The French president, Emmanuel Macron, met his counterparts from the four Visegrad countries and Romania on Friday morning, 23 June, for initial talks, particularly about the posted workers directive.
The French president said he wanted to move forward on the question of seconded workers ‘together’ in order to reform ‘current practices.’ Merkel commented on the great work being done by France and Germany on this issue. The two countries have taken a tougher line since the French president came to power.
This meeting in an innovative format was requested by Poland and took place in the offices of the Polish delegation in the new Europa building. We understand that Polish prime minister Beata Szydło said she was pleased with the meeting, which enabled the positions of the Visegrad group to be clarified for the French president.
Mini-summit in view
Szydlo is reportedly not the only leader to have appreciated the new set-up. The prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, who will be chairing the Visegrad group from the end of July, is reported to have suggested the holding of a ‘mini-summit’ in the same format in Budapest in the autumn.
The mini-summit is expected to be held in September, but has not yet been confirmed, and a Weimar-triangle meeting will take place in August between Germany, France and Poland.
Various diplomatic sources say the meeting with the French president did not last long and the talks didn’t go into details – the mobility package wasn’t addressed at all. France’s aim was to enable agreement to be reached at the next Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO) on 23 October.
The Višegrad Group is reported to contain divisions and disagreements and there are disagreements with Slovakia in particular which, during the meeting, brought up the question of being a member of the eurozone, unlike the other members of the group. The Visegrad Group discussed the question of social dumping from non-EU countries in the East, particularly Ukraine.
This was the first time that the French president met his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Johannes, and discussed the same matters with him. They are reported to not have gone into detail.
There is still division among member states in East and West on the question of seconded workers, be it at the Council (see EUROPE 11805) or the European Parliament, where the vote on the issue has been postponed and will take place after the summer break (see EUROPE 118010). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens with editorial team)