Joaquin Almunia News

A landmark deal to use British taxpayers' money to build a 16 billion pound ($25.6 billion) nuclear power station has triggered opposition from a quarter of EU policy-makers, who want to overturn approval from the top European regulator, EU sources said. The European Commission, the EU executive, said last month it would approve the British scheme involving French utility EDF , confirming a Reuters report. A copy of the draft decision seen by Reuters shows the Commission has accepted the plan with some changes that would ensure the British government and British taxpayer would get a bigger share of any windfall profits and EDF a smaller take.

Hapag-Lloyd and Compania SudAmericana de Vapores (CSAV) secured conditional European Union approval on Thursday for their tie-up to create the world's fourth-largest container shipping company. The merger is important for the shipping industry which hopes more deals could help it to overcome the worst slump on record. And if regulators take a soft line on any concessions required to allow the deal to proceed, this could spur more consolidation in the industry. The European Commission…

Taxation of Dutch ports could breach EU competition rules. France, Belgium warned over their tax treatment of ports; EU executive could broaden investigation to other EU ports. The European Union's competition watchdog on Wednesday opened an investigation into tax exemptions granted to ports in the Netherlands and warned France and Belgium their taxation of ports may breach EU state aid rules. The EU will look into whether corporate tax exemptions for some Dutch public companies - including the operator of Rotterdam port, Europe's biggest by annual cargo - breach the EU's rules against governments giving unfair advantages to some companies, thereby distorting competition. "There should be a level playing field between ports in the EU," said Joaquin Almunia, the EU's antitrust commissioner.