The first contact between the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the new French President, Emmanuel Macron took place during a meeting on Friday 21 July in Paris. According to the trade union representatives EUROPE spoke to on Monday 24 July, this meeting was “positive”.
Confederal Secretary Thiébaut Weber attended the meeting with Secretary-General Luca Visentini and explained to EUROPE that the meeting lasted just under an hour. The three major subjects tackled included: the future of the European Union, the inter-institutional proclamation on the European pillar social rights and the directive on posted workers.
On the question of the future of the EU, the message delivered by the trade unions sought to reorient Europe on the social dimension. In this connection, the French President made a commitment and added that from his point of view, European integration should be done through the upward convergence of wages and living standards, explained Mr Weber. The President provided assurances, for example, that he did not want to sacrifice the French minimum wage by aligning it to the European average.
Our interlocutor informed us that with regard to the social pillar and directive on posted workers, the two trade union representatives underlined the need to move quickly and emphasised that the European Commission and European Parliament were beginning “the final stretch” of this approach. Mr Visentini and Mr Weber highlighted the importance of reaching an agreement on these two dossiers during the next “Employment and Social Affairs” meeting (EPSCO) on 23 October 2017 because they were concerned by the possibility of another delay because Bulgaria had not made the issue of posted workers a priority in its mandate of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. Mr Macron explained that he wanted to conclude the best compromise possible but did not make any commitment with a date in this regard. On the question of posted workers, he indicated that he wanted to meet the Bulgarian Prime Minister this summer. He also said that he was in favour of the proclamation on the pillar of social rights.
Although he was satisfied, Mr Weber said that he was waiting until the return after the summer break in September and will be following the actual developments on these two dossiers. On the issue of the social pillar, the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU wants to move forward quickly and an agreement at the Council is envisaged this October (see EUROPE 11828). With regard to the directive, however, adoption appears more hypothetical due to France’s hardening line (see EUROPE 11815). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)