Brussels, 09/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The College of European Commissioners met up in Strasbourg on Tuesday 9 June, where they held an orientation debate on the future of EU social policy. This debate helped reaffirm the promise to “modernise EU social and employment legislation” and pursue the idea of setting out indicators for “basic standards” for the minimum wage.
The Commission proposal for this “modernisation” which is likely to take the shape of a “labour and mobility package” was previously expected for the first week in 2015. This will now be done by the end of the year at the earliest. In addition to this, another area of concern was expressed by a European diplomat who explained that the signals he had received from the Commission about a precise date for this package are tersely referred to as “later”.
This package is expected to contain around a dozen measures that will affect coordination of the social security systems and include the idea of already proceeding to the examination of the amending directive implementation on posted workers (see EUROPE 11029), as referred to by the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, during a European Parliament press conference on Tuesday. She underlined the need to “clarify” and indeed “amend” certain legislation, including that on working conditions, working time and health and safety at work.
The exercise for modernising workers' mobility will take place in a particular context, the shadow of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and his plans that will inevitably have repercussions on this dossier. There is also the issue of the European Court of Justice, which, involved in a number of different cases, is continually attempting to clarify EU legislation and provide a legal framework to situations that are often described pejoratively as “benefits tourism” (see EUROPE 11329).
Thyssen also referred to the idea of the Commission eventually proposing new indicators for the minimum wage. The Commission will take into account the specificity of each country but would propose “common minimum standards” to determine the extent of cover for this kind of system, particularly what the appropriate level should be compared to the minimum wage and the duration for which benefits are paid. Recommendations on the integration of the long-term unemployed are also expected to be put forward “around the summer” based on the “youth guarantee” model. (Jan Kordys)