The closure of the national public radio and television broadcaster ERT has been a shock in Greece and has sent shock waves throughout the whole EU. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has sent a letter to the European institutions asking to investigate what went wrong, in particular with regard to EU information and consultation rights of the workers and journalists. These rights are anchored in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Claudia Menne, Confederal Secretary of the ETUC, declared: “The closure shows that the information, consultation and participation rights of the staff, workers and journalists have been totally ignored. A revision of the directive is necessary. As a decade ago in the Renault-Vilvoorde case, the European Commission is challenged to show that fundamental rights are at the core of the European project.”
 The ETUC, together with its affiliated organisations, in particular the public service and journalists’ trade unions, demands action: it is not acceptable that public service workers and journalists are excluded from fundamental rights to information, consultation and participation.
The ETUC asks the Commission to include the public service industries in the information and consultation framework and to strengthen information and consultation procedures and participation rights.
