On Monday, 5 May 2014, 10 EU Member States agreed to implement a Financial Transaction Tax on shares and a small number of derivatives from 2016 at the earliest. However, the adopted model makes a mockery of the fundamental idea of a Financial Transaction Tax. Highly speculative financial products are being left out whilst small investors are asked to pay up.

Having been in a recession for two years, the Commission is now forecasting economic growth for 2014. However, the rate of employment remains high and the Commission sticks to its recipes.

“Crowdfunding” is the term for a new financing possibility. Private investors are recruited via public campaigns, in general via the internet. That way it is possible to fund larger projects by collecting many small amounts. The European Commission regards crowdfunding as an option to support the European economy and is currently analysing potentials and risks. Apart from that, it is the intention of the Commission to launch a "European Crowdfunding Stakeholder Forum (ECSF)".

The outcry of the civil society about the attempt of the European Commission to liberalise water supply has hardly died away; the resistance against the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the USA (“Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” or TTIP in short) is growing.

An analysis of 18 platforms in Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Austria seen from the perspective of consumer

This week, a study commissioned by AK and ÖGB was presented in Brussels. Subject of the analysis were the activities of the finance industry in Brussels. A total of 700 organisations employing 1,700 lobbyists try to influence EU legislation to accommodate the banks. In doing so, they often act in the dark. 450 organisations are recorded in the official transparency register. In comparison, NGOs, trade unions and consumers are only represented by about 150 organisations. The supremacy of the finance industry becomes even clearer in view of the enormous budgets of lobby organisations.

Next week, AK EUROPA and the European Office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) together with ALTER-EU (Alliance for Lobbying Transparency in the EU) will launch their joint Europe-wide campaign “Politics for People”.

As already announced by the EU Commission some weeks ago, this week it proposed the creation of a European Platform to improve cooperation at European level in order to make the prevention of undeclared work more effective. The proposed platform shall bring together various national enforcement bodies to tackle undeclared work. According to the Commission, the Platform would fill a vacuum at European level as undeclared work so far has only been debated sporadically and in an uncoordinated way in different committees and working groups.

Austrian Foundation for Development Research ÖFSE has examined four studies, which the supporters of TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) like to refer to in order to aid their argumentation. It transpires that these studies are not only too optimistic, but that risks are consequently being ignored.

On Thursday, the vote on the European Internal Market for telecom services took place in the plenum of the European Parliament. This concerned among other also the so-called “network neutrality”. Hence, a landmark decision has been taken for the future of the (free) internet. Until now, it has been the case that consumers, depending on data volume and bandwidth could and had to decide between differently priced packages.