The European Commission is expected to present its new European Employment Authority project on 13 March when the Social Fairness Package is announced.
The Commission appears to be opting for a regulation that would confirm the setting up of a new European agency. The regulation would be relatively short and allow the new agency to define its staff composition and way of functioning, according to the information we have received. Nonetheless, the European Commission has not yet confirmed this.
The text was initially planned for 7 March but was postponed due to a large number of initiatives that will be presented this month. The 13 March will be a particularly busy day for the European Commission, which is expected to present an initiative on access to social protection, as well as an initiative on creating a European Social Security number, a banking union package, a second progress report on implementing the action plan on suspect bank loans and the migration agenda.
It should be recalled that the European Employment Agency was announced by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, during his State of the European Union speech on 13 September (see EUROPE 11861). Juncker’s stated objectives was to guarantee a fair, simple and efficient implementation of, "Union rules on workers' mobility by creating a new European body for inspecting and applying the rules".
The project was welcomed, particularly by the trade unions, although some had concerns that the Commission would ultimately not be presenting a new agency. Others expressed concerns about the risk of this new body undermining the agencies and bodies that already exist (Cedefop, Eurofound, etc.) and that it would ultimately be a manoeuvre for making savings. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)