On Thursday this week, the great majority of MEPs voted in favour of the initiative report on social economy.

This week, the EU Commission published the first monthly monitoring report on EU employment and social situation and a country comparison study on early childhood education and care in Europe.

The Transport Committee of the European Parliament voted on the inclusion of environmental costs in the HGV toll this week. According to this, it should be allowed to include air and noise pollution as well as congestion charges in the HGV toll. Including climate change and CO2 emission costs respectively, however, failed because of a majority of Conservative and Liberal MEPs.

Three subjects dominated the Eurogroup and Economic and Finance Ministers Council and the EU-27 this week in Brussels: a European solution for setting up Bad Banks, the deteriorating budgetary position in the Member States and the alarming situation in the labour markets in Europe.

A commentary from Brussels

For the first time, the EU Committee in charge of the Directive on maternity leave discussed the Working document of the responsible parliamentary rapporteur Edite Estrela (MEP Socialist Group).

Barroso’s patience snaps.Currently, political Brussels is in deep turmoil. Once again, the reason is the financial crisis, which has long developed into an employment crisis. The Portuguese Commission President Barroso causes a stir by warning the member states against national solo attempts to tackle the crisis and threatens to enforce the rules of competition. It becomes increasingly clear that the Commission only inadequately fulfils its coordination and leadership role with regard to overcoming the crisis.

Following 2 years of hard negotiations in the European Parliament and in the Council the path is now clear to impose for the first time sanctions against employers, who provide work for illegal immigrants says Claudio Fava, the parliamentary rapporteur in charge. The final legislative resolution of the MEPs, however, was postponed to March. Reason: Claudio Fava demanded an additional declaration, which does not exclude further legal action, in particular against sub-contractors.

The European Commission this week has presented two Directive proposals, which might be in particularly unpleasant for well-heeled bad sees among tax payers. The objective is to significantly improve cross-border administrative cooperation.

A report of the Commission, published on 3rd February emphasises the importance of social partners in Europe. The structured dialogue between employers’ and labour representatives does not only reduce social inequalities in society, but can also make a major contribution in helping to cushion the effects of the financial crisis.