The scandal linked to the Panama Papers has not only moved the European Commission to adopt measures against aggressive tax planning, but the European Parliament too is taking action by setting up a corresponding Committee of Inquiry.

A first step

In general, the Federal Chamber of Labour as legal representative of about 3.4 million employees and consumers in Austria welcomes the proposal for the regulation as a useful step to eliminate weaknesses. The growing discrepancy between the EU requirements regarding fuel consumption and exhaust emission values and real life values must clearly be rejected in order to regain the faith of the consumers. From a preventive point of view cheating exhaust emission tests in the European car industry needs to be prevented in the future due to inestimable consequential damages.

It was the first major event in Brussels on the Commission project of a “social rights pillar” in the EU, which was hosted by the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), the Chamber of Labour (AK), the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Solidar. Apart from Bernhard Achitz, Secretary General of the ÖGB, high-ranking participants such as Luxembourg’s Minister of Labour, Employment and Social & Solidarity Economy, Nicolas Schmit and MEPs Thomas Händel and Udo Bullmann debated during the whole-day conference.

It is the prestige project of the Juncker Commission. The Investment Plan of the European Commission has been in force for a year. One hopes to generate an investment volume of up to 315 billion Euros by 2018 based on exclusively private investments. Conclusion: the Commission is convinced that this is the right way forward. However, the Chamber of Labour doubts whether the plan can be successful without public funds.

Bleak economic prospects have been dominating in Europe for years.

Today, the European Commission presented its recommendations for the Member States on the participatory economy. Business models such as Uber or Airbnb are constantly growing and have become an essential service for many consumers. However, employment and consumer protection, social security, tax issues and safety standards are not clearly regulated and therefore enable new business sectors to distort the market in their favour. Even though the recommendations of the Commission address these issues, they are not ambitious enough.

The financial crisis of 2008 has clearly shown that the European Union did not and still does not have the necessary instruments to effectively counteract major crises. Even though the debate on an appropriate budget for the Eurozone has been going on for decades, the competent Committee is now trying to present concrete proposals for its structuring in a report.

Draft report: three pillars

In 2015, more than a million people did apply for asylum in the European Union. Investments in employment and training measures are an essential factor for enabling the social inclusion of refugees into society. The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs therefore adopted initial recommendations as to how this may succeed.

The report and the role of the Chamber of Labour

Ever since the revelations of the Luxembourg Leaks or the Panama Papers, it has been a well-known fact that some companies exploit gaps in the various national tax systems to minimise their tax base. Six measures, which are to clamp down on these practices, are part of a Commission Directive. This draft has now been debated and voted on in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, with the result that a small majority has demanded stricter rules than those proposed by the Commission.

Commission Proposal

Members of the JURI and the IMCO Committee joined in a debate with Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska. In the discussion, she took up some points from the Commission’s new Single Market Strategy. The services passport shall be a voluntary tool for service providers that want to operate across borders. With the help of an initiative, regulated jobs shall be reviewed with regard to their proportionality and Member States shall reform them in accordance with prescribed guidelines.

The European Commission has published its country-specific recommendations within the scope of the European Semester, in which the individual Member States are requested to take these into account when preparing their reform programmes. Austria, which according to the in depth analysis of the Commission has not been affected by macroeconomic imbalances, has been called upon to take measures with regard to essential points – among other in the pension sector.

The European Semester 2016