ANNUAL GROWTH SURVEY/REACTION : ETUC: EUROPEAN SEMESTER 'COLLISION WITH DEMOCRACY'.

• Position: Brief article

The new European semester of economic governance, which was launched on 12 January with a study of EU growth, is already undemocratic, according to the Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), Pervenche Beres (S&D, France), and European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) General Secretary John Monks. They label the European Commission's call on member states to reduce their expenditure by more than 0.5% of annual gross domestic product (GDP - see above)) as an attack on social stability.

"In sacrificing the European social model on the altar of austerity, the Commission is risking the destruction of automatic stabilisers, the utility of which has been recognised during the crisis," said Beres.She further accused Jose Manuel Barroso's Commission of succumbing to pressure from financial markets...