After several requests by the European Commission to reconsider its decision and to accept bargaining with BusinessEurope for the revision of the EWC directive, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) repeated its refusal in an argued letter to Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU Commission, and to Vladimir Spidla, EU Commissioner in charge of Employment and Social Affairs. On May 1, the ETUC has launched a campaign in favor of the revision of the directive, and will organize a conference on this topic in June. (Ref. 080383)
In a letter date May 5, John Monks, ETUC general secretary, agrees that negotiation would have been desirable, but BusinessEurope’s attitude made it impossible: 1/ the employers’ organization didn’t show it was prepared to accept substantial improvements to the EWC Directive; 2/ it doesn’t recognize the Commission’s consultation document as the basis for negotiations; 3/ it doesn’t commit to a short negotiation period.
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