The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) wrote a letter to the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission to ask for urgent meetings with the aim to discuss how to reinforce the social partners’ involvement in the design, governance and implementation of the Multiannual... Find out more

Ludovic Voet is confederal secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation. His responsibilities at the ETUC cover sustainable development and climate change, migration, youth policy, non-standard work and the platform economy, education and training, and equality and non-discrimination, plus... Find out more

The European Union is facing huge uncertainties. The Covid-19 health crisis is far from over with countries struggling to prevent or halt a second wave, and their economies digesting the worst recession since the Great Depression. At the same time, the global climate emergency is intensifying and... Find out more

At her first State of the European Union speech delivered on 16 September 2020, President von der Leyen showed a valiant effort to demonstrate Europe’s resolve to put itself on a strong new path in de midst of the global emergencies of the corona pandemic, runaway climate chaos, accelerating... Find out more

Workers at the Jupille brewery near Liege (Belgium) came out on strike on Thursday, 3 September 2020, claiming insufficient protection against Covid-19. Despite strong pressure from the company, the strike is now in its second week. Workers in other breweries also belonging to the AB Inbev group... Find out more

After Covid-19 was declared a pandemic in Europe, the virus causing the disease, SARS-CoV2, needed to be classified so as to allow the provisions of the European directive on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work to be applied. Alongside general... Find out more

Each year, thousands of tonnes of pesticides banned in Europe are being exported to poorer countries. This is revealed by a recent Greenpeace study analysing the export notifications submitted by Member States to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). In 2018 alone, more than 81,000 tonnes of... Find out more

Ever since the end of the French lockdown in May 2020, French public health authorities have been tracking new Covid-19 clusters. A cluster is determined when, within a community, at least three confirmed or probable infections are registered within a 7-day period. The latest weekly report of the... Find out more

The revision of the European directive on the protection of workers exposed to carcinogens has resulted in diesel engine exhaust emissions coming under its scope (Directive 2019/130 of 16 January 2019). Diesel engine exhaust emissions are made up of a cocktail of hazardous chemical agents, with... Find out more

According to the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), corporate lobbyists have been able to influence and water down the ambition of a long-expected EU restriction on intentionally added microplastics. As the name suggests, microplastics are tiny particles of plastic that can form unintentionally... Find out more