Tricks regarding standard fuel consumption and exhaust emissions have been causing anger for a long time. Now, for the first time, the decision has been made to apply stricter rules in the EU: The Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection of the European Parliament (IMCO) voted on the proposed regulation, which stipulates what has to be done in future to prevent emission scandals by car manufacturers.

 

The continued refinement of consumer protection in Europe is a special concern of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK). It supports the EU Commission in principle in the Commission’s efforts to help legal practitioners, through the proposed regulation on geo-blocking, to identify unjustified unequal treatment of consumers in cross-border business transactions more easily and hence facilitate the prosecution of offenders.

It is a fixed date in the calendar of many in Brussels: the New Year’s Reception hosted by AK EUROPA, the Brussels Office of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour and the ÖGB Europabüro, the Brussels Office of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions. Thus, the rooms were well filled by attending guests.

According to a study of the World Economic Forum and another by the charitable organisation Oxfam, inequality is not only steadily on the rise but also increasingly becoming a problem for the global economy. The discussion on wealth distribution has, therefore, finally reached the economic mainstream.

And yet it moves: economic policy at last recognises inequality as an important issue; for example at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this week.

After the European institutions had adopted an automatic exchange of information between the tax authorities of the Member States within only a few months, now the second part of the Anti Tax Avoidance Package of the European Commission came to the vote. The European Parliament had finalised its report on this Directive over the past weeks already; however, the final decision in respect of tax issues depends on the Council of the European Union.

Will Europe be able to retain a strong industrial base or will hundreds of thousands of jobs be lost because of unfair practices and dumping measures? This question is suddenly at the centre of the debate within the EU, not least in connection with the planned market economy status for China. Why does the USA succeed in protecting their industry against unfair competition and why does the EU fail?

The Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour supports the efforts of the European Trade Union Confederation to promote the specification of limit values for carcinogenic and mutagenic substances using a list of priority substances. In addition, we consider the inclusion of reprotoxic substances in the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive essential, owing to the severe and irreversible damage that they can cause. Such reprotoxic substances have long been included in Austrian law.

The reform proposals of the EU have been eagerly awaited for months. They shall take into account the “wishes” of the British Prime Minister David Cameron, thereby resulting in Great Britain staying in the EU. However, what is new is that the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, made all proposals public even before the official negotiations among the Member States have begun. So far, results were only presented following secret negotiations at the summits of the EU heads of state and government.

In his speech on the occasion of the ECB Annual Report 2014, Mario Draghi warns against recurring deflation. One will hold on to measures taken so far, but he sees further need for action.

In this and in the coming year, Europe's economy is supposed to be on the road to recovery. Growth rates of 2 percent (2016) and 2.1 Percent (2017) shall give the impression that the serious financial crisis of 2008 will soon be a thing of the past.

If one believes the economic forecast of the European Commission, Europe’s economy is growing and growing and growing - for the fourth year in succession. In spite of this, there were no joyful cheers at the press conference of Pierre Moscovici (Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs). Because the presented results left no doubt that the European Union has still a long way to go until it has recovered from the financial crisis 2008 and that it is still in no position to absorb fluctuations in the global economy.