The Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO) on Monday 23 October held long and occasionally highly technical discussions about the directive on the posting of workers. As EUROPE was going to press, agreement had not been reached and the national delegations were still in deadlock over the three main policy issues, namely the maximum duration of the posting, the duration of the transposition period for the directive and the special case of international road transport.
In the afternoon, the Estonian health and work minister, Jevgeni Ossinovski, announced as he opened a new round of talks on Recital 10 on international road transport that there would not be any agreement until everything had been agreed.
The proposal reportedly came from the French and Spanish who, EUROPE understands from a diplomatic source, were trying to clarify the transitory state of the directive for international road transport. The idea is that a 1996 directive and a 2014 implementing directive would continue to apply until the mobility directive has been adopted and has come into force (see EUROPE 11799). But the talks went round in circles. This was the third round of talks on the directive and the outcome was still unknown late in the afternoon.
Unfruitful first round of talks
In the morning, the negotiations began promisingly with several heads of state at the European summit last week (for example, Poland's Prime Minister Beata Szydło) expressing optimism. Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen, upon her arrival at the Council, repeated that she was very confident and that diplomatic talks had been ongoing until Sunday evening. She did, however, expect the talks to be long as the devil is hidden in the details. Her expectations proved right.
When the talks began, the Estonian Presidency suggested a maximum posting of 24 months, a three-year transposition for the directive (two years for transposition and one year for transition) and having a Lex Specialis for international road transport (Recital 10).
On the duration of posting, the East-West split was seen virtually across the board. The countries opposing 24 months maximum for a posting were France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, all of which want a 12-month period as suggested by Franco-German amendments. Finland said it wanted a shorter duration but did not clearly call for 12 months. The Visegrad member states, although some had called for any mention of duration to be scrapped, backed the proposal, alongside Romania, Croatia, Latvia and Lithuania (Estonia as chair of the Council of the EU did not take any position), as did, in the West, Ireland, Spain and Denmark.
On the question of the duration of transposition, France called for two years, as did Finland and Belgium. Italy said it would be prepared to back the Estonian proposal, as did the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The Visegrad member states called for five years, as did Latvia. Romania seemed to suggest four years, as did Lithuania.
On the particularly tricky issue of international road transport, the delegations seemed to have less in common. All delegations seemed to want to reach agreement on scrapping the Recital, as requested by France, but the issue seemed to have disappeared from the agenda. Several member states insisted that the transition period needed to be clarified and called for it to be explicitly recorded that the 1996 posted worker directive would apply to the sector until the mobility directive is adopted. Germany and the Netherlands wanted the directive to apply to road transport also for cabotage.
No progress in second round. After the first round of talks, the Estonian Presidency immediately submitted a new compromise stating a maximum duration of secondment of 20 months, a transposition of three years and keeping Recital 10. The compromise was rejected on a number of often divergent grounds by a wide number of member states, including Poland, Hungary, Spain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Romania, Latvia, France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Croatia, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark and Finland.
A diplomatic source said in the afternoon that the deadlocks did not give any indication of the final outcome and it was expected that agreements would take a long time in coming, given the tricky nature of the legislation. EUROPE will return to the negotiations tomorrow.
No partial agreement has yet been reached on review of the regulation on coordination of social security systems. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens on 23 October at 7pm)