With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1. December 2009, the individual EU Member States have transferred the competence to negotiate international agreements on Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to the EU. With its Communication and Regulation, the European Commission has initiated the discussion on the future European Investment Policy. The AK welcomes this initiative.

The analysis of the Report has to be welcomed in many aspects. The AK shares the opinion that a social shift with regard to the European Union’s Single Market policy is required - in the words of Mario Monti: “The market is a good servant, but a bad master”. Consequently, the Single Market is not a purpose in itself, but a means to achieve social progress and full employment.

The serious financial and economic crisis has shown that the current regulatory system that makes strongly modelbased assumptions, which in turn are based on historic data, in connection with the valuation rules of true and fair value accounting, may result in undesired procyclic effects, apart from not having been able to prevent the crisis. Other significant contributors to the development of the systemic risk are also those elements of the financial system, which are not or only insufficiently covered by the regulation.

Derivatives are agreements or contracts whose own value is derived from a reference value (underlying, base value). These reference values vary greatly and reach from commodities (food products and raw materials), share indices, exchange rates, interest rates up to weather development etc. The evaluation of the derivative depends on the development of this reference values; it can, however, (for example) move in the opposite direction (e.g. by speculating on falling share indices). They are forward purchase or similar transactions.

During the Euro crisis, the lack of economic coordination at European level became the focus of the debate. If prior to the introduction of the Euro the individual states had still been able to control their competitiveness individually by currency adjustments, this is now no longer possible. Countries like Germany that adopt an aggressive export strategy to keep wages at a low level, now put the rest of the Eurozone massively under pressure.

Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, proudly reports that between 2000 and 2008 the tax and contribution ratio in the EU27 has fallen. In particular concerning the corporation tax, there would be a continuous decline of the top tax rate. What Eurostat regards as hardly worth mentioning: taxes on consumption during the same period have risen from 20.9 and 21.5 percent. Good news for business, bad news for consumers.

The regulation of the financial markets has reached a sad high point. Last weekend, the heads of government of the 20 largest economies met in Canada to discuss stricter rules for financial markets. The result, however, was nothing more than the declaration of intent to half budget deficits by 2013. No agreement was reached with regard to the bank levy, the Financial Transaction Tax or the introduction of stricter equity rules. In view of the meagre results, leading politicians have already voiced doubts about the usefulness of expensive monster meetings.

Every six months, another Member State takes over the Presidency of the European Union. From July 2010, it is the turn of Belgium. Since yesterday, the Belgian Presidency is officially at the helm. An own programme has been developed and presented. Under the motto “Europe in Action!”, the Belgian Presidency is prepared to meet future challenges.

The Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (AK) has for years supported the motion of only granting special preferences within the scope of the Scheme of Generalised Tariff Preferences (GSP+) if the relevant conditions have been met. Pakistan does not meet the requirements for the GSP+ for two reasons: she has not yet ratified all 27 of the required conventions and regularly and seriously infringes against already ratified ILO Core Labour Standards. As things stand now, AK opposes the currently discussed inclusion of Pakistan in the GSP+.

The Austrian Chamber of Labour (AK) welcomes the attempt of the EU to take more decisive action against Child Labour violations. Above all, it is a concern of the AK to oppose the exclusively incentive-oriented approach with regard to trade policies. It is therefore required to change the emphasis of the Council Conclusions from “trade incentives” to “trade measures”. The AK supports the examination of a list that records goods and services, which are produced or rendered using the worst forms of Child Labour (ILO Convention 182).