This week, the Commission presented the long awaited Proposal on the European Citizens’ Initiative. This will give one million European citizens the opportunity to ask the Commission to submit certain legislative proposals. However, this is by no means as easy as it sounds. Some hurdles have to be overcome first. The threshold values, for example, with regard to minimum numbers of Member States and citizens per country have to be exceeded.

The financial sector regulations do not go far enough and pose a threat for the working population. That was the concurring opinion at a seminar on the introduction of the Financial Transaction Tax in Brussels. The campaign “Regulate Global Finance Now!” whose members also include the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour and the Austrian Trade Union Federation organised the event.

“Too big to fail” - this term describes those financial institutions, which are so big that their collapse would endanger the entire economic system. At the height of the crisis, most of these banks had to be rescued by their governments. The consequence was a public debate as to how it could be avoided in future that taxpayers were forced to bail out endangered big banks. There are currently discussions going on in Brussels, what a respective legal framework could look like.

In its last meeting, the Committee on International Trade of the European Union invited Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht to discuss the Free Trade Agreement with Columbia and Peru. In particular, the conclusion of an Agreement with Columbia is - because of the problematic human rights situation in this country - highly controversial.

The European Parliament (EP) this week discussed the Commission proposal on a single application procedure for third-country nationals for a single permit to reside and work in the EU and on a common set of rights associated with it. This is supposed to lead to a simplification and a greater harmonisation of the different rules applied in the Member States. This will benefit both migrants and employers. The right of the Member States to decide on the admission of third-country nationals to their labour markets, however, remains unaffected.

The European Parliament requests the Commission in a resolution to examine financial transactions in more detail. Advantages and disadvantages concerning the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax shall be examined; experiences with such taxes shall be evaluated. Only the European Conservatives voted en block against the resolution. Almost all Austrian MEPs voted for it; only MEP Franz Obermayr of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) abstained.

Ahead of International Women’s Day, Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, presented a Women’s Charter, which will become the Commission’s working basis for the coming years. At the same time, the start of the second phase of the Equal Pay Campaign was launched, which will strengthen its commitment to close the gender pay gap in the individual Member States.

The “Bologna Anniversary Conference” to mark the 10th anniversary of the “Bologna Process” took place in Vienna and Budapest from 11th to 12th March. Some days previously, the European Commission presented a “Higher Education Report” to prepare for the implementation of the European Higher Education Area in the 46 participating states.

Transport should become more economically friendly and compatible, introducing new HGVs that are up to 25.25 meters long with a maximum weight of 60 tons. These are at least the ideas of the HGV lobbies and some large corporations, which were presented during a publicity event under the leadership of MEP Koch of the European People’s Party.

The European Parliament discusses the enforcement of human rights, social and environmental standards in international trade agreements. In this context, the Social Democrat Richard Howitt has presented the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs with a draft statement, which requests a number of measures to enforce in particular workers’ rights in the course of concluding trade agreements.