How can the EU’s foreign trade and investment policy contribute to promote development? Are free trade and open markets really always beneficial to developing countries? These questions were debated by experts attending a workshop in the European Parliament, who also took a closer look at the Communication of the EU Commission on “Trade, growth and development”.

The European Commission announced its intention this week to carry out an investigation throughout 2012, whether cross-border and seasonal workers are being disadvantaged from a tax point of view. According to the Commission, the elimination of tax disadvantages is an important factor to promote the mobility of workers.

Money laundering, corruption and organised crime are the topics, which a new special committee in the European Parliament has been asked to investigate. The subject of this enquiry is to establish the extent of embezzlement of public funds, bribery or money laundering in the European Union.The new committee consists of 45 members, among them two Austrians, Hubert Pirker of the Austrian People’s Party and Josef Weidenholzer of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. The committee shall take up its activities at the end of April.

Actually, EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas had imagined everything would be running smoothly when he entered the conference room of the Transport Committee in the European Parliament last Monday: he would inform the MEPs that the cross-border use of up to 60 tonnes heavy and up to 25.25 metre long HGVs - also called mega truck or Gigaliner - would now be possible, because it was the wish of the freight lobby. However, he did not expect the reaction of the MEPs: even many of his fellow group members strongly criticized him for the probably unprecedented approach of an EU Commissioner.

Prompted by the newly reignited discussion about the cross-border admission of so-called mega trucks, HGVs with a weight of up to 60 tonnes and a length of up to 25.25 metres, the Brussels Office of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour and the European Office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation organised a short-term discussion event.

The role of the European Central Bank and its new Italian boss Mario Draghi in respect of managing the current financial crisis is becoming increasingly clear. Austerity at any price, hence cutting back, regardless of the consequences, was the order of the day. And, the labour markets in the Member States of the Euro zone had to be made more flexible, hence employment protection had to be overhauled, commented the former Goldman Sachs Manager in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The culmination of Draghi’s interview: the Italian proclaims the end of the European social model.

This week, the draft report of the Greek Social Democrat MEP Anni Podimata on a common Financial Transaction Tax system was debated in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament.

The EU Parliament agrees that the great reliance of the financial markets on the three big credit rating agencies shall be reduced. However, there are different opinions as to achieve this target. On Wednesday, the MEPs debated a Commission proposal on the credit rating agencies in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski outlined during a hearing of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), which direction the EU budget would take until 2020: basing his comments on an EU budget payment volume of 1.18 % of the EU Gross Domestic Product in the nineties, Lewandowksi forecast a continuous reduction to 0.94 %. Some EESC members worry that this might happen at the expense in particular of the cohesion policy and thereby also of social projects.

If one believes the media reports these days, there might be trouble coming from Brussels. Various reports informed that with regard to the well-known and controversial Working Time Directive, the authorities in Brussels had thought of something special. Politicians and representatives of the sector immediately reacted with panic. But panic is the worst recipe for keeping a cool head. And that was needed to prevent falling for unnecessary scaremongering.