In a letter dated 30 November 2010, Mikołaj Dowgielewicz, Polish State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asked the European Economic and Social Committee, on behalf of the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union, to draw up an opinion on: The future of the labour market in Europe – in search of an effective response to demographic trends.

Public discussion of future challenges to pension systems has been virtually exclusively focused on demographic relationships. However, economic dependency ratios - the ratio of those actually in work to those drawing retirement and unemployment benefits - are much more important and should be brought to the fore in the pensions sustainability debate.

Public discussion of future challenges to pension systems has been virtually exclusively focused on demographic relationships. However, economic dependency ratios - the ratio of those actually in work to those drawing retirement and unemployment benefits - are much more important and should be brought to the fore in the pensions sustainability debate.

This week, a public hearing on the planned new rules for credit rating agencies took place in the European Parliament. Whilst the agencies are free to put their thumbs up and down as they please and in the process plunge already ailing countries even deeper into the abyss, some MEPs were surprisingly lenient towards them.

The attempts to solve the so-called “government debt crisis“ continue to be the focus of the debate between the political factions. This is the conclusion for the public hearing on evaluating the instruments to deal with the government debt crisis, which took place in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament on Monday and Tuesday.

Just in time for the mid-term arrival of the legislative period in the European Parliament, there are a number of new appointments to be made in the Parliamentary committees. Apart from the election of Martin Schulz (Socialists & Democrats) as new President of the European Parliament, there are also significant changes from an Austrian point of view.

This week, the EU Commission launched a public consultation on corporate restructuring and its social consequences. The aim is to identify successful practices and strategies in the field of restructuring and the adoption to change, so that lessons can be learned from the economic crisis. The results of the Consultation will also be integrated into the planned and revived flexicurity agenda.

Interference in the freedom of the media, threatening the independence of justice and the National Bank, and worrying developments concerning the minority rights in Hungary are only some of the issues that triggered an unusually heated discussion in the European Parliament this week.

The ETUI started work on this issue in January 2008 as a response to insufficient indicators on job quality at the European level.