Search Results for: Serbia

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POWER sectors of eastern Europe need billions of dollars investment to maintain or replace ageing capacity, a World Bank report has warned. Looking at investment requirements for 2009-15, the bank said Serbia’s electricity sector, for example, needs between USD3.3 billion and USD6.7 billion additional investment for environmental upgrades, new capacity, transmission interconnectors and distribution rehabilitation.…

BY MARK ROWE

LEAKED NATO documents have indicated that the prime minister and senior officials in Kosovo have close links to organised crime. That presents a daunting challenge to law enforcement officials, but their task is made more problematic by the pervasive nature of corruption in the country.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, KEITH NUTHALL

SERBIA is the latest European country to start formal accession negotiations with the European Union (EU) and as it prepares to joins the EU, its auto sector will have increasingly unfettered access to the EU’s 500 million consumer market.…

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 ZLATKO CONKAS, and KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN imagining Europe’s greenest and most efficient energy systems, the countries of the former Yugoslavia do not readily spring to mind. The simple truth is Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and even Slovenia have a reputation for having ageing energy dirty systems.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it comes to the power sector, it certainly pays to be green in eastern Europe right now. The London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), whose mandate is to bring sustainable development to eastern Europe and central Asia, has been especially active in promoting green energy across the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OFFICIALS from the European Union’s (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF have revealed to just-drinks how an international EU customs operation seized counterfeit and smuggled coats and scarves. OLAF said the Matthew II operation was organised by the Czech Republic, working closely with Poland and OLAF: all EU countries were invited to participate.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN and KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a new programme helping countries wanting to join the European Union (EU) adopt EU pharmaceutical regulations and work with the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Brussels’ Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) Programme will help the governments of Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey who are negotiating EU entry and those awaiting formal membership talks: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NON-FERROUS metal industry of Bosnia & Herzegovina has been highlighted in a World Bank report as a bedrock of the country’s economic recovery after the 1990s war that shattered its society. Released by the trade and integration team of the World Bank development research group, the report declared the country’s "industrial restructuring, as seen through the lenses of foreign trade performance and its sustainability, has taken off.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH a new European Commission in office, major decisions can now be made on pushing ahead with European Union (EU) energy policy priorities: Brussels has released a Euro 4 billion package of 31 gas infrastructure (and 12 electricity) projects.…