According to the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) bank experts forecast steady stock markets and interest rates for Germany. In the six months to come share prices at German and European stock exchanges will develop cautiously. Even though, according to experts, short and long-term interest rates will rise, this increase will just be a slight one. This is the finding of a quarterly survey by the Mannheim-based ZEW among financial market analysts from German banks. more…

Today, April 30th, a new EU directive on the liability for environmental damages takes effect. This guideline is the first one set up by the EU which is based on the polluter-pays-principle. Environmental damages comprise negative effects on water resources, natural habitats, flaura and fauna as well as ground pollutions endangering people´s health. more…

In the year 2006 the EU of the 27 member states generated a trade surplus amounting to more than 90 billion Euros in their business with the US. This figure was published today by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the EU, on the occasion of the EU-US summit taking place today in Washington DC. more…

Compliments to our women! According to the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) they are in fourth place among the 27 EU member states in terms of computer skills. 51 percent of German women have in the meantime acquired computer knowledge of medium or good quality. Just women from Scandinavia are doing even better. more…

Many Germans seem to be dissatisfied with their jobs. According to the Federal Statistical Office, in March 2007 3.23 million employees were actively looking for a new or additional place of work which is approximately one person in twelve. Thus, the number of employees looking for work has grown by 360.000 since March 2005. more…

A new draft on e-surveillance presented by the German government plans the obligatory storage of citizens´s internet traffic and email data as soon as from January 1st 2008. Originally the government had planned to introduce this storage gradually in the several lines of business. For the internet economy this introduction should only have taken place from March 2009 onward. more…

The use of hardware and software in e-procurement reduces production costs by 10 to 35 percent on average and by 5 to 10 percent with regard to acquisition prices. This was revealed by a study on electronic procurement in 2007 which was organized by the Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik (BME) in co-operation with the Würzburg university. more…

The German government has presented a new bill which is to strengthen the position of rights owners in the fight against product piracy. Among other things the bill contains a procedure regulating dissuasions after copyright infringements. Furthermore the German copyright laws, confiscation procedures and other regulations are to be adapted to EU legislation. more…

The upper house of German parliament is dissatisfied with a formulation in a draft by the German government according to which rooms for smokers may be set up, „if a sufficient number of rooms are available«. The upper house of German parliament demands a stipulation according to which such rooms must not pose any dangers to the health of third persons. Such obligations, however, would entail a considerable amount of additional costs in particular to the hotel and restaurant industry in terms of structural measures, expert opinions and administrative burdens. more…

According to the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) Germany risks infringement procedures on the part of the EU, if the federal states stick to their planned ban on internet gambling. In contrast to the governments of the German Länder the EU Commission is against the discrimination of electronic media. more…