Apart from economic growth and climate targets, the group making up the 20 largest industrial and threshold countries also addressed tax offences and the regulation of financial markets during its meeting in Brisbane, Australia. Even though the adopted action plan shows a certain willingness for regulation, in many respects, it remains rather vague.

In recent days, the former Luxembourg Vice President of the EU Commission, Viviane Reding, who in May had been elected to the European Parliament for the next five years, came under heavy criticism due to her decision to accept a position on the supervisory board of the globally operating mining and metal business Nyrstar, whilst at the same time joining the Bertelsmann Stiftung Board of Trustees. This was all approved by the last session of the leaving Barroso II Commission on 29 October 2014.

During a press conference, which took place this Wednesday, Commission President Juncker for the first time publicly commented on the so-called “Luxembourg Leaks”. He insisted on cracking down on tax fraud and tax evasion in the EU and announced that the Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, Pierre Moscovici, had been instructed with drawing up a Directive on Automatic Data Exchange, i.e. the automatic exchange of financial information, in respect of those Member States which would offer large corporations favourable tax deals.

The text of the Free Trade Agreement between EU und Singapore was initialled in September 2013. At this point, the Agreement only covered goods and services – apparently this was not satisfactory for the European Commission. Hence, subsequent negotiations focussed on a chapter on investment protection, which was presented to the public at the end of October. Both approach and content were strongly criticised by the AK.

During a meeting in Brussels on 07 November, the European Finance Ministers will discuss the implementation of the Financial Transaction Tax. Even though the intention is to reach agreement by the end of this year, there are still significant differences concerning the design of the tax. Whilst Austria and Germany support a broadly conceived tax, in particular the French Finance Minister Michel Sapin has been trying to obtain a watered down draft.

This week, the European Parliament presented a study on the subject of “Wage Dispersion in the European Union”. Particular emphasis was hereby given to income inequality, which has significantly increased since the 1980ies. In doing so, the study confirms the often adopted conclusion that a high level of income inequality is in general the result of wasted human resources, i.e. a situation, in which a large of part of the population is unemployed or caught in low wage work or low-skilled jobs.

In September, the European Commission presented a draft proposal on the categorisation of serious infringements of Union regulations in road transport. These provisions put a large number of labour law standards at risk; apart from that this could let cross-border transport with gigaliners in through the backdoor.

Last week, the European Commission presented its proposal on the Single Resolution Fund (SRF); the Commission’s intention is to close further legal loopholes in respect of the European banking union. The fund is part of the Single Resolution Mechanism, which regulates procedures in case of a crisis to ensure that banks are initially liable with their own assets.

Only a few months have passed since the Assistance Programme for Portugal, imposed by the “Troika”, consisting of the EU Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came to an end. Following severe financial corrections and reforms, the economy has once again been stimulated. However, a current OECD Report established that further measures are required and recommends that the stricken country adopts further reforms. The ones who suffer will once again be workers and employees as if they had not experienced enough painful cuts.

The new President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, already presented the guiding principles of his work, which he described as a “new start for Europe”, to the Parliament when he was elected.