During a vote on an opinion at the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee plenary session in Strasbourg on Monday 12 June, MEPs approved the possibility of extending the legal basis of the “posted workers” directive to article 153 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) covering working conditions.
MEPs believe that article 153, paragraph 2 of the Treaty “should” and not “could”, as initially intended by the rapporteur Jytte Guteland (S&D, Sweden), be considered as an additional legal basis, particularly if workers’ protection is pushed forward by the European Parliament. It should be pointed out that paragraph 2 defines the scope of the European Parliament and Council’s field of action and provides them with the possibility of adopting, by way of directives, “minimum” guidelines.
This is rather bad news for many delegations from the Eastern European member states that have seriously opposed this extension. These countries prefer the current legal basis submitted by the European Commission, namely article 53 (§1) and article 62 of the TFEU, which do not provide member states with the opportunity of adopting more restrictive measures than those included in European law (see EUROPE 11788).
Although this only involves a non-binding opinion, this vote strengthens the proposal made by the co-rapporteurs at the employment and social affairs committee, Élisabeth Morin-Chartier (EPP, France) and Agnes Jongerieus (S&D, Netherlands), who introduced this proposal and who will argue in favour of the text during the plenary.
MEPs also recommended the addition of points a) and b) in an effort to emphasise improvement of the working environment in order to “protect workers’ health and safety” and working conditions in general.
The opinion was adopted by a whisker with 13 votes in favour, 11 votes against and 1 abstention. Those who voted in favour included: the S&D (with the exception of the Polish MEP Lidia Joanna Geringer), the Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL, ALDE and EFDD. Those that voted against: the EPP, ECR and ENF.
The question of extending the legal basis has been subject to bitter debate at the employment and social affairs committee (EMPL) and is also creating divisions within the political groups themselves, particularly the EPP (see EUROPE 11803) but also, to a lesser extent, the S&D. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)