On Wednesday 11 July, the Austrian Minister for Employment and Social Affairs, Beate Hartinger-Klein, provided assurances to MEPs on the employment and social affairs committee (EMPL) that the Austrian Presidency of the Council would make the regulation setting up the European Employment Authority one of its priorities during its mandate.
Some of those at the European Parliament were surprised by this point, as pointed out by the Austrian MEP Monika Vana (Greens/EFA), because the European Employment Authority had not been included in the Council's work programme. The Minister, however, provided MEPs with assurances on a number of occasions that Austria would do everything possible to make progress with this dossier. In this connection, she indicated that there had been debates at the Council about the risks of overlapping with other authorities.
Work overload
Another concern highlighted during the talks involved the quantity of legislative dossiers to tackle over the next six months. This question was indeed raised by the British MEP, Anthea McIntyre, who said that she was worried by the feeling of galloping ahead on many dossiers before the end of the mandate.
Similarly, Enrique Calvet Chambon (ALDE, Spain) said that he wanted to advance as efficiently as possible in order to obtain concrete results for European citizens ahead of the European elections. He considered that there was just one solution: they needed to establish priorities on the European Employment Authority, the work/life balance directive, the regulation on the coordination of social security systems and the directive on transparent and predictable working conditions.
The Austrian Minister also sought to provide assurances in this regard and said that she wanted to promote “quality over quantity”. It is true that there is a large number of dossiers: in addition to those mentioned above, the Minister also highlighted the second and third revision of the directive on protecting workers against exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work, the directive on access to products and services, without forgetting the regulation setting up the European Social Fund +, European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), as well as the different texts on the European agencies, including those for the OSHA, CEDEFOP and Eurofound, in addition to the recommendations on access to social security and new forms of work.
The number of agreements targeted is, however, limited. The Presidency is hoping to conclude the two revisions of the directive on the protection of workers against exposure to carcinogenic and mutagenic agents and the directive on products and services (see EUROPE 12053).
Internal policy. Some MEPs, such as Ms Vana, also expressed concern about Austria's wish to apply the motto, “A Europe That Protects”, to the social domain. The Austrian government hit the headlines last week after having announced its wish to extend the working week to 60 hours and up to 12 hours for a working day. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)