This week, the EU Parliament once again was the venue for a number of events on EU trade policy. Particularly interesting was a public hearing on TTIP and a meeting of the Trade Committee with the Minister of International Trade Canada concerning CETA. Wednesday morning was dedicated to the United States trade protectionisms, a thorn in the side of the European economy. In the afternoon, it became clear who would become the new favourite trading partner of the EU.

In January, the European Commission published a Directive on introducing country-by-country reports, which would oblige companies to share important information with the tax authorities of fellow Member States. The new Commission proposal not only goes an important step further to promote more transparency, it would also be an opportunity to rebuild the trust of the public, which yet again has been destroyed in the wake of publishing the Panama Papers.

In 2014 already, the European Parliament and the EU Member States adopted a new Directive as regards disclosure non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups, which has to be implemented by June 2016. The Directive aims at increasing transparency concerning environmental and social aspects within the EU.

The European Single Market is regarded as one of the achievements of European integration. In October 2015, the European Commission presented its new Single Market Strategy, in which it outlines how this market should be further developed and promoted.

This week, the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament yet again discussed the Agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA) as well as EU Investment policy.

The agenda of this week's Trade Committee included among other the travel report of the ad-hoc delegation to Canada. The delegation held talks with representatives of civil society, economy and trade unions as well as with the Minister of International Trade Chrystia Freeland and the Standing Committee on International Trade of the Canadian Parliament.

Die Europäische Kommission (EK) hat Ende Februar 2016 den „Länderbericht Österreich 2016“ vorgelegt. Angesichts der Tatsache, dass diese Arbeitsunterlage eine wichtige Grundlage für die Ausarbeitung des Nationalen Reformprogrammes 2016 und die länderspezifischen Empfehlungen darstellt, nimmt die Bundesarbeitskammer (BAK) zu ausgewählten Kapiteln Stellung.

As AK EUROPA already reported last week, representatives of multinationals and those European countries, which last year were rated by the Commission as “non-cooperating states”, faced questions by the Special Committee on Tax Rulings of the European Parliament. Subsequent to the question and answer session, this week an exchange took place with major European banks (Crédit Agricole, ING Group, UBS, UniCredit etc.) to establish whether these advised their clients on matters of tax optimisation.

Position of the banks

In connection with the current challenge of migration to the EU of a particularly large scale, additional funds have been allocated for different purposes within the EU budget, including an increase in the funding of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). An increase in the European Social Fund (ESF) – the EU instrument that specifically targets integration into the labour market and social inclusion – has, however, thus far not been realized.

European employment policy is currently facing a number of major challenges, including the urgent need to combat the high level of unemployment in the EU effectively. Given the highnumber of asylum seekers and people granted asylum in the EU, the integration of refugees into the labour market is furthermore of particular importance.

This week, AK EUROPA, the European Office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation ÖGB, and the European Consumers' Organisation BEUC invited to an event in Brussels, which dealt with fuel and emission tests for cars.

Following the so-called “VW scandal”, the discussion on fuel consumption and the emission output of cars has reached its peak. At the centre is the gulf between the data of manufacturers and the real consumption/output of their products as well as the debate as to how to proceed.