Brussels, 23/03/2005 John Monks, General Secretary of the ETUC, strongly welcomed these moves and said: “This is a victory for the ETUC, but a victory in a battle, not a war. The need now is to ensure that any new services directive is based on high standards, and is not designed to lower terms and conditions of employment, and undermine public services.

Nantes, 15-18/03/2005

Brussels,16/03/2005 Following the decision of the Council to postpone the opening of negotiations ETUC General Secretary John Monks said: “I am sorry that Croatia has not met the requirement of full and unrestricted co-operation with the the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)and hope that this will be remedied soon. The fact that the proceedings on the negotiating framework have been concluded successfully shows that Croatia is in other respects ready to engage in the negotiations.

Brussels, 08/03/2005 - Wages have done more than their share in assuring price stability and improving profitability in the euro area. Recent collective bargaining agreements for 2005 resulted in extremely moderate wage increases (between 1 and 2%). There is absolutely no inflationary danger whatsoever!

Brussels, 21/02/2005 The EU and US have many common values, and we wish to build on them. Ours are founded on the Charter of Fundamental Rights embedded in the proposed Constitution, including a social market economy, social dialogue, decent public services and workers' rights. They are not negotiable.

Dublin, 17/02/2005 Getting to know the new EU constitution - Pleasure to meet the Irish Forum on Europe which has done so much to set a more calm, balanced tone in the Irish debates on Europe since the first Nice referendum was lost. - You have your admirers on the other side of the Irish Sea where European debates are anything but calm and balanced.

Brussels, 10/02/2005 The ETUC believes in equal treatment for migrant workers, both in migrants' own interest and to ensure that employers cannot abuse migrants' often vulnerable situation so as to undercut the situation of national workers, in the form of social dumping. Equal treatment must apply, not only in respect of terms and conditions of employment, but also to all areas of human rights, social security, housing and education.

Brussels, 03/02/2005 ETUC General Secretary John Monks said : “It is a good decision by the new Commission to rework the directive and we look forward to working with them on producing a new text which recognises workers and trade union concerns. The importance of services of general interests must be respected. This is a big step in the right direction for the European trade union movement who have campaigned tirelessly against the Bolkestein Directive.”

Brussels, 28/01/2005

Brussels, 14/01/2005 On 19 May 2004, the European Commission launched the first phase of Social Partner consultation on the revision of the Directive on European Works Councils (EWC). Nine months later this procedure is still at a standstill. That is why the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has written to the Commission asking for a relaunch of the revision procedure.

Brussels, 20/12/2004 The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Belgian, Spanish and Italian trade unions have conducted an extensive lobbying effort in the recent Global Climate Change Conference (COP10) in Argentina.

Brussels, 16/12/2004

Brussels, 16/12/2004 Because Turkey's accession is one of the greatest challenges for Europe in the coming years, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is calling on the European Council, on 16-17 December 2004, to open negotiations on Turkish integration into the European Union, in line with the criteria defined at the Copenhagen EU Summit.