It took the European Commission, the EU Parliament and the Council more than two years to negotiate the future EU budget for 2014 to 2020; this week, the MEPs in the plenary of the European Parliament approved the Financial Framework. The agreement had been preceded by months of tug-of-war between Council and European Parliament.

The new "Erasmus+" Programme, which awards scholarships to students, teachers, trainers and trainees, has this week been adopted by the European Parliament. Erasmus+ plans with a total budget of about EUR 14.7 billion to support young people between 13 and 30 to study abroad. Erasmus+ will unite the EU lifelong learning programmes Comenius, Erasmus, Erasmus Mundus, Leonardo da Vinci and Grundtvig under one roof and will, for the first time, also support sport.

In the past, many a small investor has gone through some disappointing experiences concerning the investment of his savings. Time and time again it has transpired that a financial product, which was described as being attractive, turned out to be a rather bad investment that did not come close to anything, the investor had hoped for. With the help of a new basic information sheet for small investors, the EU legislator now wants to provide comparable, clear and uniform information on financial products.

The AK welcomes the initiative of the European Parliament to call on the Commission to introduce a harmonized approach for copyright levies. Whereas in general, many of the proposals are worth supporting especially those relating to transparency of levies with respect to consumers, AK regrets that the proposal endorses the current system of copyright levies.

At the start of 2013, it was decided by 11 EU Member States to implement the Commission Proposal on introducing a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) by 2014. Since then, this plan has been strongly attacked by the financial industry and Great Britain. Together with trade unions, NGOs and political parties, AK and ÖGB have been fighting for a FTT at European level for years. The Europe-wide campaign is now entering into the next round. We urge the responsible politicians of the 11 countries to keep their promise and to implement the FTT at last!

On Wednesday, 13 November, the European Commission published its Annual Growth Report, in which it lays down the economic priorities for the coming year. At the same time, it presented the so-called Alert Mechanism Report, which provides an overview of existing imbalances in the eurozone, enabling the Commission to initiate proceedings against individual countries. Together, these publications ring in the “European Semester”, the process of economic-political coordination for the whole of next year.

A delighted EU Commission took part in a discussion with the civil society on the EU-Canada Free Trade Agreement this week: there had been a breakthrough in the free trade negotiations with Canadian officials. As usual, the representatives of the Commission already had figures at hand, specifying the additional growth the Agreement could bring for the EU economy. However, representatives of the civil society, in particular from the employee and consumer sector reacted reservedly, some even angrily, to the statements of the Commission.

Employment opportunities and national labour markets are multidimensional in nature, as labour market institutions and policies vary from country to country and each Member State faces individual challenges, strengths and weaknesses. Thus, a comparison of the labour market situations and developments of the Member States of the European Union is complex.

The labour market situation in the European Union is watched on the basis of regularly updated Eurostat- key indicators. In particular the unemployment rate receives special attention and is frequently put on a level with the overall performance of a labour market. However, the unemployment rate merely shifts the attention of policy makers and the public on this one specific, albeit important facet of labour market performance.

The AK welcomes the initiative of the European Parliament to call on the Commission to introduce a harmonized approach for copyright levies.