Milena Velba Discovery

The emerging axis between Tokyo and New Europe (Markets & Finance) London

The European tour that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made the last week reveals the interest with which Japan looks to the countries of "New Europe" The approaching milestone entry into the European Union: after a first stop in Berlin, the next two have brought the Japanese prime minister in Warsaw and Prague.

Japanese investments, which have always been in the EU (and particularly in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France), one of the preferred destinations, have long begun to increasingly directed towards the countries of Eastern Europe, characterized by the presence of skilled labor cheap and excellent growth prospects and also provide valuable access to the enlargement of the European market.

Koizumi visited by the two countries, Poland and the Czech Republic have grown between 2001 and 2002, Japanese direct investment by 15, 9% and 58.4% (over the same period in Germany declined 11 , 9%). The 110 Japanese companies currently operating in the Czech Republic have so far invested, particularly in the automotive sector and in the electronics, more than $ 2 billion, a figure that does not take into account the investment by $ 1.5 billion projected by Toyota Motors together with the French group PSA Peugeot Citroen, aimed to meet at Kolin, near Prague, one factory last generation able to build, starting in 2005, about 300,000 cars per year. Already, the country of the Rising Sun is the third largest foreign investor in the Czech Republic, but the trend shows that its role is bound to grow further.

The Japanese interest in Poland is more recent. On the political front, attention is invited to Tokyo to Warsaw by the weight that Poland is likely to have the EU enlarged. "This visit is a sign of attention to a country that, after enlargement, will be with Spain, the fifth 'institutional power' of Europe," said Japanese Foreign Minister Jiro Okuyama. Koizumi is no coincidence that during a meeting with Prime Minister Leszek Miller has suggested the dispatch of Japanese troops in the area under Polish control. But the discussions dealt with in the first place the way forward to strengthen the economic ties between the two economies. Currently in Japan, with approximately $ 600 million, is only the eighteenth foreign investor in Poland, and international trade between the two countries, amounting in 2002 to $ 1.1 billion (with a passive Warsaw $ 900 billion), is still weak. But these figures are in 2001 and 2002 (the year in which investment Nipponese showed a peak of about 352 million dollars) have shown a strong upward trend.

And a push on the accelerator will give its enlargement: once in the EU countries of Eastern Europe will benefit from the bilateral agreements between Brussels and Tokyo that allowed the strong development of economic relations between Japan and the European Union .

Altea Pill Directions For Use

Even on defense moves the Paris-Berlin (Finance & Markets)

Asked about the fate of Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft (HDW), the shipbuilding industry leading German military, the defense minister Peter Struck, whose statements were released yesterday by the French newspaper La Tribune said that "one of a 'maritime EADS' is a good formula," suggesting, therefore, go to the shipping industry the same way that four years ago was choice for the aerospace industry through the establishment of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), with capital in hand, 80%, to a Franco-German consortium.

HDW is the world leader in the construction of conventional submarines, and in particular in the field of silent propulsion through fuel cells. Its capital is, since June 2002, entirely in the hands of American fund One Equity Partners (OEP). Because of the constraints that the German government imposes on military exports, OEP has decided to sell HDW. In the running for the acquisition, the German ThyssenKrupp, and the French Thales and DCN (this controlled by the government in Paris). But that will have to 'face competition from a strong contender: the American shipbuilding group Northrop Grumman. According to Struck

"Europe must preserve the existence of a strong naval shipbuilding sector." Berlin intends to avoid so that the know-how of HDW reaches across the Atlantic. In early August, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had called for a "German solution", but the difficult financial situation of the Thyssen group makes this route impractical. A Franco-German cooperation appears to be the only alternative.

So, if the "Summit of the four" on European defense convened in Brussels in April by the Belgian government has turned into a stalemate, the business plan but the Paris-Berlin axis shows its determination to strengthen cooperation with a view to creating a single market in armaments that can ensure a greater weight and greater autonomy for the European industry.

