Brussels, 18/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The most recent meeting of negotiators from the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission, represented this time by Commissioner Laszlo Andor (employment and social affairs) on Tuesday 18 February concluded with a new compromise proposal on Article 9 (national control measures and administrative requirements) and Article 12 (legal liability in subcontracting) from the MEPs. A final agreement could comprise concessions being made to Parliament on Article 9, which would enable the Council to keep Article 12 unchanged.
Ambassadors from member states to the EU (Coreper) will now discuss this new proposal on Wednesday morning 19 February, while at the same time inter-institutional negotiations continue. Even though the ambassadors have already said that it would be impossible for them to amend, even in the slightest, the political agreement reached at the Council in December 2013 on Articles 9 and 12 (see EUROPE 11020), they will, however, still need to look for a solution that gives the Greek Presidency some kind of room for manoeuvre.
This second proposal from Parliament is not significantly different from the first because “Parliament has maintained its tough line”, according to one European source, even though it did display a degree of flexibility. Andor also got involved in the talks by proposing a number of options for solving the problem. In every scenario, the Council is urged to make some kind of concession. According to a European source close to the negotiations, the Council could do this by accepting some of the demands from Parliament on Article 3 (elements that help identify posting) and Article 9, for example, restricting the Commission's supervisory role and replacing the term “notify” with the term “communicate” (see EUROPE 11014) and adding elements in the indicative list of national control measures and administrative requirements. This would help obtain a “balance” in the negotiations, which could result in maintaining Article 12, as initially formulated by the Council, which would mean optional joint and several liability in the construction sector, in direct subcontracting. (JK/transl.fl)