Search Results for: Portuguese

 By David Haworth, in Brussels

No sooner has Sweden unveiled plans for the next six months of political endeavour in the European Union, than the wheel has fallen off before the new model can even be test driven. The Swedes who assumed the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1, had predicated their efforts on a quick reappointment of Jose Manuel Barroso, 53, the genial European Commission president, for another five years’ office.

The former Portuguese premier received the unanimous “political support” of EU leaders during their recent Summit. This endorsement, you might think, would be enough to confirm the head boy in his position for another term. But no, the presidency job is in the final gift of the European Parliament – and this is where the Swedish calculations have gone wrong.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR cigarette smuggling boom is being reported in Ireland by customs teams, with a record 135.2 million cigarettes being seized last year, almost twice the amount seized in 2007. Of these, 56.82 million were counterfeits, the country’s Sunday Independent newspaper has reported.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has extended European Union (EU) geographical indication protection to traditional Portuguese biscuits ‘Ovos Molos de Aveiro’ and to Italian chestnuts ‘Castagna di Vallerano’. This means these marketing terms can only be used by biscuits and chestnuts made according to set traditional methods in their usual historic home production regions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PORTUGUESE and Spanish knitwear sectors are to benefit from special government programmes designed to support clothing producers in these countries withstand the recession, given these countries regard the sector as having strategic importance. The Portuguese government has announced a major Euro 850 million plan to boost its struggling clothing sector, with Euro 600 million being lavished on export credit insurance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PORTUGUESE government has announced a major Euro 850 million plan to boost its struggling textile and clothing sector, with Euro 600 million being lavished on export credit insurance. Another Euro 180 million will help Portuguese textile and clothing companies secure access to bank loans, with smaller sums being spent, for example, on backing risk capital investment (Euro 20 million); and rationalisation through mergers and acquisitions (Euro 30 million).…

BY MONICA DOBIE

SECURITY guards took the joy out of the European Parliament’s annual pet night by banning dogs from entering the institution’s Brussels headquarters, claiming the animals posed a potential security threat.

The annual event takes place to raise awareness for animal welfare issues and normally sees EP officials and MEPs bringing their working animals and pets into the EU parliament building.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IRISH consumer protection authorities have reported the withdrawal of American skin toning cream with vitamin E and sunscreen Clear-n-Smooth, saying its 2% hydroquinone concentration breaks the European Union’s (EU) cosmetics directive. EU product alert service RAPEX also noted the withdrawal from Irish cosmetics shops of Ivory Coast-made lightening body oil Peau Claire over illegal hydroquinone concentrations.…

BY MARK ROWE

ONE of the major elements of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union (EU) was its intended expansion to these new member states of the Schengen agreement, which phases out checks at shared borders and allows free movement for all within the EU.…

BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

THE ACCOUNTANCY profession in the United States might think its day of reckoning came and went in 2002. But those who thought that the Sarbanes Oxley Act was the final word in regulation for the accounting profession may be in for a rude surprise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it will be spending Euro 2.85 million promoting the sales of Italian and Portuguese wines within the European Union (EU). The money will finance marketing and information campaigns across Europe already planned by relevant wine sector organisations.…