Tackling the crisis and sustaining Europe’s social market economy are only two of the key issues, the new EU Commission wants to deal with this year. The Commission does not hold back with fine words and says right at the beginning of the Communication on this year’s Work Programme “It is impossible to carry on as if nothing had happened” and “It is now a matter of political will”.

In some respects, Canada’s proposals for a Sustainability Chapter are closer to our requirements than the EU Proposal. This is in particular the case with regard to the integration of ministers, the more developed dispute resolution procedure and above all the approach that violations against the agreed labour standards will finally be punished with significant fines.

The financial crisis caused by banks and major financial groups has cost European taxpayers billions. That is why the belt must now be firmly tightened. The consequence is tax increases for employees and cuts in public services. The only ones, who once again do not want to make any contributions to the costs of the crisis, are those, who triggered it: the financial institutes. With the strong support of Germany.

This week, the Commission presented the long awaited Proposal on the European Citizens’ Initiative. This will give one million European citizens the opportunity to ask the Commission to submit certain legislative proposals. However, this is by no means as easy as it sounds. Some hurdles have to be overcome first. The threshold values, for example, with regard to minimum numbers of Member States and citizens per country have to be exceeded.

The Commission intends to adopt the new standards “IFRS for SMB (IFRSSMB)” into European Law and now works within the scope of this consultation on the question, which role this new regulation will play in future within the framework of European Accounting. The Commission also prepares a study on accounting regulations for SMBs. The results of the study and the opinions from the consultation proceedings will flow into the revision of the Directives.

We would like to point out once again that the AK is very critical of bilateral free trade agreements, as the benefit of such agreements for workers is not evident. We are against negotiations at bilateral level in particular with respect to investments, public procurement and services. Furthermore, the AK regards a comprehensive sustainability chapter as an essential part of a free trade agreement with India. This must include compliance with the eight ILO Core Labour Standards as well as the application of the general dispute resolution procedures.

The European Commission has continued the negotiations on an Association Agreement with Peru and Columbia – in spite of the withdrawal of Bolivia and Ecuador. This contradicts the original intention, to conclude an agreement only with the entire Andean Community and puts the regional integration process at risk. Especially in Columbia the situation of human rights – in particular those concerning fundamental labour and trade union rights – continues to be extremely problematic.

The European Parliament discusses the enforcement of human rights, social and environmental standards in international trade agreements. In this context, the Social Democrat Richard Howitt has presented the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs with a draft statement, which requests a number of measures to enforce in particular workers’ rights in the course of concluding trade agreements.

AK welcomes the efforts of the European Commission to institutionalize macroeconomic cooperation and supervision at European level, through which a looming systemic crisis should be recognized at an early stage.

The news over the past few weeks, that the Greek national debt was far greater than expected has put a lot of pressure on the Euro. The EU Commission reacted by imposing a rigid savings programme on Greece that the Greek Prime Minister intends to implement immediately. Particularly hit by the austerity course are the workers, who immediately took to the street to protest against pay cuts. The example of Greece now also raises the question as to the lack of economic policy coordination within the Eurozone.