This week, the Ministers of Finance and Economic Affairs of the EU27 met in Brussels. On the agenda were the budgetary situation in Greece, which is a welcome opportunity for speculators to attack Greek state securities and the Euro, as well as an initial debate with the new Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier and the introduction of a paper on the future of the internal market by former Commissioner Mario Monti.

Last week, the European Parliament (EP) voted on a new Framework Agreement on cooperation with the Commission. This will be newly negotiated for each legislative period. Barroso made far-reaching concessions and secure the still undecided votes of the MEPs for the “Team Barroso II” and his second term in office as the President of the European Commission.

The European Parliament (EP) and the Council this week agreed by way of informal trialogue, to make community funds of € 100 million available to grant disadvantaged groups in the labour market micro credits to assist them in starting their own business. Right to the end, the issue of financing put the entire project into question. Agreement was reached almost at the last second, however, not without severely curtailing the original requests of the EP.

The coming into effect of the Lisbon Treaty will once again result in changes of the legislative process. From now on, Council and European Parliament have an equal say in the matter. A glance at the statistics shows that it can take years until both EU institutions, together with the author of the draft bill of the European Commission, come to an agreement: in extreme cases, negotiations of a new legislative act can last up to 13 years.

This week, the European Commission introduced the annual Social Situation Report and the first Special Eurobarometer Social Climate Survey. The latter concerns the subjective well-being of European citizens. The survey examines long-term social trends within the EU in more detail to obtain current, reliable and comprehensive information on the social situation. It is a shame though that the report uses data from 2006/2007, hence long before the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis.

Last week, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament met in Brussels to discuss the impending issues within the area of financial market regulation. The deliberations of the MEPs, however, were very much under the impression of the far-reaching new proposals of the US President on tougher banking regulations, which caused quite a stir.

In Austria, thousands of small investors have lost their entire or a large part of their savings because of the financial crisis. These losses were also made possible by the fact that investors were not (or not adequately) informed about the high-risk character of the investments, even though the capital market prospectuses had listed all possible risks.

AK is very critical of bilateral free trade agreements as the benefit of such agreements is not obvious to the workforce. In particular with regard to the issues of investments, public procurement and services we are opposed to negotiations on a bilateral level. Furthermore, AK regards a sustainability chapter, which goes far beyond the previously discussed extend, as an essential part of a free trade agreement with Canada.

The Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour welcomes in principle the effort of the European Commission, to make an aspect of the currently mainly deregulated financial markets, namely the sale of alternative investment products, subject to regulation. Unfortunately, the result has not only turned out to be very minimalistic but was in parts even more watered down by the Amendment Applications of the Parliamentary rapporteur of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Member of European Parliament (MEP) Jean-Paul Gauzès. This is true i.a.

Spain has taken over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the fourth time, for the first time in a trio with Belgium and Hungary. The Spanish Presidency starts with some reforms in the EU structure being in place: the Lisbon Treaty has come into force and a new Commission takes office. Under the motto “Innovating Europe”, the Presidency will try over the next 6 months to get the financial, economic and employment crisis under control.