Brussels, 23/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Virtually half of the member states would like to see the introduction of a minimum wage in Germany suspended until such time as Berlin can provide clarification. These states have fears for their lorry drivers, and the Commission, too, has reservations.
A minimum wage of €8.50 per hour has been in place in Germany since 1 January but arrangements were only released in mid-December. On Friday 23 January a delegation of 13 representatives of the member states (Coreper 1) expressed its concerns on this issue to the European Commission. They met members of the directorates responsible for transport and the internal market (DG Move and DG Grow) to highlight the concerns of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Lithuania, Estonia, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece.
These countries are urging the suspension of the new German rules until the most controversial points have been cleared up. Questions remain as to the compliance of the arrangements for the German minimum wage and EU law, more especially for the international transport sector and for posted workers.
Poland is one of the main movers on this issue. The Infrastructure Ministry has formally called on Germany not to apply its new rules, particularly with regard to lorry drivers transporting goods through the territory of the Federal Republic, until after an investigation into the conformity of these rules with EU law and how they are interpreted, AFP reports.
A diplomatic source has confirmed that the reservations of Poland and the twelve others are shared by the Commission, in that the German arrangements could influence how the internal market operates, cause fragmentation and create a dangerous precedent, not only for transport but for other sectors, too.
The Commission is believed to have already requested information of the German authorities through the EU Pilot system (a platform which brings together the legal services of the Commission and the national authorities), and plans to have the matter raised by Commissioners Marianne Thyssen and Violeta Bulc in Berlin next week. (MD)