Rome, 28/06/2006 To be checked against delivery President, delegates, fellow guests, thank you for this invitation to tell you about the ETUC's ambitions for a stronger Europe and for a strong ETUC. For us, Europe is essential to our collective futures. An ambitious, powerful ETUC must be a central ingredient.

Brussels, 26/06/2006 A 'central theme' of the next six months should be encouraging investment in innovation and technology across Europe - following Finland's example - to boost the supply of high quality jobs, say the unions.

Brussels, 20/06/2006 John Monks, ETUC General Secretary, said: “It is outrageous that profit-chasing European companies are threatening to disinvest if very basic standards are introduced in China. Rather than engaging in a race to the bottom they should respect, throughout the world, standards that we expect them to apply at home.”

Brussels, 16/06/2006 The ETUC Executive Committee has reiterated its support for the Constitution while stressing the need to strengthen its social dimension, for instance by adding a Social Protocol on social and economic governance.

Grenoble, 15/06/2006

Brussels, 09/06/2006 Says ETUC General Secretary John Monks: “We recognise that the ECB needs to fight inflation if it is a real danger. But what we cannot accept is the objective of price stability being confused with a policy of keeping wages down at all times and at all costs.” The ECB is pointing to upward risks to price stability coming from governments hiking value added taxes in 2007 and from workers going for higher than expected wage increases. However, the ETUC survey comes to a totally different conclusion:

Brussels, 08/06/2006 We condemn this dangerous populism, which attempts to scapegoat minority communities. We reaffirm: - our opposition to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; and - our support for the rights of all citizens, including Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) communities, to organise and to demonstrate publicly.

Brussels, 08/06/2006

Brussels, 07/06/2006 The Committee, representing all ETUC-affiliated organisations, backed proposals outlined by ETUC General Secretary John Monks. "We need a stronger social dimension aligned to the Constitution," said John Monks. "People have many concerns about issues like jobs, restructuring and globalisation." The ETUC will campaign for trade union rights to Europe-wide industrial action to defend workers' interests, as well as more information and consultation within companies.

Brussels, 06/06/2006 The Committee, on which all ETUC-affiliated organisations in 36 European countries are represented, will assess the latest developments on issues such as the Services Directive, the period of reflection surrounding the EU Constitution, and working time legislation. EU monetary policy will be high on the agenda. The ETUC has repeatedly urged the European Central Bank and euro-zone Member States to change their approach in order to sustain an emerging economic recovery.

Helsinki, 05/06/2006 To be checked against delivery President, delegates, fellow guests. As Lauri knows, my Finnish is excellent but my English is better. If you believe all that, you will believe anything! So with some regret, I proceed in my mother tongue of English and must leave the language of Sami Hyypia to you. I have long admired this trade union federation and its affiliates. The Nordic model, and its Finnish variant, is the most successful trade union model anywhere in the world.

Brussels, 31/05/2006 At its meeting on 1 June, the European Council for Employment, social policy, health and consumer affairs will try to reach political agreement on the revision of the Working Time Directive (WTD).

Brussels, 30/05/2006 Ministers responsible for the internal market yesterday came to a political agreement on the opening of the services sector between Member States of the European Union.