Due to an ongoing deadlock situation, the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU has decided to present only a progress report on the work on the revision of the 'posted workers' directive at the 'Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumers' Council (EPSCO) to be held in Luxembourg on Thursday 15 June.
This decision means that the member states will not reach a political agreement ('general orientation') on the proposal on the table, which crystallises tensions between - broadly - the countries of Western Europe on the one hand, and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe on the other.
It follows a meeting, at the end of May, of the national ambassadors to the EU (Coreper), at which the compromise text presented by the Maltese Presidency did not find consensus among the member states, notably due to a toughening stance from France and Germany. These countries are reported to have adopted a "maximalist" position, according to our sources, to the point of further offending the sensibilities of the Central and Eastern European countries (see EUROPE 11800).
At the meeting, France presented a proposal, with the support of Germany, detailed by the French daily newspaper Le Monde on Thursday 8 June.
This proposal is broken down into eight points and calls for the following: - the period of application of the directive to be limited to 12 months, rather than the period of 24 months suggested by the Commission; - an explicit guarantee of transport, accommodation and meal allowances, to avoid abusive behaviour on the part of certain employers, which deduct these allowances from the wages of posted workers; - the need to issue the A1 certificate proving the national social security legislation applicable to the worker prior to posting; - the creation of the European coordination platform of labour inspectors under the aegis of the Commission; - keeping the road transport sector in the directive; - transposition of the directive not within 36 months, as provided for at the Council, but 24 months.
The aim of reaching an agreement will therefore be postponed until the meeting of the EPSCO Council of 23 October under the Estonian Presidency. This postponement will be good news for the new French President, Emmanuel Macron, who openly made a similar suggestion when addressing a group of journalists at the end of May.
Over at the European Parliament, negotiations between the political groups are stumbling over the extension of the legal basis to article 153 of the TFEU Treaty. Within the Assembly, there is still a clash over this matter between MEPs of Western Europe and those of Central and Eastern Europe (see EUROPE 11803). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)