Based on contacts with consumers and discussions with broadcasting organisations, BAK concurs with the finding of the EU Commission that Austrian consumers, too, do not currently enjoy unlimited cross-border portability for audio-visual media services that can be called up on online. Consumers traveling abroad do not understand why they do not have (full) access totheir usual information and entertainment platforms that they can access in their country of residence. This situation accords with our experiences from consultations with consumers.

The reform proposals of the EU have been eagerly awaited for months. They shall take into account the “wishes” of the British Prime Minister David Cameron, thereby resulting in Great Britain staying in the EU. However, what is new is that the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, made all proposals public even before the official negotiations among the Member States have begun. So far, results were only presented following secret negotiations at the summits of the EU heads of state and government.

In his speech on the occasion of the ECB Annual Report 2014, Mario Draghi warns against recurring deflation. One will hold on to measures taken so far, but he sees further need for action.

In this and in the coming year, Europe's economy is supposed to be on the road to recovery. Growth rates of 2 percent (2016) and 2.1 Percent (2017) shall give the impression that the serious financial crisis of 2008 will soon be a thing of the past.

If one believes the economic forecast of the European Commission, Europe’s economy is growing and growing and growing - for the fourth year in succession. In spite of this, there were no joyful cheers at the press conference of Pierre Moscovici (Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs). Because the presented results left no doubt that the European Union has still a long way to go until it has recovered from the financial crisis 2008 and that it is still in no position to absorb fluctuations in the global economy.

They had already been announced last summer; this week it finally happened. The Commission is finally presenting concrete proposals as to how to gain control of the increasingly more sophisticated tax avoidance practices of major multinational corporations.

This week, the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) of the European Parliament presented a draft report on the Single Market Strategy of the Commission. The rapporteur is the MEP Lara Comi of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party and the EPP faction. The draft report repeats the one-sided market orientation of the Single Market Strategy

On the Single Market Strategy

The European Commission is making efforts to create a digital single market, which aims to ensure through various measures that Europe will become one of the pioneers of the digital economy.The Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK) welcomes, in principle, the fact that the European Union is dedicated to this important matter and attaches a central significance to digitisation as the basis of future opportunities.

This week, the Trade Committee adopted a report on the Trade in Services Agreement TiSA by a majority that includes important warning signals to the European Commission, the authority leading the negotiations. However, there are still far too many loopholes which may undermine the protection of public interests.

Given the fact, that the vote had already been postponed once, the Trade Committee of the European Parliament reached agreement at the beginning of the week.