The Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union obtained, in the evening of Wednesday 12 December, a renewed mandate from the Member States to continue negotiations with the European Parliament on the Directive on Work-Life Balance, including parental leave.
Thus, according to our sources, the Austrian Presidency would start with the proposal of a parental leave of 4 months, including 2 months not transferable. Of these 2 months, 1 month and a half, non-transferable and paid, would be planned in the first instance. Then, in a second step, the non-transferable and paid period would be increased to 2 months, 5 years after the entry into force of the Directive.
The proposal - which would have been suggested by the Irish delegation - would thus make it possible to reach the position of the European Parliament, which took a major step towards the Council by reducing the non-transferable and paid period from four to two months. It should be noted that the Council's position would not include any clarification as to the level of remuneration or even an age limit for the child to be able to apply for parental leave.
On carer’s leave, no remuneration is provided. On the other hand, a period of 5 days per year would still be included in the Presidency's negotiating mandate (EUROPE 12146), with possible adjustments, however.
As for paternity leave, the proposal put forward by the French, Portuguese and Spanish to align remuneration with that applied at national level for maternity leave under the terms of the Directive on the improvement of working conditions for pregnant women, women who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding (92/85/EEC) would have been maintained. The bridging clause for Member States with very favourable parental leave to have less ambitious provisions on paternity leave is also preserved, in order to meet the requirements, in particular those of Germany.
A new inter-institutional meeting is scheduled for Friday 14 December. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)