Search Results for: Portugal

Keith Nuthall
THE PORTUGUESE government has been ordered to scrap its reduced five per cent rate of VAT on wine sales, with the European Court of Justice ruling that it contravened the EU’s Sixth VAT Directive, which attempts to harmonise the application of sales taxes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REGULATORY clearance has been granted by the European Commission for the acquisition of Unilever’s European Culinary Brands Businesses by Campbell Soup Co. of the United States. The sale fulfils commitments given by Unilever last year to obtain European Union clearance for its purchase of Bestfoods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY appears to be the most industrially innovative country in the European Union, filing 43.6 per cent of all EU patent applications with the European Patent office in 1999, well ahead of its nearest rival France, which filed just 14.9 per cent.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has expressed concern at the growing number of requests from EU wine-producing countries for permission to grant national distillation aid to growers. Franz Fischler, EU agriculture commissioner for wine, said it was “quite worrying” that member states were seeking to grant “pure operating aids which do not bring about any structural improvement.”…

Keith Nuthall
ITALY has announced that it is to join a growing band of European Union countries that want to grant special national aid for the distillation of excess wine stocks, in the teeth of opposition from the European Commission. It wants Member States to abide by the new common market organisation, which was designed to limit such production subsidies.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IN an attempt to stamp out smuggling and fraud, the European Commission is proposing that excise duties on popular cigarettes sold throughout the 15 EU countries should be brought much closer together. In a proposed new directive, the Commission says there should be a minimum fixed amount of excise duty of Euro 70 (about Pounds 42) per 1,000 cigarettes in the most popular price category, which would be in addition to the existing minimum excise requirement of 57% of the retail price.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EXEMPTION from European working time regulations for self-employed drivers, could last a lot longer than the three years that was agreed in the informal deal struck in the EU Council of Ministers last year.

Looking at the detail of the amended directive that has now been accepted formally by the Council, the three-year deadline only gives the European Commission the right to propose an end to the exemption.…

Keith Nuthall
AEROPORTOS de Portugal and Nazegacao Aeria de Portugal have taken over the management of East Timor’s new international airport, in the capital Dili, from the Royal Australian Air Force, the country’s United Nations transitional administration (UNTAET) has announced.

The Australian military has been responsible for Comoro Airport, since the arrival of INTERFET peacekeepers in September 1999 led to the evacuation of Indonesian authorities, which had been running island territory.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE STANDING Veterinary Committee of the EU has recommended a gradual lifting of the ban on some Portuguese beef exports, namely de-boned meat from animals, born after July 1, 1999, between 6 and 30 months of age, complying with the Date Based Export Scheme.…