Due to broad resistance, in particular by labour representatives, civil society and NGOs, the European Commission has initiated a public consultation on the international investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The objective of the consultation is to provide all (EU citizens and organisations) with the opportunity to let the European Commission know their opinion on ISDS.

On Monday, 5 May 2014, 10 EU Member States agreed to implement a Financial Transaction Tax on shares and a small number of derivatives from 2016 at the earliest. However, the adopted model makes a mockery of the fundamental idea of a Financial Transaction Tax. Highly speculative financial products are being left out whilst small investors are asked to pay up.

The AK generally welcomes the creation of a separate research instrument for the railway sector at EU level to eliminate structural weaknesses in a sector that provides good industrial jobs.

Whilst the crisis still has Europe firmly in its grip, the OECD has proposed further drastic cuts for a number of European states in its recently published report “Going for Growth”.

This week, the campaign for lobby transparency at EU level starts, organised by ALTER-EU, AK & ÖGB and supported by an alliance of trade unions and civil society groups throughout Europe. The candidates for the European Election in May 2014 have been asked to make a key promise: that in case of being elected for the European Parliament they will fight for citizens and democracy and against the excessive lobby influence of banks and corporations in Europe!

The last session of the EU Parliament in this legislative period took place this week. The agenda was peppered with legislative acts, which still had to be voted on. Among these were three, which have a direct socio-political impact. MEPs voted on the Directive on the portability of supplementary pension rights, the Directive on the posting of workers from third countries and on the improved protection of posted EU citizens within Europe.

58 million people in the EU do currently not have access to a giro account of their own. Until now, banks refused to let customers with a poor credit history open an account or they closed existing accounts, if a customer’s financial standing deteriorated – sometimes with serious consequences. In most cases, a private bank account is required for employment or a rental agreement.

On Tuesday, the EU Parliament voted with a large majority against the proposal of the Commission to allow the cross-border transport with gigaliners. This had been preceded by a heated discussion between EU Transport Commissioner Kallas and the European Parliament.

The different concepts of Eurobonds - hence joint borrowing by states of the Eurozone - were associated with the hope of leaving the debt crisis behind and to meet the mighty financial markets as a unified Eurozone. An Expert Group of the Commission chaired by Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell has now reached the sobering conclusion that the discussed concepts can hardly be implemented without lengthy treaty changes.

Last week the European Parliament voted on the Package Travel and Assisted Travel Arrangements Directive. Due to the fact that the booking behaviour of consumers had significantly changed (keyword: online travel market) over the last years, it was high time to revise the 1990 EU law on package travel. The new law shall in particular take these changes into account. However, instead of using the opportunity to undertake some long overdue corrections, the proposal by the European Commission contained a fair amount of causes for conflict.