At the beginning of this year, nine European Transport Ministers formed the Road Alliance in order to set an example for fair competition on the European roads and against social dumping. This initiative is supported by trade unions across Europe, who have been denouncing the often horrifying working conditions of truck drivers for years.

Which type of pension is able to sustainably retain the standard of living in retirement? How come that pensioners in Austria are receiving a significantly higher state pensions than their contemporaries in Germany? And which conclusions can be drawn from this for the debate at European level?

Europe is growing older. This poses major challenges, above all for the sustainability of pension systems. So far, Austria and Germany have encountered them very differently:

Germany has greatly reduced the benefit level of statutory pensions and has instead pushed the expansion of capital-based private and occupational pensions.

This week, the Brussels office of the Austrian Chamber of Labour and the Austrian Trade Union Federation ÖGB dedicated several days to the E-Service Card and the Posting of Workers Directive and their effects. The motions by the Commission regulate the conditions, under which employees may be posted to other EU countries and apart from that shall simplify the administrative process. However, affected sectors, such as the Austrian construction industry, criticise that they distort competition and favour wage and social dumping.

The Mobility Package, which the Commission presented on 31 May 2017, contains numerous innovations, which are intended to make road transport in Europe fairer and more sustainable. In particular the proposed changes with regard to cabotage and posting of drivers represent major developments for all employees in the road transport sector, which are now debated in Brussels.

At 17.3 %, youth unemployment in the EU remains at a high level. The hardly supported transition from school to job is often named as an underlying reason. It seems to be particularly difficult to make one’s first steps in working life. The dual systems in Austria and Germany are internationally seen as good possibility to smooth this path, however, also here there is still room for improvement.

The Pillar of Social Rights was presented by the European Commission at the end of April. A key point – and the single legislative measure in an otherwise very non-committal package – is the Directive on Work-Life Balance. Its objective is to create legal certainty for parents and carers.

The discussion in respect of the free trade agreements CETA and TTIP has one again put the focus on the issue concerning the responsibility for public services. With their liberalisation provisions, the proposals for CETA and TTIP go far beyond current free trade agreements. An international research project of the civil society Transnational Institute (TNI) has now, in cooperation with the Chamber of Labour, EPSU, PSIRU and other organisations, examined a view towards opposite processes, namely the return of public services from the private to the public sector.