After the negotiations on CETA, the Trade Agreement between EU and Canada, had been finalised at the end of February, the EU Commission was now trying to create a good atmosphere in the Committee on International Trade (INTA) of the European Parliament. This week’s agenda included a debate with the EU Commission on the follow-up action of TTIP in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), a briefing in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) as well as the presentation of a draft report in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL).

This week, MEPs debated the options of integrating refugees in the labour market. Well knowing that this is a dynamic process, which is characterised by interactions, which at the same time represents both a challenge and an opportunity, and which requires efforts by local administrations, by host communities, by the refugees themselves as well as the participation and support of social partners. However, as everyone agrees, this will not be possible without financial aid.

What do Google, Apple, Ikea, McDonald, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco have in common? They are all accused of participating in unfair tax practices. The Special Committee on Tax Rulings of the European Parliament spent two days debating the latest proposals by the Commission with their representatives and to clarify any misunderstandings.

If one looks in detail at the draft of the Commission on the EU Posting of Workers Directive NEW, which was proposed this week, the fairy tale “The Emperor's New Clothes” inevitably comes to mind. But this time the court does not continue the parade against its better judgement, but immediately levels objective criticism and inevitably comes to the conclusion that the new proposal does not entail any progress in the fight against wage and social dumping.

Based on the country reports and the Alert Mechanism Report, the European Commission has now decided in the further course of the European Semester, which States within the scope of the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure continue to show economic difficulties and therefore have to undergo a review. There was an all-clear in the case of Austria.

At the start of the European Semester, the Alert Mechanism Report identified 18 Member States, which from the point of view of the Commission show economic irregularities. These included for the first time Austria and Estonia.

As in previous years, International Women’s Day was the occasion to deal with the situation of women in our society – in Austria und in Europe. Hence, on Wednesday, the European Parliament focussed on the issue, also in relation to the prevailing crises. The EU Commission commented, a number of events took place and the AK too had its say on various channels, in particular in respect to the wage and pension gap to the disadvantage of employees in Austria. To sum up, one could say that we still have a long way to go until we reach the goals we have set ourselves.

In December last year, the EU Commission presented a new package of measures on the circular economy, which proposes among other new targets for recycling and depositing waste in all EU Member States. The objective is to close the loop in respect of all phases of life of a product. Last week, the proposal, including the action plan of the Commission, was discussed by the EU Council and on various events.

The AK had already reported on the new package on the circular economy in December of last year.

Under the motto ”Better Regulation - it really isn’t”, the European trade union federation (UNI Europa) together with other organisations, such as ETUC, EFFAT, IndustriALL Europa, EPSU, ETF Europa, CSEE-ETUCE, EFBWW and IFJ has launched a campaign, which shall show how the EU blocks important social legislation.

The first example concerns health and safety of hairdressers:

Each year, within the scope of the European Semesters, the European Commission publishes its country specific reports, in which it reviews the economic situation of a Member State and its implementation of economic reforms, based on the recommendations of the previous year. In addition, the report establishes whether any discrepancies included therein require further analyses and reviews. The published Annual Growth Report 2016 determines the respective priorities for the individual Member States: investments, structural reforms to modernise economies and consolidated budgets.