The Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU is aware that it will never obtain consensus on the revision of the 1996 directive on posted workers. It therefore intends to put a compromise, which is as close as possible to the initial European Commission proposal to a vote in June.
Member states currently have a consolidated compromise text that does not contain the different options. Following several Council working party meetings (see EUROPE 11724), the concept of remuneration, which is at the heart of the review, is expected to be the only question tackled, explained the Maltese Presidency of the Council on Friday 3 March during its update on the negotiations provided to employment ministers meeting in Brussels.
During the debate, it was mainly the member states opposed to the review that spoke out. Poland was keen to repeat its opposition to the principle of this kind reform and also suggested that they needed more time to discuss the technical aspects, particularly the concept of remuneration and the mode for calculating the maximum period of the posting (24 months) because it is these aspects that are causing Poland the most problems.
So far, discussions at the Council have been unproductive and divisions remain very sharp, pointed out Latvia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The latter was keen to point out that it was important to avoid discussing the “radical” proposals currently being discussed at the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11727). It also regretted, once again, that the Slovak idea of a dual system had not been retained.
Some countries in the opposition group differentiated themselves. Slovakia emphasised the need to obtain a political agreement as soon as possible. Denmark highlighted the fact that it had doubts about the administrative costs that the revision could provoke, the implications of long term postings (the question of 24 months) and what solution should be chosen for managing subcontracting. This country would also like guarantees that setting wage levels would remain a national prerogative. Bulgaria finally asserted that it could accept the majority of the solutions proposed, except the concept of remuneration, which it considered too controversial.
This east-west division appears even more glaring when it is considered in the context of France and Germany seeking to call a halt in the road transport sector. The Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Bulgaria provided a heated response to this possibility and categorically refused.
Although the Commissioner responsible for employment, Marianne Thyssen, repeated during the meeting that this was, nevertheless, indeed the case, the directive on posted workers does apply to the transport sector. At the same time, she repeated the Commission’s commitment to put specific legislation on the table for the road sector "Due to its highly mobile character” as formulated in the draft revision of the directive (see EUROPE 11507).
The different possibilities examined by the Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, are already well known in detail (see EUROPE 11719). They are expected to be unveiled at the end of May when employment ministers are expected to vote on deciding the Council position on the revision of the directive on posted workers. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)