Brussels, 24/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 24 May, several political groups at the European Parliament expressed their concern at the scale of the gulf between the member states of the East and West of the European Union caused by the European Commission's proposal to revise the directive on worker secondment.
It was principally the ECR, ALDE and Greens/EFA groups which expressed this concern, in reference to the “yellow card” procedure triggered by 11 national parliaments (see EUROPE 11548), in an exchange of views with Commissioner Marianne Thyssen held at the committee on employment and social affairs of the EP. The EPP group did not take position on the subject, whilst the Social Democrats called upon the Commission not to give in and to stick to its guns. Although many stressed the need to avoid a split of this kind, the reasons they gave differed.
Anthea McIntyre (ECR, UK) repeated her scepticism at the need to propose a revision of the 1996 directive when the implementing directive of 2014 has not yet been implemented. Marian Harkin (ALDE, Ireland) said that the opinions submitted by the 11 parliaments were not as divergences the Commission is claiming in justification of the time it is taken to respond to the “yellow card”. Basically, these parliaments are reproaching the Commission for interfering in national practices to set salaries, Harkin argued. She went on to say that the Danish and Bulgarian parliaments were calling for relatively minor tweaks to the proposal.
The Commission is to respond to the “yellow card” in the coming weeks (see EUROPE 11556). This time will be needed to analyse all of the reasoned opinions submitted to it, the institution explains. Additionally, during the debate with the MEPs, Thyssen pointed out once again that these opinions related to different points. She took pains to stress that she will take the views expressed on board, even though she feels that her proposal is “balanced and respects the principle of subsidiarity”. We do not get involved in setting salaries and we want to overcome this East-West divide, she stressed.
This proposal on worker secondment will be discussed at the 'Competitiveness' Council of Thursday 26 May, even though it is not competent on the issue. It was the member states which are against the revision of the directive, led by Poland, which insisted on including the issue on the agenda (at a public session), contrary to our earlier reports (see EUROPE 11556).
The aim of this manoeuvre is to convince those who believe in “equal pay for equal work in the same place”, which is a central tenet of the proposed revision, that this principle damages the aim of ensuring a high level of competitiveness within the EU and that consequently, a debate from the “economic” point of view is equally necessary, according to two diplomatic sources. Those in favour of the Commission's proposal would have preferred the negotiations to remain for the time being under the remit of the competent working group at the Council, before the Employment Ministers, who are responsible for the dossier, take over. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)
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