2010 is not least for Europe's young people a crisis year. On EU-average, 20 % of the under- 25-s do not find a job; the rate in Spain even lies at 40 %. In view of these figures, the European Commission too recognises the urgency of measures and presented on Wednesday the Europe 2020 flagship initiative Youth on the move.

In spite of some welcome ideas, it is questionable whether the idea is suitable to solve the problem of youth unemployment in a sustainable and satisfactory manner.

In the European Parliament this week, within the scope of the European Year of Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, a conference took place concerning the introduction of an EU Directive on minimum income. The Belgium Presidency regards this issue as one of its priorities. An idea, which so far has not aroused much enthusiasm with the Member States and the EU Commission.

This week, Juan Pablo Corlazzoli presented the results of a study on the human rights situation in Colombia in the Human Rights Committee of the European Parliament. The conclusions, which were drawn from the study, were more than sobering: whilst a number of murders of trade unionists are hardly mentioned in the study, its author recommends the conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement by the EU with Colombia. Many of the MEPs voiced harsh criticism.

The average economic growth of the EU Member States in 2010 will be significantly higher than originally expected. This is the tenor of a revised interim report, which was presented by Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Policy, on Monday.

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) this week was dominated by possible financial market reforms. The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) was for the first time officially on the agenda of the ECOFIN. The EU Finance Ministers are still far away from any agreement. The ECOFIN was accompanied by a demonstration in front of the Council Building led by a group of supporters of the Financial Transaction Tax.

Each year, the European Commission makes up to € 500 million available via the European Globalisation Fund to assist employees, who have lost their job as a result of the world economic crisis or due to globalisation. The analysis of the applications received for the Fund, however, now show that even in the crisis year 2009 only financial assistance amounting to about € 166.6 million was applied for. In 2010, about € 92 million had been applied for by September.

The AK supports the idea of strengthening the European Neighbourhood Policy. It prefers multilateral WTO negotiations to bilateral free trade negotiations (FTA) currently held by the EU and insists on policy coherence in trade policy concerning the compliance with international agreements in particular with regard to human and labour rights. Basically, liberalisations require redistribution mechanisms so that the foreign trade contribution – worldwide, but also within the EU – is distributed more fairly.

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.