The Gender Equality Strategy of the EU Commission will expire next year. Based on this fact, the EU Parliament took the opportunity of organising a workshop under the title "A new strategy for gender equality post 2015" in Brussels to voice recommendations from the point of view of the EU Parliament at an early stage. A study, featuring the most important demands was also presented for this purpose.

On 5 May 2014, the European Commission initiated an online consultation on the Europe 2020 strategy. The Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (AK) hereby registers its participation in the public hearing and responds to the questions defined by the European Commission.

Evaluations of creditworthiness, especially largely automated scoring procedures, increasingly decide whether consumers are accepted as a party to a contract. The Chamber of Labor commissioned a study to be done by the Institute for Technology Assessment at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. It analyzes the scoring methods used and their social consequences.

The almost four-month public consultation of the European Commission on the Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) within the scope of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) came to a close on 13.07.2014. AK EUROPA, the European Office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation ÖGB and Friends of the Earth Europe had developed an online tool, which was also to enable/make it easier for individuals to participate in the consultation. Well over 23,000 people made use of this opportunity.

The EU Parliament and the Committees have already been set up. Martin Schulz (S&D) was re-elected President at the inaugural meeting of the European Parliament. Othmar Karas (ÖVP) did not put himself forward to be elected as Vice-President; however, Ulrike Lunacek’s appointment means that there is an Austrian Vice-President after all. Meanwhile, the composition of the committees has also been determined.

Last week, the EU employment ministers came together for one of their regular meetings in Luxemburg. On their agenda were among other the country specific recommendations, which the EU Commission had recently made to the EU Member States. In the original version, the Commission recommends to Austria to link the legal retirement age to life expectancy. A demand, which has been clearly rejected by the employees' side.

Even though Italy only assumes the rotating EU Council Presidency for the next six months from 1 July 2014, the programme and thereby Italy’s priorities and activities have already been leaked. Strictly speaking, it will be an 18 month programme, as it includes the future presidencies of Italy, Latvia and Luxemburg.

As already reported in our Newsletter on several occasions, the European Commission has launched a public consultation on ISDS. However, the questionnaire is so complicated that one has to ask oneself the question whether the Commission is really interested in a broad participation of the civil population. Help is now at hand with an online tool developed by AK EUROPE, the European Office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation ÖGB and Friends of the Earth Europe, which enables participation with a few simple mouse clicks.

The AK rejects the concept for a new European law form, the Societas Unius Personae (SUP), in its entirety. The AK also challenges the accuracy of the legal basis of Article 50 TFEU used by the Commission for the proposal, which has been applied by the Commission in order to bypass the requirement of unanimity in the Council.

Currently, about 5.6 million young Europeans are unemployed. The EU wanted to provide help swiftly and agreed on a Youth Guarantee based on which in future every unemployed young person should be provided with a job, an apprenticeship or at least work experience within four months at the latest. Since 2013, six billion euros have been available for Europe’s youth. However, the majority of this money has yet to be collected. The problem: anybody wanting subsidies must first agree with the EU Commission on a programme of measures.