Brussels, 28/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - In the evening of 27 February, the European Parliament and EU Council of Ministers reached provisional agreement on revision of the 1996 directive on secondment of workers. “We have struck a balance between freedom to provide services and protecting workers' rights. This is good news both for the single market and for posted workers,” explained the chief European Parliament negotiator, Danuta Jazlowiecka (EPP, Poland).
The agreement is provisional and needs to be approved by the member states' representatives to the EU on the COREPER committee on Wednesday 5 March and then by the European Parliament's employment and social affairs committee on 18 March. The draft legislation will be put to the vote in plenary in April before definitive adoption by the Council of Ministers, at which point member states will have two years to transpose it into their legal systems.
The inter-institutional negotiations started in January 2014, based on agreement in principle at the Council of Ministers at the beginning of December 2013. In March 2012, the European Commission unveiled a draft implementing directive to improve the way the 1996 directive is applied for the protection of workers seconded to other countries on a temporary basis.
The compromise that has been struck arose after a dozen rounds of talks between the Parliament and the Council. The Council has not changed its views much on the most controversial issues although new ideas have been introduced, some of which are significant (see EUROPE 11024). The scarcity of wriggle room in the talks is due to that fact that member states found it very difficult to agree among themselves, thus giving the Greek Presidency of the Council little bargaining power in the talks with a Parliament's chief negotiator who didn't like some of the ideas he had to defend on behalf of the Parliament.
In an EPP press release issued on Friday 28 February, Jazlowiecka explained the outcome of the talks on two key articles. Under Article 9, that was finalised on Thursday 27 February, “Member states should have the necessary flexibility and freedom when choosing control instruments to be used when inspecting foreign companies,” as is strongly desired by the Council of Ministers.
Likewise, under Article 12 (which wasn't discussed in the inter-institutional talks), “an obligatory, direct, joint and several liability has been introduced in the construction sector together with the possibility to apply alternative solutions, such as sanctions against the contractor, for example. Member states may introduce more stringent rules of joint and several liability, also in other sectors, and apply due diligence if they wish to. The new provisions will not threaten systems already in place in member states,” which is what a group of countries are trying to prevent (mainly the United Kingdom and Poland).
Poland played a key role in getting the Council of Ministers to reach agreement, along with the agreement struck in the trilogue talks. Jazlowiecka tweeted her thanks to high-ranking officials at the Polish labour and foreign affairs ministries, noting that only good teamwork like this pays off for Poland. (JK)