Reports on the ELD by the Confederation of European Insurers (CEA)[4] and information on how operators and industry have responded to the Directive[5] were also taken into account.

– Mr President, the next EU-US Summit will prove a historic one, and I fully support the German Presidency’s initiative for an extensive economic partnership between the EU and the United States, which now represents some 40% of world trade, and in particular Chancellor Merkel’s ambitious aim for a transatlantic market without barriers by 2015 through mutual recognition of the same norms for various industries and services, particularly in the financial sector.

Up until the date of submission of the EGF application, the following social partners gave their agreement to this specific case: the Engineering and Metalworking Association of the Austrian Economic Chamber (Fachverband der maschinen- und metallverarbeitenden Industrie der Wirtschaftskammer Österreich), the Mining and Iron Producing Industry Association of the Austrian Economic Chamber (Fachverband der Bergwerke und eisenerzeugenden Industrie der Wirtschaftskammer Österreich), the metal-textile-food trade union (Gewerkschaft Metall-Textil-Nahrung) and the trade union of private sector employees, printing, journalism, and paper (Gewerksc ...[+++]haft der Privatangestellten, Druck, Journalismus, Papier), both under the umbrella of Austria's Federation of Trade Unions (Österreichische Gewerkschaftsbund /ÖGB).

According to the CEDT, the European Confederation of Tobacco Retailers, in 1999 the EU tobacco sector employed over 1 million people and 440 000 people as full-time equivalent.

Information relating to the entry into force of the seven Agreements with the Swiss Confederation in the sectors free movement of persons, air and land transport, public procurement, scientific and technological cooperation, mutual recognition in relation to conformity assessment, and trade in agricultural products

Members will be selected following a call for applications published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, except for members representing trade unions, where the Commission will call upon the European Trade Union Confederation to appoint six members to represent the fields of energy and transport.