London has always been hostile to any project to build an autonomous European defense alliance Atlantic, meanwhile, prepares his own counter-moves. The Times yesterday reported a project of the British government seeks to create a "planning cell European military "but that works' within the structures of NATO operations or ability to manage without it, but never against, Washington (in essence, the model applied for the EU peacekeeping mission in Macedonia). The proposal seeks a side to take out the ambitions of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, on the other to prepare the ground for the battle that the UK intends to launch the Intergovernmental Conference that, starting in October, will launch the draft European Constitution: London's goal is to obtain the cancellation of those standards approved by the Convention, which give the possibility to a group of states to proceed through the instrument of enhanced cooperation on the road to greater integration of defense structures. And on this, as well as the right of veto on tax, London does not seem willing to negotiate.

Do Women Prefer Men To Have Shaven Gentals

The real objective of EU Gaddafi (Finanza & Mercati p. 1).

The telephone conversation took place yesterday between the European Commission President Romano Prodi and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi - a few hours before the UN Security Council vote that could decide by next Friday the lifting of sanctions imposed in 1992 after Tripoli's involvement in the Lockerbie massacre - reveals that the Libyan dictator gives the normalization of relations between Libya and EU strategic importance probably higher than that of its "Rehabilitation" on the international political scene and with the U.S. in particular.

Besides the EU and Libya have always had intense commercial relations. In particular, Italy, Germany, UK and France deliver more than 50% of Libyan imports. Italy, Germany, Spain, France and Greece alone absorb about 70% of exports from Libya. The 1.4 million barrels of oil produced daily from Libya covering 51% of Italian oil requirements, 13% of the German and 5% of the French.

these data that explain the constant attention and anxiety reciprocated EU standards. The sanctions imposed by Brussels in 1992 following the UN resolution, however, have prevented the inclusion of Tripoli in the euro-Mediterranean partnership launched in 1995 with the Barcelona conference (from which the Libyans were left out) and directed to establish closer political and economic cooperation between the countries involved and to create by 2010 a free trade zone euro-Mediterranean, including some 40 states, and between 700 and 800 million consumers, would become one of the largest business entities in the world. After delivery, in 1999, the accused of the Lockerbie and following the suspension of sanctions, Libya has been allowed to attend, as invited by the President, the third euro-Mediterranean conference held in Stuttgart in April 1999 and given the status of observer in the Barcelona Process. But only the complete removal of the (already suspended), UN sanctions may pave the way for the full integration of Libya into the partnership.

After the agreement reached in recent days between Tripoli, Washington and London, which provides for acceptance of responsibility by Libya in the Lockerbie tragedy and a compensation of $ 2.7 billion to the families of 270 victims, the way seems open space. Only obstacle, the opposition in Paris, which is threatening a veto if the families of 170 victims of the attack in 1989 destroyed the flight French UTA, Libya - who is responsible and who had already agreed with France significantly less compensation than promised recently to the UK and U.S. - will not recognize an additional compensation such as to place them on the same level of family members of victims' attack in Scotland. But France is totally isolated and is now paying to have always maintained, in contrast with the U.S. yesterday and today with itself, the need to lift sanctions on Libya. It seems, once again, having hunted down a blind alley.

Sample Of Recognize Letter

Corporate Governance EU looks to the British model (Markets & Finance)

If the financial collapse of Enron, the U.S. responded by deploying the strict Sarbanes-Oxley, the United Kingdom (Not immune, as the story Marconi suggested by the phenomena of corporate malpractice) has not been watching: on 23 July, the Financial Reporting Council has published the "Combined Code on Corporate Governance."

