The international trade committee of the European Parliament (known as INTA) adopted a report yesterday on the controversial EU-US trade deal known as TTIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership). That report will now be presented to the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg the week after next, with votes likely on Wednesday 10 June. Former…
The Greek Syriza government is still locked in crisis negotiations with ‘the group formerly known as the Troika’ (the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission) over releasing the money the Greek state needs to meet its obligations to creditors and also to its people. But it isn’t only about debt: Syriza is demanding the…
Last year I wrote about the dangers to health and safety from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) where the European Commission and US Government want to reduce “barriers” to trade – also known as our rights to safe and decent work. According to the European TUC the agreement could have “enormous implications” for…
On Thursday, the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee (known as INTA) will vote on a series of amendments to a draft report on the EU-US trade deal TTIP (the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). The report which INTA produces will then go to the plenary session of the European Parliament starting on 8 June, just…
As Nigel Stanley reported on Touchstone last week, we had an opinion poll in the field immediately after the election, to find out more about why people voted the way we did. We held a few of the findings back from the main release, though, because they were about the hot story of this week…
When ISIS takes over a city like Ramadi, near Baghdad in Iraq, the news bulletins are full of discussion about the future of Iraq, who’s to blame for the ISIS advance, how to reverse it and the horror facing the Sunni inhabitants, . We often forget that the human cost includes trade union members and activists, who…
This week Members of the European Parliament have condemned Africa’s last feudal dictatorship in Swaziland for its repression of trade union and human rights. One of the authors of their resolution, former union official Judith Kirton-Darling, has written for Touchstone about the decision by MEPs to call on the European Commission to use its economic…