European trade unions regret that, rather than adopting concrete steps at European level on anticipation and restructuring, the European Commission has launched another consultation on the subject “after a decade of consultations (in 2002 and 2005), European projects and hand-wringing at the sight of large-scale uncoordinated restructuring”. In a statement on the green paper on restructuring, presented on 17 January (see Europolitics4344), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) notes that this text “puts old wine in new bottles”. “As the very systems cushioning workers from the brutal impact of economic change are being undermined through austerity and deregulation, worker representatives are increasingly considered only as a means of ensuring the acceptance of change. On the contrary, it is only through consistent and stronger worker participation that change can be managed in a socially acceptable manner, trust nurtured and anticipation policies developed,” declared ETUC Confederal Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling in reaction to the Commission’s consultation paper. “Workers will not be taken in by this charade. We demand concrete anticipation measures today, not in another ten years,” she added.