This week, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) of the EU Parliament debated the composition of Workers representation on board level.Even though the report by the FEMM Committee has no binding or legislative effect, it nevertheless contains interesting issues worthy of discussion. For example, the rapporteur could imagine quotas to be implemented and urges, among other, trade unions to appoint workers representatives, to take affirmative action and to ensure that the proportion of women on boards reaches the threshold value of 40%.

This week, the Netherlands EU Presidency presented its priorities for the coming six months in the EU Parliament. The Netherlands will concentrate on the following three key objectives: a Union that focusses on the essentials, an innovative Union that creates growth and jobs and a Union that unites.

This week, ÖGB Europabüro, the Brussels Office of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions together with AK EUROPA, the Brussels Office of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour and British and Swedish trade unions hosted a panel discussion on “BREXIT”.

It took less than seven months for the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and The Council of the European Union to agree to a so-called Interinstitutional Agreement (IIV), which will revise the cooperation of the three EU institutions to guarantee better legislation in future. Following an initial review, many concerns of employees and the civil society have been taken on board.

This Thursday, a new Draft Report on regulating lobbying in the EU was discussed in the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. In his presentation, Rapporteur Sven Giegold (Green Group) pointed out that the trust of the population in European institutions was declining and that it was therefore urgently required to enforce a more transparent way of dealing with lobbying in all institutions.

This Wednesday, the Commission presented its Circular Economy Package, which shall enhance a mode of production, which is geared towards both sustainability and recycling. According to Commissioners Jyrki Katainen and Frans Timmermans, this represents a great step forward.

The Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (AK) would like to set out in this position paper its positions on the draft EU proposal for the Title on trade in services, investment and e-commerce and the related revised EU offer in relation to the trade and investment agreementbetween the EU and the US (TTIP) as well as the corresponding documents presented by the EU in the negotiations.