Plenary focus - July

Thanks to Edward Snowden we now have a better picture of the degree of surveillance in western democracies. But NSA’s spying is merely the tip of the iceberg, as recent revelations on the activities of the British GCHQ show. Even worse, many other European intelligence agencies have received data from Tempora while knowing perfectly well that they were in breach of European privacy laws. These covert illegal activities must stop immediately.

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund provides direct help to workers who were made redundant, by offering them new and specific training opportunities. Some of its limitations could be circumvented if it could also encompass independent workers, if the limit for application was lowered from 500 to 200 workers and if specific conditions could be offered to countries experiencing economic and financial constraints.

The implementation of a Financial Transaction Tax is a significant moment for the Eurozone. It will prove that all the fears that surrounded this proposal were unfounded and meant only to scare the decision makers and protect financial speculation. We support this proposal, despite the fact that we disagree with the lower rate for derivative products and some of the exemptions. It’s still a step forward...