26/01/2006 9:41:15 am
Good Intentions By the EU Commission. The EU Commission has just presented a report that evaluates the reform pace in member states and lays out the program ahead. Read it here. It proposes a focus on improvements of the business climate, flexicurity in the labour market, investments in knowledge and reforms to meet the demographic situation. All in all good and important aims - but the question is, as so often, how this will be achieved. How these aims are defined is essential, as well as the implementation. The EU Commission is quite often a good force for reform, but then we have the decisions by Member States and European Parliament, which can be quite different. The European trade unions in ETUC are already protesting against the emphasis on business and competition. That can affect the opportunties to do reforms - which, paradoxically, in turn would have a highly negative impact on the trade union members.