On Tuesday, 22 October, the European Commission presented its Work Programme for 2014. Even though the legislative period of the Commission comes to an end next year, the Commission nevertheless has set itself a number of targets. The Work Programme clearly shows that the Commission would like a number of bills passed before the beginning of the new period. Hence, it requests that Council and European Parliament quickly conclude their negotiations concerning some specifically mentioned dossiers.

On 22 October 2013, a conference on “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) was held in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). The one day meeting was attended by about twenty representatives from business, the European Commission, academic experts and EESC members, who presented their practical and theoretical approaches on CSR. However, from the point of view of employees it is more than disappointing that only one trade unionist representative had been invited onto the panel.

The new Directive proposal on package travel and assisted travel arrangements presented by the Commission in the European Parliament has long been overdue. Many consumers book their holidays online. The existing Directive on package travel originates from 1990, a time, when it was still general practice to choose a holiday from the brochure and to book it at the travel agent. However, many consumers have been booking their holidays on the Internet for many years, a medium, which the existing Directive does not take into account.

Every six months, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) publishes its fiscal policy report “Fiscal Monitor”. The most recent publication in October 2013 contains some interesting and sometimes amazing demands. All in all, the International Monetary Fund comprises wide-ranging tax reforms to consolidate budgets and to stimulate sustainable growth, putting particular emphasis on issues concerning fairer taxation at a global level.

The European Commission can hardly wait for the liberalisation of the railway sector to take place. In only 15 years, it has already proposed the fourth railway package; this time, it has the liberalisation of passenger rail transport in its sight. Warning calls concerning the negative consequences for passengers and employees fall on deaf ears with the responsible Commission officials and Commissioners.

The European Commission uses the present draft to propose a revision of the Package Travel Directive 90/314/EEC. The BAK generally welcomes this proposal.

Only last week, the Transport Committee of the European Parliament rejected a draft proposal by the European Commission, which would have led to a significant deterioration in airline pilots’ standby and working hours. In view of the protests by European Parliament and labour representatives, the Commission has now reacted and reached agreement with the European Transport Workers' Federation on future flight duty times.

This week, the EU Commission published a study on the impact of demographic change, hence the ageing of the society, on future employment growth. The results indicate that the decline in labour force is practically unavoidable and that this development will only take between 10 and 20 years to lead to a decline in the entire labour force at EU level.

No to social and wage dumping for railway employees and securing high quality for railway passengers: these were the key demands by Sylvia Leodolter of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour and Andreas Rauter of “Verkehrsverbund Ostregion“ this week during a panels discussion with MEPs on the new liberalisation proposals of the European Commission in the railway sector, which had been organised by the Austrian Association for Public and Social Economy (VÖWG) and the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour.

On 4 September, the Commission published a draft proposal concerning a regulation of so-called Money Market Funds and a communication on further regulatory provisions for shadow banks. Even though regulating this sector is without a doubt a step in the right direction but the proposals fail to meet the requirements of a stable financial system that serves society.