding the export of excisable goods – notably alcoholic drinks. Lisbon insists an administrative document is sent to foreign European Union (EU) customs officials six working hours before their released by exporting Portuguese warehouses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Mauritania have agreed to renegotiate and downsize their fishing agreement granting EU fishing boats the right to exploit the north African country’s fishing stocks. These talks follow the embarrassing news that EU fishing fleets have failed to avail themselves of the rights made available to them in the existing agreement, which had been hailed as a groundbreaking deal.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the UK government that it intends to build a new generation of nuclear power plants stands out, not just because of the scale of the proposals, but because it is the first such comprehensive initiative in Europe for some years.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been approving a series of operational programmes for many European Union (EU) member states’ fishing (and aquaculture) sectors, outlining how it will target money from the European Fisheries Fund (EFF).

One of the largest recipients of this Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) subsidy scheme is France, which is to receive Euro 216 million from 2007-13, less than it received under the 2000-2006 Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG), which supplied Euro 278 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has highlighted eight member states as having failed to submit national energy efficiency action plans as required by the European Union’s (EU) energy services directive. Legal action has already been launched against 10 member states – but two of these (Belgium and Slovakia) submitted action plans in December.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is refusing to give up on Russia and its neighbours as stable energy partners for the future, despite the largely inconclusive summit between member states and Moscow last month (October) in Mafra, Portugal. It failed to make progress on the demands from the European Commission for reciprocal liberalisation in Russian energy markets, should the EU allow Russian companies – notably Gazprom – a free hand in member states gas sectors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LEVEL of incineration and recycling of municipal waste within Britain is as low as former communist countries in eastern Europe, a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report has concluded. In an assessment of the contrasting waste management practices in the 27 European Union (EU) member states, the EEA bracketed Britain with Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.…