On 1 July, Poland will assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. On Tuesday, 31 May, the Polish Parliament approved the objectives of the Presidency. Security, economic growth and the internal market, as well as foreign and security policy are central issues of the programme.

We would like to take the forthcoming resolution of the legislative package of the Commission on strengthening economic governance as an opportunity to once again bring our position to your attention. From the point of view of the AK, there are still serious concerns in respect of the legislative package in its present form.

On Tuesday, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament has agreed the report on the Directive proposal on Deposit Guarantee Schemes. Private savings deposits are to be guaranteed up to Euro 100,000 EU-wide. The Social Democrat rapporteur Peter Simon stated that this legislative change would be necessary to ensure that banks would take appropriate measures to secure these deposits and would not rely on the state to foot the bill in case of crisis.

The fight against high unemployment and poverty in the European Union, the emphasis on the particularly important role of education, investments in research and in EU infrastructure projects and the demand to retain the 2 pillar system for the Common Agricultural Policy are some of the central requirement of the European Parliament on the future EU budgets from 2014.

A new factsheet of AK Vienna examines the agricultural income in Austria and the European Union. The distribution of income and assets in the agricultural sector are analysed in the paper.

The new financial architecture, Economic Governance and ways out of the crisis were the central topics at the Brussels Economic Forum, which the European Commission organised this week. The proposals on Economic Governance, which is to be adopted by June, were very welcomed by most discussion partners.

The logo of the incoming Polish EU Presidency symbolises dynamics, positive energy and solidarity. Poland introduced the logo, the obligatory visual symbol of any EU Presidency, even before taking over the EU Presidency for the first time on 1 July 2011. Poland is part of the fourth Trio Presidency, which will also include the Danish and the Cypriot Council Presidency in 2012. Details of the plans of the Polish EU Presidency were not yet introduced officially.

Right at the top of agenda was the aid package for Portugal. Portugal was granted an amount of 78 billion Euros. The decision was made to divide the aid for Portugal equally between the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM), the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This week, the European Parliament voted on the new EU Transparency Register. Following lengthy negotiations, the European Parliament (EP) and the EU Commission agreed on a joint Transparency Register. It replaces the previous register of lobbyists of the EU Commission. Each organisation and each individual person wishing to make a contribution to EU policy has to register therein. The intention is to make the register available online in June.

The AK welcomes the inclusion of the topic concerning the financialisation of the raw material markets into the EU Raw Materials Strategy and the considerations in respect of transparency, tightening the reporting obligation as well as introducing position limits. In order to achieve more transparency in this sector, the AK demands a ban on so-called OTC transactions (Over The Counter) and supports the mandatory trade through stock exchanges.