Search Results for: Spain

BY ALAN OSBORN

MEASURED by what’s been happening in the European cigarette market over the past 10 to 15 years, 2008 – and what we’ve seen of 2009 so far – hasn’t been that bad. It may not have been good, exactly, but considering the global recession few people will have been looking for uplift.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MINIMUM excise duty rates on tobacco products across the European Union (EU) are rising and at such rates that demand will almost certainly be depressed in many EU member states. The impact will be especially marked in eastern Europe, where governments have been given additional time to implement hikes in excise duty.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR European research project is to spend Euro 44 million on developing tiny components to help electric vehicles improve their performance, so that they can better compete with models powered with liquid fuels. The Fiat and Audi-backed E3CAR (Energy efficient electrical car) project will especially focus on emerging nanotechnologies as its researchers aim to boost electric cars’ often less than stellar driving abilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INNOVATION in recycling could get a boost with the planned appointment of Slovenia’s Janez Poto?nik as the next European Union (EU) environment Commissioner. Assuming he is confirmed in the position by the European Parliament, he should start work late January.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE RECOVERY of criminally-acquired assets is driven by two quite different considerations – first as a deterrent to financial crime and second as a means of compensating the victim through restitution. Clearly where the fight against money laundering in concerned, the first is the more important.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A HOPEFUL sign that European Union (EU) and American energy policies could become more complimentary in the future has come with the launch of a new EU-US Energy Council in Washington. It will formalise transatlantic discussions on strategic energy issues such as security of supply and developing low carbon energy sources.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

THE EXODUS of the McDonald’s restaurant franchise from Iceland may have captured the international headlines. But the rest of the island nation’s food sector and 300 production companies face a great deal of change, uncertainty, debt financing challenges and initiatives driven by cost-reduction imperatives, particularly small to medium-sized enterprises.…

BY ZSOLT BALLA

IT may not be the easiest way to make a living – as it nowhere is – but even amidst the ongoing economic crisis, Hungarian truck drivers seem better off than their average east European peers. Those who work hard can make decent money, and, given the usual pessimist attitude of Hungarian people, drivers talking to Commercial Motor were surprisingly positive.…

By KEITH NUTHALL

AIRPORT customers worldwide can assess the carbon footprint of their flights when buying an e-ticket in future because of a groundbreaking deal between the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Spain-based travel IT company Amadeus. It supplies e-ticketing platforms to many companies, and will now use data from an electronic ICAO carbon calculator, which takes account of aircraft type, route specific data, passenger load factors, cargo carried and other factors affecting CO2 emissions.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

BOTH the strengths and the weaknesses of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the anti-money laundering field derive from its role as the supreme interpreter of European Union (EU) law and its responsibility for applying that law consistently through the Union.…