This year, several textile factories in Bangladesh have either collapsed or gone up in flames. What happened as a result of the most devastating case on 24 April 2013 alone is horrifying: more than 1,100 fatalities and more than 2,000 seriously injured factory workers. On 17 September 2013, the Ambassador of Bangladesh addressed the Trade Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels. Also invited were representatives of the European textile industry, the Foreign Trade Association (FTA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

It was the fourth time that Commission President Barroso gave his address on the State of the EU before the plenum of the EU Parliament in Brussels. Barroso’s address included little that was new; however, it showed above all that the Commission is still not prepared to depart from its economic course.

The heads of state and government of the twenty most powerful industrial and threshold countries met from 5 to 6 September 2013 in St Petersburg. Their discussions focussed among other on approaches of international cooperation in the area of tax policy. The contextual framework of the discussions was the OECD Action Plan on “Base Erosion and Profit Shifting” (BEPS). OECD Secretary General Ángel Gurría had already discussed the issue with Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G20 countries at the end of July.

During recent years, the European Commission has time and again demonstrated what it thinks of the provision of public services such as public transport, water supply and wastewater disposal and other communal services; the answer is - not a great deal.

The negotiations on the Commission Proposal on the EU Sales Law in the European Parliament have been going on for more than a year. This week, the vote was taken in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee of the European Parliament on the proposal, which, from the point of view of the Chamber of Labour and the European Consumers’ organisation BEUC among other, would lead to deteriorating standards in respect of the level of consumer protection.

This week, Michel Barnier, EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services presented the long-awaited proposal on the Single Resolution Mechanism, SRM. This, besides the Single Supervisory Mechanism, SSM, second central pillar of the future Banking Union shall ensure that in future failing banks, which have been monitored by the SSM, can be efficiently resolved resp. restructured - without having to draw on funds of national budgets, which means the tax payer.

This week, the European Commission presented a proposal to revise the Directive on package travel. This step has long been overdue as the existing Directive is already over 23 years old, originating from a period when internet bookings were still a long way off. The revised Directive shall now cover package holidays booked online in the same way as individually arranged holidays.

Yesterday, MEP Helmut Scholz presented a resolution text on the plans to conclude an Investment Agreement with China in the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament. Rapporteur Scholz of the European Left as well as the other political groups are basically open to such an agreement. However, several MEPs such as Helmut Scholz, the Green MEP Ska Keller or Bernd Lange of the Social Democrats request to take labour and social standards as well as regulations in the health and environmental sector into account.

It has taken months, if not years for one of Europe’s most urgent problems to reach official political institutions: the fight against youth unemployment. Measures and joint initiatives against youth unemployment were not only on the agenda of the two-day summit of the heads of state and government last week, but also the reason for Chancellor Merkel to invite European Ministers for Employment, head of governments and representatives of national employment services to Berlin.

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has already been in place since 1995. This Agreement is limited to the international provision of certain services. However, a follow-on agreement is now planning a further international liberalisation of the services sector. This week, the European Parliament has come out in favour of starting negotiations on the so-called Plurilateral Services Agreement. However, according to MEPs, sensible services sectors such as water supply, health services or public education shall be excluded.