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Commission wins legal-privilege case
- The European Court of First Instance on Monday (17 September) dismissed a complaint brought by Akzo Nobel and Ackros Chemicals against the European Commission. The companies had challenged a Commission decision to seize and retain in-house legal documents during dawn raids carried out in 2003. The court ruled that the information in question should not be deemed privileged since it had originated from in-house lawyers.
Ombudsman attacks EU executive over working-time complaint
- The EU ombudsman criticised the Commission for not dealing with a citizen’s complaint on working time rules. The complaint, brought by a German doctor more than five years ago, alleged that Germany breached the working time directive’s provisions on on-call time. The ombudsman asked the European Parliament on Monday to back maladministration charges against the Commission.
French telecoms regulator wins Reding’s approval
- Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for information society and media, praised French telecoms regulator ARCEP’s decision to lower wholesale rates charged by French mobile operators for connecting calls to wireless networks and indicated that pan-EU rules on the so-called termination rates would soon be created to "ensure that competition in the single market is not distorted". This summer saw the introduction of mobile operators’ caps on roaming charges.
Northern Rock safety-net under state-aid spotlight
- The Commission has requested information from the UK government on its bail-out of mortgage-lender Northern Rock. Antitrust officials are concerned that the assistance should not cause distortion of the banking market. Under EU rules, government aid would be allowed on a short-term basis to offset systemic risk. Longer-term aid would not be acceptable.
Korean trade talks
- EU and South Korean negotiators are meeting in Brussels this week (17-21 September) for a third round of bilateral negotiations aimed at securing a free trade agreement.
Eurozone trade surplus shrinks
- The eurozone trade surplus shrank in July this year compared to the previous month, with increases in imports and exports, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on Monday. The trade surplus of the 13 countries using the euro stood at €4.6 billion in July 2007, compared to €7.6bn in June 2007.
Central bank officials, including EU represent-atives, are scheduled to meet in London today (20 September) and tomorrow for what is being described as their first formal effort to try to understand the forces which have triggered the international credit crunch in the money markets and assess the longer term implications of the turmoil.
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