Brussels, 24/01/2011 There was wide agreement on the need to urgently meet the Prime Minister of Hungary (and current President of the EU) to discuss the crisis and Europe’s response to it, along with the threat to Social Europe, the public sector and workers rights posed by the austerity and other measures in the EU. The ETUC will keep in close touch with the unions and plan further activities in Hungary.

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Brussels, 01-02/12/2009 {{ }}1. On 1st December 2009, the new Lisbon Treaty came into force. The new Treaty is a better one than the current provisions of the Nice Treaty but it does little to advance social progress.

In October 2007, European leaders reached agreement on the Lisbon Treaty for reform of the EU. ETUC was pleased to see the end of the institutional paralysis that had gripped the EU since the French and Dutch referenda of 2005, but was deeply disappointed by the uninspiring content of the final text.

Brussels, 05/11/2009 This advance is an encouragement in our continuing campaign to ensure a proper interpretation of the Treaty’s internal market provisions and against the unbalanced rulings of the European Court of Justice in the Laval, Viking, Rüffert and Luxemburg cases.

Brussels, 10/07/2009 Mr Monks will say “(…) the ETUC supports ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and I hope the Irish people approve it. (….) it is a step forward compared to existing provisions, for example in relation to the legal enforcement of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, commitments to full employment, the social market economy, and public services.”

Brussels, 07/07/2009 The ETUC regrets that the social dimension of Europe does not seem to be amongst the priorities of the Swedish Presidency. John Monks, ETUC General Secretary, declared: ‘In our view, the European Union should be sending a clear signal of understanding and action regarding the most pressing concerns of European workers in a moment of rising unemployment’.

Brussels, 28/01/2009

Bruxelles, 28/01/2009 The Czech Republic took up the Presidency of the European Union during a period of unprecedented crisis, which was quickly followed by a wave of redundancies and restructuring plans. To cope effectively with the social consequences of this crisis that threatens to place ever greater numbers of workers in a situation of employment insecurity and carries the political risk of encouraging nationalism, an ETUC delegation submitted a number of proposals to the Czech prime minister during their meeting in Prague on 28 January.

Brussels, 01/09/2008

Brussels, 30/06/2008 The social dimension will depend very much on the concrete legislative proposals of the New Social Agenda to be announced on Wednesday which should be progressive unlike the unfortunate political agreement on working time. The ETUC expects the French Presidency to take up the widespread unease within Europe amongst citizens and workers; and to this end, a social progress protocol added to the treaties at the next revision would be an important step forwards.

Brussels, 13/06/2008

Glasgow, 29/02/2008 To be checked against delivery President, delegates, this is an important conference on an important topic. I don’t just mean the Lisbon Treaty. I mean the place of Britain and Scotland in the European Union because that is the context that must shape the debate on the Treaty.

Brussels, 10/01/2008 John Monks will emphasise the importance of Europe’s single market respecting worker and trade union rights. The effect of the recent decisions of the European Court of Justice, particularly the Laval case has been to subordinate workers’ fundamental rights to bargain and to strike to the unimpeded free movement of labour.

Brussels, 14/12/2007 The ETUC urged the European Council to follow the example of employment ministers, the European Parliament and the European social partners and take a balanced approach to common principles for flexicurity.

Brussels, 13/12/2007

Lisbon, 17-18/10/2007 1. The ETUC regrets the unambitious nature of much of the EU Reform Treaty. There was a real opportunity to revive social Europe by extending qualified majority voting and by extending the competences of the Union to control the dark side of globalisation and rampant financial capitalism. What we have instead is a series of modest adjustments to the EU’s framework of rules, which will have only a limited impact on the process of deepening Europe’s capacity to act decisively in the world.

Brussels, 22/10/2007 The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) continues to be concerned about the process used to conclude the agreement which largely excluded the social partners and many others. We continue too to be concerned about the reduced status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (compared to the old draft constitutional treaty) and continuing doubts about its degree of legal enforceability on Member States. We also deplore the opt-out by the UK (the new Polish Government appear to be withdrawing its opt-out).