On 28 June 2023, the European Commission published two proposals for regulations concerning the euro as legal tender: Regulation on the establishment of the digital euro (COM (2023) 369) and Regulation on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins (COM (2023) 364). The two proposals combined are intended to achieve the central goal of de-facto and legal equivalence of the digital euro and euro cash as legal tender.

The European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs will soon be voting on two controversial topics: At the beginning of April 2024, a vote will be held on the introduction of the digital euro as a new means of payment. The EU Commission's Retail Investment Strategy, which has received far less public attention, will be put to the vote on 20 March 2024. The AK is calling for improvements for consumers.

In May 2023, the EU Commission presented a proposal for a directive that would make far-reaching changes to the securities and insurance sectors. A core element concerns the reorganisation of inducements, which are common and widespread in financial sales. With this “retail investment strategy”, the EU Commission wants to strengthen confidence in capital markets and promote investments by retail investors in particular.

The proposal for a Regulation on the European Health Data Space is currently being negotiated in trilogue between the EU Parliament, the Council and the EU Commission. AK EUROPA, together with trade unions and other organisations advocating for the digital rights of patients, healthcare professionals, consumers and employees, has sent an open letter to the trilogue negotiators. They are called upon to respect the fundamental rights of European patients.

The proposal aims to clearly regulate access to, sharing and use of personal financial data. By facilitating access to data, the Commission wants to promote innovation and data-based business models in the EU financial sector. These ambitions are inevitably in tension with the fundamental rights to data protection and privacy, which take precedence over purely economic interests.

A ground-breaking agreement was reached in Brussels on 8 December. After 36 hours of marathon negotiations, the EU Parliament, Council and Commission announced the final trilogue result on the Regulation on artificial intelligence (AI).

A proposal put forward by the EU Commission in June of this year provides for the exchange and use of personal financial data by various data users to be re-regulated. The Commission's declared aim is to simplify access to data and promote innovation and data-based business models in the EU financial sector. The Chamber of Labour takes a very critical view of the proposal.

In the AI Act, the EU Commission focuses on standards for product safety. The EU Parliament has supplemented the draft with important rights for affected workers, citizens and consumers and clearly limited the democratically unjustifiable use of AI for biometric identification and emotion recognition of persons.

The European Food Policy Coalition published an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen on October 25, condemning that the Framework for Sustainable Food Systems (FSFS), a key EU Green Deal file, is missing from the 2024 work programme, and demanding her to still deliver the FSFS this term. The letter also outlines the signatories’ priorities that need to be met for the announced ‘strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture’ to be fruitful. AK is among the signatories.

On 5 July 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation introducing new rules for plants produced using new genomic techniques (NGT). The Commission divides NGT plants into two categories with different requirements. Category 1 includes plants that could be produced by conventional breeding. They are exempt from the requirements of current GMO legislation. This means no risk assessment for human health and the environment, no labelling for consumers as a genetically modified organism and no traceability of genetic engineering along the value chain.