An annual budget of more than €50 million and 140 agents by 2023. These financial and human resources are planned for the European Labour Authority (ELA) as presented by the European Commissioner for Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, on Tuesday 13 March in Strasbourg. This initiative is part of a range of measures in the social domain (see other articles).
The Commissioner asserted that, “I think we can say the authority responds to growing concerns about inadequate compliance and enforcement of EU mobility rules. It will be the jewel in the crown of a well-functioning EU labour market”.
On the same lines as the European pillar of social rights, the ELA is pursuing three major objectives that have already been reported on by EUROPE (see EUROPE 11979, 11976): - facilitating individuals and employers’ information about their rights and responsibilities; supporting intra-state cooperation in the implementation of European legislation, including joint inspection exercises and playing a mediating role in cross-border litigation cases between the respective national authorities. The ELA will particularly focus on free movement and posted workers, as well as the coordination of social security systems. This latter point involves all EU citizens and not just workers.
Many tasks to be reviewed every five years
The idea of the ELA is based on that of other existing European agencies, particularly Europol and Eurojust, whose activities are significantly restricted by the subsidiarity principle. The ELA’s field of activity will focus on: workers and employers’ access to information about their rights and responsibilities and cross-border situations; cooperation and information exchanges between the national authorities to enhance implementation and respect for EU law; - the coordination and support for control and inspection activities at the request of the member states in an effort to tackle irregularities and fraud; - the elaboration of risk analyses focusing on cross-border workers' mobility; - supporting member states in setting up areas of action (training and the promotion of good practices); - mediation between the national authorities in litigation cases involving European legislation; cooperation between the different actors in the event of disruptions on the labour market (e.g., the restructuring of companies based in several different member states).
The ELA will be a permanent body that receives guidance from its management board where each member state will have a representative and the Commission will have two. This management board will have the authority over the ELA of an executive director. Once the authority is fully operational, the European Advisory Group will provide assistance by staying close on the ground. It will be chaired by the Commission and consist of European level social partners.
140 agents and annual budget of €50 million
According to the regulation examined by EUROPE (the definitive version has still not been confirmed as we go to press), the Commission is planning on a budget that will gradually increase from €12 million to €56.5 million between 2019 and 2024. The number of agents will increase from 38 to 144 over the same period (69 European agents, 60 national experts and 15 agents on contract).
The European Commission is also planning to evaluate the mandate of the ELA every five years, with the possibility of extending its activities. In reply to EUROPE about possible developments on the horizon, Ms Thyssen said that it was difficult to define them for the time being but that the ELA was supposed to monitor labour market developments in the EU.
It should be pointed out that the number of mobile workers working in different member states is rising spectacularly: it doubled between 2007 and 2017 and has now reached 17 million people.
5th agency in social arena
The ELA will therefore not be the result of a merger of existing agencies (Cedefop, EU-OSHA, Eurofound or the ETF), as certain MEPs had expressed fears about during the presentation of the project by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, in September 2017 (see EUROPE 11861).
The Commissioner acknowledged that a fifth agency would be created but that this would not be a duplication of other agencies and that the ELA’s task was to focus on cross-border mobility situations.
With regard to the project's timeframe, the Commissioner expressed hope that adoption would occur as quickly as possible so that the ELA could be operational by 2019.
There is one point still pending, however, where will the agency be based? The Commissioner sarcastically retorted that this would be, “in Europe!” (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens and Lucas Tripoteau)