The AK appreciates this opportunity to express its views on issues pertaining to bank accounts, a major financial service product, as part of this consultation process. We hope the EuropeanCommission will pick up our ideas and suggestions.

The AK is opposed to the proposed legislative act on concessions and considers the current legal situation to be sufficient to find a positive result. Due to being exempt from the scope of procurement directives and based on ECJ jurisdiction, a definition of service concessions as well as the clarification that the fundamental principles of primary law will also apply to concessions already exist.

To begin with, it has to be pointed out that concerning the suitability of IPSAS for the budgetary rights of the Member States of the European Union, many Member States, including Austria, already orientate their budgetary rights towards individual IPSAS.

In the wake of the financial crisis 2008, which hugely increased the economic and social imbalances in Europe, the EU has to deal with big socio-economic challenges. Austerity measures, introduced by a number of Member States, even aggravate the situation, resulting in the fact that broad sections of the population - both in urban and rural regions - are affected or threatened by unemployment.

The European Commission aims at remedying problem areas relating to the activities of credit rating agencies. The concrete proposal includes the amendment of three EU Directives: Directive 2009/65/EC on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS), Directive 2011/61/EC on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) as well as the Regulation 1060/2009/EC on credit rating agencies.

The measures by the European Commission on restoring confidence in annual statutory audits include a proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on amending Directive 2006/43/EC on statutory audits of annual accounts and consolidated accounts on the one hand, and a proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on specific requirements regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities on the other.

The causes of the financial crisis arose long before the property bubble in the USA burst in 2006.

The instability of the European and global financial markets has a severe impact on theEuropean workers and taxpayers. Therefore, AK closely follows the regulatory efforts ofthe European Commission and the European Parliament.

The Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK) urges you to vote in favour of the Podimatareport on the “Proposal for a directive on a common system of financial transaction tax(FTT)” at the plenary session on 23 May.