A demand which has been coming for many years from workers’ representatives is now finally entering a new phase. The Commission has initiated a public hearing on hedge funds.

In February 2008, the Council of the Member States and the European Parliament accepted the proposal of the Commission for a 3rd Postal Directive. The Directive provides a time frame according to which the full market opening of the postal sector has to be completed by 31st December 2010 (for some EU Member States by the end of 2012).

Due to its alleged abuse of the monopoly position of Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the European Commission is taking legal action against the rating agency.

 

In March 2008, the European Council invited the Member States to give their initial thoughts on the future of the Lisbon strategy for the period beyond 2010.

The planned Directive pursues the aim of codifying ECJ case-law on crossborder healthcare. The AK underlines that in case of a sharp increase inthe cross-border utilisation of healthcare, it must be ensured that it leads neither to one-sided cost burdens for Member States, nor that national healthcare or the national services offered on which this healthcare is based suffer from the fact that patients request healthcare abroad in droves.

In July 2008, the European Commission submitted a communication on "A renewed commitment to social Europe: Reinforcing the Open Method of Coordination for Social Protection and Social Inclusion".

The aim of this proposal is to implement the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation outside the labour market. It sets out a framework for the prohibition of discrimination on these grounds and establishes a uniform minimum level of protection within the European Union for people who have suffered such discrimination.

In July 2008, the European Commission proposed a Directive on the establishment of a European Works Council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups of undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees.

The European Commission has created a new generation of bilateral trade and investmentagreements within the scope of the “Global Europe” strategy in order to strengthen market penings at a bilateral level after the liberalisation efforts have waned within the World Trade Organisation. In the opinion of the Commission, this new generation of agreements shall fulfil several objectives.

The study “Designing and financing labour market policies: an international comparison”, of the Chamber of Labour investigated the success of labour market policy strategies in countries on a par with Austria. Using the strategies of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom as examples, it ascertained which strategies could be considered “best practice”, what effects certain strategies have and what can be deduced from this for the labour market policy in Austria.