The UK approach is however fundamentally different from the U.S., and more "ancient". The United Kingdom, even after the serious financial scandals and crack in the early '90s hit companies such as Maxwell, BCCI, Polly Peck, Clows Barlow, is the first country to have initiated a discussion on the topic of corporate governance which resulted in 1992 in drafting the Code of best practice by a committee which included representatives of the City and the public sector and chaired by Adrian Cadbury. The recent Combined Code is that the revision (the third, and more effective in ten years), designed by a committee chaired by Derek Higgs, the rules prepared by the Cadbury Committee. The new rules proposed by the Higgs Committee aim to strengthen the role of non-executive directors within the board. The route choice, and now confirmed, from London was not the "iron fist" of legislation, but self-regulation by the stakeholders (meeting in the Financial Reporting Council, a private), and since 1993 the authority of these rules is ensured by the inclusion car tax between the listing rules of the obligation for directors to state whether you have complied with and, if not, why. So rules based on "comply or explain". A

EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein has shown, since Enron, are not among those who believe Europe's overall security of the USA (and the news in recent months seem to bear him out) and presented on May 23 a action plan aimed at strengthening the rules of corporate governance in Europe, in which there are both legislative measures (introduction for companies listed in an annual statement on corporate governance and standards aimed at facilitating the exercise of shareholders' rights) that non-binding recommendations (to reinforce the role of non-executive directors and to establish a European Corporate Governance Forum in order to select the best experiences of various countries). Brussels, bound by the extensive regulatory differences between member countries, seems to seek a "third way" between legislation and regulation. The positive experience so far, however, the British could - through increased use of self, able to overlap more flexibly to the different national experiences - a useful model for the EU.

Random Facts On Triple X Syndrome

Europe all agreed to fight for the "Parma" (Finance & Markets)

As one man the EU countries have launched a tough campaign to rid the "Parma" and 34 other geographical indications (GIs) illegally appropriated by non-European producers (including Roquefort, Champagne, Gorgonzola ...). It is not yet a ransom from lacerations on the liberation of Iraq, but the "strategy gourmet" European nevertheless appears solid.

Objective: To create a multilateral register of GIs, in order to ensure their protection equivalent to that received in the Union and extend the types of products they are applicable.

The issue that the EU intends to include in trade negotiations before the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, it is not trivial: the second the Commission is linked to the fate of the IG that a significant part of the European economy, for example, that of 138,000 farms in France and about 300,000 workers in Italy. In the EU there are well-IG 4800 (4200 for wines and other alcoholic beverages and 600 for other products).

Commission spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez of "the recent CAP reform is a step towards an international competition based on quality rather than quantity, even to the benefit of developing countries. But this effort is likely to be in vain if the main instrument to enforce that status, geographical indications, are not protected on the international markets. "

For Brussels, the protection offered by current WTO rules are insufficient, for example, nothing prevents an American manufacturer of own label a cheese "Roquefort-style" if somewhere in the product is labeled "Made in the USA". Add to this the problem of geographical indications - before the TRIPS Agreement came into force prohibiting such practices, and have been registered as trademarks in third countries. Case in point, that of "Parma", trademarked by a Canadian citizen when he was still possible, with the result that in Canada can be sold as "Parma" Parma ham that is not, while the original must be marketed under the brand name "Number 1 Ham", with losses estimated in Brussels approximately 3 million Euros per year.

"We have prepared a list of 35 geographical indications that have become generic in international trade or that have become trademarks: we want to get them back and use them exclusively," said Arancha Gonzalez.

And Canada, with U.S., Australia and Argentina, is at the forefront in opposing the demands of the EU. Sergio Marchi, Canadian ambassador to the WTO, said that "the issue is not part of the negotiating agenda agreed in Doha and in any case it would be useless our efforts to liberalize agricultural trade if, through the exclusive right to use names that in many countries are now commonly used, re-create monopolies.

The battle, in a dossier already tricky enough, looks difficult. The EU issues on the table, as well as interests, strong. Not as it seems to be its credibility undermined by protectionist trade policies are still too in the primary and certainly not enhanced by a reform of the CAP that many consider "watered down".