2011 will be a decisive year for workers and employees around Europe. This has been one of the main messages during this year’s New Year’s Reception, organized by AK and ÖGB in Brussels.

A public hearing on innovative financing to consolidate the budgets took place in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament at the beginning of the week. Apart from a speech of Commissioner Šemeta, responsible for taxation and customs union, there were three expert lectures on the taxation of the financial sector, the so-called CO² tax and Eurobonds. In particular the debate concerning the taxation of the financial sector was lively as usual.

Following tough negotiations between Council and European Parliament, the EU Budget for 2011 was adopted this week. This was preceded by the annual theatrical thunder between both EU institutions including the also annually recurring question what would happen if no agreement could be reached. Whilst the public is well informed about the disagreements during the negotiations, hardly any light is shed on the question: what is the EU money used for?

In the high times of faith in the financial markets, it was considered the epitome of modernity and progress. The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, also called MIFID, wanted to put an end to the conservative way of trading in securities via old fashioned stock markets. These were to be replaced by new trading platforms, which would liven up competition. Now it has become evident that the sorcerer's apprentice is out of control.

According to well informed circles, the EU Commission will initiate the second consultation phase of the European social partners on the Working Time Directive (WTD). The focus now will be on the concrete contents of the envisaged proposal. It will be interesting to see whether this will result in a comprehensive or only a partial review and whether the European social partners themselves will open negotiations or wait for a proposal by the EU Commission.

The insolvency of an Austrian financial group in 2005 might cause about 10,000 investors to suffer losses from security investments - mainly attributable to malversations. This case alonedemonstrates that planned reforms in the Investor Compensation Scheme Directive are generally welcome.

This week, a public hearing on the Green Paper on pensions took place in the European Parliament (EP). The public consultation on the Green Paper on pensions ended 15th November, by which time the EU Commission had received 1,600 replies, informed the responsible Employment Commissioner László Andor during the hearing in the European Parliament. A first and even at this point very controversial draft report on the Green Paper on pensions has now been submitted to the EP. More than 500 amendments were tabled.

The EU trade negotiations with Columbia have been ongoing since 2007. The aim of the agreement is to ease trade between Colombia and the European Union and to reduce tariffs.

The AK shares the findings of the Commission that the market in many cases does not enable sufficient access to a current account, which is a basic financial service. In 2009, the AK had already outlined the Austrian situation in its position within the scope of the Consultation on financial integration and supported the idea that access to a basic current account should be guaranteed by law.

More than 23 million people in the European Union were unemployed as of October 2010. An increase of almost 45 percent compared to the 2nd quarter 2008 just before the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis, when only 16 million people were looking for work. According to Commission figures, a slight fall in the unemployment rate is only to be expected for 2012.