Brussels, 12/09/2012 The withdrawal of the proposal, however, does not solve the problems created by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the Viking and Laval judgments. It is more urgent than ever that a solution to the current situation is found as it prevents workers from fully enjoying their rights. The Commission should ensure that fundamental social rights cannot be restricted by economic freedoms.

Brighton, 10/09/2012 President, Delegates, I am honoured and delighted to address your Congress on behalf of the European Trade Union Confederation. I am a first time speaker to Congress. In previous congresses the ETUC GS delivered his speech with a Manchester accent. Today, you will have to adapt to a southern French way of handling your language. Whatever the accent your campaign call: 'A Future That Works' certainly reflects the aspiration of the workers I meet.

Krynica, 04/09/2012 (Check against delivery) I. Opening panel President, I thank you for inviting me to speak at this opening ceremony. It is important that you invited me as General Secretary of the ETUC representing 60 million workers in the European unions. Workers, and around them, their family.

Brussels, 05/09/2012

Brussels, 04/09/2012 The austerity measures imposed by the Troika since 2011 in exchange for a three-year loan of 78 billion euro are both ineffective and counter-productive. With an unemployment rate of 16% and a 3% recession, the country is sinking deeper into the spiral of crisis and the outlook for 2013 is anything but positive.

Brussels, 17/08/2012

Brussels, 06/08/2012 “A key element of any industrial policy is having a skilled and well trained workforce to produce quality goods and services. However, EU labour market and employment strategy is focused on labour market reforms leading to greater flexibility and increased precariousness, which directly undermines the focus on up/re-skilling the workforce”, states the ETUC response.

Brussels, 24/07/2012 The ETUC General Secretary and the Portuguese trade union delegation lead by their General Secretaries will meet later on today, the Portugal's Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho and the President of Portugal, Cavaco Silva. In the afternoon, the high-level union delegations with some representatives of the Portuguese parliament’s Commission are also received by the President of the Parliament, Maria da Assunção Esteves.

Brussels, 20/07/2012

Bruxelles, 17/07/2012

Brussels, 05/07/2012 The increasing repression against trade unionists, journalists, civil rights activists, students and defenders of women’s rights has led us to join the solidarity rally to be held on Friday, 6 July at noon, in front of the building of the Turkish delegation to the European Union (Avenue des Arts 36-38) in Brussels. European trade union leaders will speak about the situation of trade unionists in Turkey in general during this demonstration.

Brussels, 29/06/2012 The European summit, which has just ended in Brussels, took place in an extremely serious economic context. Admittedly, urgent measures have been taken to relieve the pressure on Spanish and Italian debt - the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will support the banks to ease the pressure on sovereign debt. However, the ETUC is not convinced that these measures are adequate to meet the challenges to which the EU must respond in order to regain the confidence of citizens and workers.

Brussels, 28/06/2012 In preparing the official evaluation, the Commission’s consultants have drawn attention to the need for a new EU strategy, but thus far the Commission have completely ignored the fundamental role of labour inspectorates, safety representatives and prevention services. For the trade union movement, and as demonstrated in recent studies [[http://www.etui.org/Publications2/Reports/The-impact-of-safety-representatives-on-occupational-health]], these systems are a determining factor in successful occupational safety and health practices.