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Fishy business Print E-mail
14 May 2013
Hard on the heels of the horsemeat hullabaloo, more food-chain madness could be on the way. The European Commission has ended a ban, in place since 2001 because of mad cow disease, on the feeding of ground-up animal remains to farmed animals, writes Stephen Gardner.
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A taxing question Print E-mail
14 May 2013
Nobody likes taxes, especially in Belgium where the rates are so high. Though tax revenues mean the government can keep the streets (relatively) clean and can provide a host of other services, resentment against taxation is deep rooted – and has manifested itself in multiple ways, from the Boston Tea Party, to the use of secretive Swiss bank accounts.
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Resolutionary road Print E-mail
26 April 2013
The shareholders are getting restless. As times have become tougher and the future less certain, company boards are increasingly in the spotlight of investor scrutiny, writes Stephen Gardner.
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Let's talk about gender Print E-mail
16 March 2013
The European Union often adopts laws that have wide-ranging and potentially significant effects on millions of people. It can take two or three years to formulate and finalise these laws, writes Stephen Gardner.
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Where do EU fonctionnaires come from? Print E-mail
12 March 2013
As part of the heated debate about a month ago about the European Union’s budget, questions were asked about the salaries and conditions of EU officials, writes Stephen Gardner.
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The permabulating parliament Print E-mail
24 February 2013
The European Parliament has been forced to revise its schedule of plenary sessions for 2013 so that its travelling circus will move from Brussels to Strasbourg 12 times rather than 11, writes Stephen Gardner.
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Sustainability in 2012 Print E-mail
27 January 2013
First the good news. Companies took strides towards sustainability in 2012. Some of them even made money doing it, writes Stephen Gardner.
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Carbon capture's white elephant Print E-mail
18 January 2013
Back in 2008, before the economy tanked, the European Commission came up with a plan to help save the climate by backing carbon capture and storage. By 2015, 12 full-scale projects would be underway, the Commission said. Dirty power plants and industrial facilities could carry on polluting, except that the pollution would be captured and buried underground, writes Stephen Gardner.
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Not to be forgotten Print E-mail
02 January 2013
Privacy is considered a right in the EU, and the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, wants the right to be more rigorously enforced, writes Stephen Gardner.
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