Brussels, 15/01/2013

Larnaca, 04-05 octobre 2012 Seul le texte prononcé fait foi

Brussels, 09/01/2013 Bernadette Ségol, ETUC General Secretary, has this to say: ‘2013 is set to be a difficult year. Europe is collapsing into crisis. Unemployment is hitting record heights, as we can see from the latest Eurostat figures. For the first time, the jobless total has gone above 26 million. We need to focus our efforts first of all on tackling unemployment, insecurity and inequalities. We can no longer pin our hopes for a change to the social situation on some theoretical improvement in the economic situation’.

Bruxelles, 19/12/2012

Brussels, 17/12/2012 The 27 States have postponed until 2013 important decisions which should have defined the roadmap for a political union. Only the banking union has moved forwards.

Brussels, 17/12/2012 The ETUC underlines the need to consider migrants first of all as human beings, to whom equal human and social rights must be ensured to the same extent as European citizens, as well as the right to free and fair mobility and to equal treatment in the workplace. This is the only way to fight social dumping and the exploitation of migrants, and to achieve a balanced and fair labour market in Europe.

Brussels,14/12/2012 There is an obvious link between long and irregular working hours and health problems related to work. The protection of the health and safety of workers must therefore remain the prime objective of any revision of the directive.

Brussels, 13/12/2012

Brussels, 13/12/2012 After initially attempting to play down the incident, the Tunisian government agreed to reopen negotiations, on 11 December, with the trade union leadership. The talks led to an agreement in which the government pledged to set up a joint commission of enquiry to identify those responsible for the violence being perpetrated against trade unions for over a year and to bring the culprits to justice within the space of no more than 40 days, in exchange for the calling off of the general strike announced for 13 December by the UGTT.

Brussels, 12/12/2012

Brussels, 11/12/2012 The gap between the emission reduction levels recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the one hand, and the commitments made on the other, continues to be a matter of grave concern. Although a global effort is needed to cut emissions by 50% by 2050 in order to keep global warming below two degrees centigrade, the current promises will inexorably bring us to a global warming level of four degrees.

Brussels, 10/12/2012 The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to EU last October was hailed by the ETUC. On that occasion, the ETUC reiterated the need to guarantee social stability in the Union. The first clear signal to that end must be the abandoning of austerity policies. In their place, the European trade union proposes a social compact based on social justice.