Farms certified to export products to EU
AMMAN -- Two Jordanian farms acquired the European Good Agricultural Practices (EuroGAP) Certificate on Wednesday, granting them access to the EU's lucrative markets.
The EuroGAP certificate allows farmers to export their products directly to European supermarkets and stores, bypassing the EU's central markets, where Jordanian agricultural products fetch much lower prices and are subject to commission fees, said Muna Sarsak, EuroGAP Project Coordinator at the Producers Association for Fruit and Vegetables (JEPA).
"The achievement is the first fruit of cooperation between JEPA and the KAFAA project for sustainable irrigation water use, with the support of the American Agency for International Development (USAID)," said Sarask.
She said staff from JEPA had trained the two farms' owners, Yousef Barakat and Mohammad Alfi, on the standards and conditions of acquiring the certificate.
Sarsak said a total of 15 farms in the country now hold the certificate, which is awarded according to strict criteria.
Minister of Agriculture Akef Zu'bi announced on Tuesday that JD700,000 has been allocated to assist farmers facing problems exporting their products to EU markets. [ read full article ]
EU rule threatens legal boom
London's 9 billion-a-year international commercial legal business is being threatened by a proposed European Union regulation on civil law, Financial Mail has learned.
The proposal, which is a priority of the current Finnish EU presidency, would give courts the right to decide which legal system should prevail in deciding intra-European civil cases.
It would apply even when the parties concerned had specified in the contract which country's law they wanted to govern the agreement. This would create major uncertainty, according to the Financial Markets Law Committee, which is chaired by former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf and has members from the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority.
Sarah Garvey, litigation partner at City solicitor Allen & Overy, said the proposed regulation could undermine the key attraction of London as a commercial legal centre -- the popularity of English law. This in turn would damage the capital's booming commercial legal business.
"English law is a very popular choice for law governing contracts," she said. "It is predictable and well known. [ read full article ]
Scheele urges authorities to prepare for EU fund absorption
The country's EU funds absorption capacity does not depend that much on the government, but on the potential beneficiaries of the funds, according to the head of the European Commission Delegation in Romania, Jonathan Scheele.
He pointed out that a good absorption rate depends on how the projects proposed for subsidies are managed and implemented.
Scheele acknowledged the progress made by authorities in the funds management field, adding that although the implementation mechanisms have been set up, fund absorption is not going to be an easy task.
Scheele said that he is aware that authorities are currently preparing a project to use the structural funds, which the government is to adopt at the beginning of the fall.
"The implementation capacity will be of high importance," he added. [ read full article ]