The front page

European companies fear the side effects of the single EU patent adopted on December 11. ”The Polish ones because they will have to pay more for foreign technologies and western ones because competitors may easily avoid responsibility for breaching patent rights,” explains the daily.

Patent full of emotions – Gazeta Wyborcza

In the wake of last week’s student protests, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has announced that the most controversial measure in the university reform package, a drastic reduction in the number of places in public institutions, is to be withdrawn. However, another measure in the package, which requires state funded students to work in Hungary for a number of years following their graduation, has been retained. Student organisations are planning to continue their protests.

Government withdraws quota system for university places – Magyar Hírlap

According to several sources, the bank is about to face an indictment as a legal entity. French officials, who have been investigating UBS since April, suspect it of assisting French citizens to systematically evade tax using accounts in Switzerland. Three former executives at the bank have already been indicted for “complicity in illicit dealing” and “laundering and concealment of assets”.

French courts prepare UBS indictment – Le Temps

The new management team that took over in early 2012, pledged to put an end to the profit-at-all-costs culture at Germany’s largest bank. However, the financial institution has since been overwhelmed by scandals. On December 12, its offices were raided in the course of an investigation into tax fraud worth several hundred million euros. On December 14, a court ruled that it should pay billions of euros in damages to the family of Leo Kirch — a media magnate whose empire went bankrupt when Deutsche Bank declared that his finances were not reliable in 2002.

Deutsche scandal bank – Der Spiegel

Poland has signed an agreement with Cyprus which will make tax evasion much more difficult for Polish workers claiming to work for Cypriot-based companies on the Mediterranean island in order to pay lower taxes. The Finance Ministry estimates that Poles have created some 5,000 companies in Cyprus to “optimise their tax payments”.

Paradise lost – Rzeczpospolita

The Danish parliament has passed a law to promote competition in the energy sector, which will force power companies to provide their customers with written information on how to change electricity suppliers. One Danish power company, Natur-Energi, which believes that the measure does not go far enough, has asked the European Commission to investigate illegal state funding for energy producer-suppliers.

Is electricity much too expensive? – Berlingske Tidende

From 2009 to 2011, Google Greece paid €328,000 in taxes to the Greek state for declared sales of €7m. The real figure for sales should have been in the billions of euros. However, “sums paid for advertising purchased by Greek customers are paid directly into accounts in Ireland,” where the Californian company has its European headquarters and where corporate taxes are lower, the newspaper explains.

How we’ve been robbed by Google – Ta Nea