Brussels, 04/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The most recent meeting of the negotiators of the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission, on Thursday 30 January, may have lasted for more than 11 hours, but progress was scant or non-existent. Additional meetings will therefore be needed over the next three weeks, as a compromise is required by the end of the month, if there is a chance for it to be presented in April at the last plenary session of the Parliament ahead of the European elections. In the meantime, the Greek Presidency has still not asked the Council for a formal mandate to move away from the strict framework of the agreement in principle reached in December 2013.
The last trialogue meeting on the proposal on the execution of the directive (96/71/EC) on worker secondment saw good progress on Article 3, but there is still no compromise on the point as a whole, which covers the scope of the entire directive, indicating the elements for a secondment situation to be identified. The question of self-employed workers (see EUROPE 11004) remains on the table and will be closed at the next meeting, on Thursday 6 February. This did not prevent the negotiators from starting discussions on Article 9, one of the most sensitive issues, without getting into greater detail on the most controversial points: whether the list of national control measures and administrative requirements will be open or closed.
Starting inter-institutional negotiations whilst avoiding the most emblematic points is standard practice. However, in the case of the current negotiations on worker secondment, this results mainly from the fact that the Greek Presidency, which represents the Council, has still not asked this institution for a mandate to step out of the framework laid down by the political agreement of December 2013 (see EUROPE 10980). This is one way of stressing the fragility of this agreement and the presumed absence of any leeway. However, with negotiations set to get into the heart of the matter, probably on Thursday 6 February, the situation will change. The Parliament is likely to bring pressure to bear to obtain concessions regarding the biggest issues and the biggest bones of contention (Article 9 and Article 12 on sub-contracting and joint and several responsibility). The Greek Presidency is expected to request its mandate from the national ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) over the next few days. The exact nature of this mandate remains uncertain. (JK/transl.fl)