This week, the Brussels Office of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions ÖGB and AK EUROPA, together with partners Friends of the Earth, Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl hosted a panel discussion on the subject of free trade and lobbying. The event at the Permanent Representation of Austria was exceptionally well attended, which was not only the result of the explosive nature of the topic for discussion, but also due to the high-profile panel.

In its review covering the fourth quarter of 2014, the EU Commission - not unexpectedly - establishes a further improvement of the labour market situation in Europe. With the exception of Greece and Cyprus, all Member States are experiencing economic growth, unemployment figures are declining and the rate of employment is on the increase. For the first time since 2009, long-term unemployment has decreased; youth unemployment has been falling since 2013.

Last week, the renowned European think tank Bruegel published a study, which clearly shows the disastrous effects of the European austerity policy on the lowest levels of the population and young people respectively.

As already reported in AK EUROPA Newsflash No. 9, a debate marking Austria’s 20th accession to the European Union took place at the beginning of March in cooperation with ÖGB Europabüro, the European Office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation. Videos containing the statements of the participants are now available online.

The former finance minister Ferdinand Lacina, ÖGB President Erich Foglar as well as trade union presidents Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson (LO, Sweden) and Antti Palola (STTK, Finland) took stock.

This week, several debates on taxation and in particular on tackling tax avoidance took place in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament. Apart from the competent Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, experts of the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, also answered the questions posed by MEPs.

This week, the EU Parliament debated the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union - the starting point being a current draft report. The report’s findings are little surprising, namely that the EU experiences an economic and financial crisis and that the wellbeing of citizens as well as the respect of their fundamental rights is seriously in danger because of the reaction of the EU and the reactive response of the Member States.

The Committee on the Environment of the European Parliament set the course for the reduction of plastic waste this week. Europeans use on average about 200 plastic carrier bags each year, of which estimated 90 % are made of lightweight plastic (0.05 mm thickness). As these are rarely reused, their issue shall now be significantly reduced.

Each year, 8 billion plastic carrier bags litter the environment. However, the use of plastic carrier bags within the EU is vastly different.

This week, the EU Commission presented the main targets of its major project “Digital Single Market”. This includes the end of geo-blocking, facilities in the e-commerce sector and broadband expansion. However, no concrete measures were declared; according to Vice-President Andrus Ansip these would be announced on May 6. Roaming was also on the agenda – Ansip clearly came out in favour of their abolition.

Apart from the Energy Union and the Growth and Jobs Initiative, the Digital Single Market is a major priority in the work programme of the Juncker Commission.

This week, the European Court of Auditors levelled unusually severe criticism at the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, which was set up to create jobs for young people. There was still the danger - in spite of the Youth Guarantee - that companies would exploit young people simply as cheap labour. The EU Commission has therefore been asked to name a number of “qualitative attributes”, which had to be fulfilled.

Following the Luxleaks scandal last year, Commission President Juncker decided to go on the offensive and to tackle legal tax avoidance practices at the highest level. The first step towards this goal was introduced this week: from 2016, tax agreements between multinational corporations and national financial authorities shall be automatically forwarded to all other Member States. Some countries use special agreements with multinational corporations to establish enterprises, which results in loss of revenue in other Member States.