In an opinion on the future European Labour Authority, which was adopted (181 votes to 16 and 29 abstentions) on Thursday 20 September, the members of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) made a series of recommendations to improve the role of the social partners in the future entity.
The Committee considers that reinforcing the role of the social partners within the Authority would help to enhance its effectiveness in monitoring and controlling the cross-border mobility of workers. For instance, it proposes that the stakeholder group become an advisory board in which the role of the social partners would be increased.
The members of the EESC suggest an amendment to article 24 on the creation of the stakeholder group. They would like this new committee to be able to give its opinion on the activities of the Authority for the duration of the mandate, but also every year, as well as on the activity reports or on the proposal of the administrative Council for the post of Executive Director. Finally, the EESC is of the opinion that this committee should be made up of 17 members, 12 of whom would be European social partners, from the fields of construction, agriculture and transport, in particular. This committee would meet at least three times a year.
In general, the members welcome the Commission's proposal, but call for several clarifications, for instance concerning the mediation role set out in the regulation, the role of the liaison officers or how the Authority will interact with other European agencies.
The EESC furthermore proposes that joint inspections between member states remain voluntary. However, any refusal to participate must be properly explained. They also call for the entity to play a key role in introducing a European social security number.
It is worth noting that the EESC does not appear to be calling into question the role of the Authority, unlike the European Parliament, where many MEPs are looking at drastically curtailing its scope of action, starting with the rapporteur himself (see EUROPE 12084). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)