Brussels, 27/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - The debate that took place at the Competitiveness Council on Thursday 26 May, showed that the EU member states hostile to the proposal for a targeted review of the directive on the posted workers did not necessarily share the same objectives and that Bulgaria and Latvia were prepared to accept an amended text.
It is unusual that a Council grouping tackles a question despite not being responsible for the matter. This is effectively what happened on Thursday in the dossier on posted workers, despite the misgivings from the Dutch Presidency of the Council. Poland, supported by several member states in Eastern Europe, initiated the debate at the Competitiveness Council, although it will be the Employment Ministers ('EPSCO' Council) who will ultimately have to tackle and examine this Commission proposal (see EUROPE 11507).
The member states that intervened in this debate justified this approach because they considered that the Commission proposal could have a negative impact on competitiveness, not only on their own industries but on the private sector as a whole in the EU. Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Latvia also expressed their fears that revised rules on posted workers were synonymous with new barriers in the single market.
The Polish Deputy Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, highlighted this argument and referred to the opinion expressed by the European private employers' federation BusinessEurope, in this connection. During the meeting, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic appeared the most virulent on this question during the debate and called for the Commission to withdraw its proposal. A few hours before the meeting, at the end of the Commission meeting Mr Morawiecki said that he was, however, willing to work for a "compromise" and said that he hoped that "at least" the Commission would "substantially amend its proposal".
With the support of France and Belgium, Commissioner Marianne Thyssen, fought tooth and nail for her proposal which had been the subject of a "yellow card" from 11 national parliaments (see EUROPE 11549). The changes proposed in the 1996 directive will not dissipate the different costs of local and posted workers but do, however, tackle an unfair situation, she argued. During a meeting with a number of journalists on Friday, Ms Thyssen asserted that it would be "reasonable" to expect that the Commission presents a response to the "yellow card" in an "eight-week" deadline or sometime around 5 July. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys and Sophie Petitjean)