On Wednesday 7 March, the European Public Service Union (EPSU) deplored the European Commission’s refusal to transpose into a directive a 2016 agreement by social partners on a general framework for information and consultation of officials of central administrations. This is a first since 1993, the organisation says.
On 21 January 2016, the social partners within the EU social dialogue committee for the central administrations had adopted an agreement to establish minimal common requirements relating to consultation and information for public agents through their representatives. At the time, public service unions had called on the Commission to rapidly transpose the agreement into a directive.
In a letter dated 6 March, the director general of the services for employment and social affairs at the Commission, Michel Servoz, rejected the request. In his letter, consulted by EUROPE, he considers that introducing such a directive would not make it possible to ensure the same level of protection for all member states, as some countries are centralised while others are federal. A large portion of the public sector could be excluded from the scope of the directive.
Speaking on behalf of EPSU, Britta Lejon said: “The Commission welcomed the agreement two years ago and Commissioner Thyssen informed us that an impact assessment would be carried out. Since then, we have gone from a lack of transparency in decision-making processes to the rejection decision”.
The trade union organisation notes that, since the introduction in 1993 of the social dialogue provisions in European treaties, “the Commission has never rejected the requests for legislative implementation of an agreement (between given social partners) by way of those provisions”.
The agreement reached in 2016 followed consultation of social partners by the Commission itself aimed at determining whether the public administrations should be covered by the European directives on rights to information and consultation.
See the social partners’ agreement: http://bit.ly/2plqH9U (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)