It took seven sessions of interinstitutional negotiations between the European Union's co-legislators to finally reach an agreement on the regulation establishing the new European Labour Authority (ELA) on the morning of Thursday, 14 February. The last issue to be resolved was the procedure to be followed for designating the seat of the Authority.
The agreement was widely welcomed at European level, starting with the President of the European Commission himself, Jean-Claude Juncker, who had made it an important political marker of his mandate (see EUROPE 11861), the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, and the European Parliament rapporteur, Jeroen Lenaers (EPP, Netherlands). "Of course, we would have preferred the Council to unanimously accept our initial position, but in practice this does not happen often", the rapporteur said with a touch of irony, at a press conference.
In general terms, the "operationality" of the Authority, as requested by the European Commission, has been preserved, as well as the main tasks assigned to it by the latter, namely: - inform citizens and companies of their rights and duties in cross-border situations; - facilitate the exchange of information between Member States by bringing together liaison officers, such as Europol, in the same place; - coordinate and facilitate joint inspections – at the request of Member States – in a cross-border situation in cases of fraud, abuse and illegal work; - mediate in disputes between two Member States. The integration of the European Job Mobility Portal (EURES) into the scope of the Authority's activities was also maintained, something which was not obvious given that the European Parliament had deleted it from its original position (see EUROPE 12141).
The name of the Authority was retained, whereas the Council had wished to rename the entity and make it an Agency, initially fearing that such an Authority could have influence over Member States on social issues that are, according to the European treaties, exclusively national powers. "By nature, it is an Agency", the Commissioner explained. "But it is an operational one", she added.
As for joint inspections, they will ultimately be voluntary for the Member States, which is to the great displeasure of the European Parliament who wanted them to be binding. However, "a simple 'no' will not be enough", the rapporteur explained. In the event of a refusal to participate, the Member State will have to explain the reasons to the ELA and the other Member State, in addition to proposing solutions to resolve a contentious situation.
The Authority's mediation role has been preserved. A compromise was also reached between the position of the Council and that of the European Parliament on mediation in the coordination of social security systems, as both institutions want to remove it from the scope of the Regulation in order not to disrupt the Administrative Commission for the Coordination of Social Security Systems (see EUROPE 12186). The European Commission, however, wanted this activity to remain within the scope of the ELA. Finally, Member States will have the choice, in the event of a dispute, between turning to the ELA or the Administrative Commission.
As far as governance is concerned, the European Parliament has partially won its case, because the future Management Board will include 4 representatives of social partners on an equal footing between employees and employers, as well as an expert appointed by the European Parliament, as is similarly the case for other agencies such as CEDEFOP or EUROFOUND. However, these representatives will only have an advisory role. The decision-making role will remain in the hands of the national representatives (one per Member State) and those of the Commission (two in number). The stakeholders group, which is essentially consultative, will consist of 10 sectoral representatives of the social partners.
The article on labour market disruptions (such as the restructuring or closures of large companies involving two or more Member States) has been deleted, as has the European Platform to Combat Undeclared Work.
A difficult end to the negotiations. The co-legislators have played well into extra time with this legislative dossier, after a marathon inter-institutional meeting had been announced as the last one, but ultimately was not (see EUROPE 12187), and another, which was supposed to be the last one but was cancelled at the last minute due to a lack of agreement between the delegations on the process of designating the future agency's seat (see EUROPE 12192). The way to an agreement was finally cleared following a final meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States II on Wednesday 13 February, which gave the go-ahead for an interinstitutional declaration on the subject (see EUROPE 12193).
Where is the seat currently? According to our information, negotiations over the seat will start in accordance with the modalities and criteria defined by the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU one week after the Interinstitutional Agreement is ratified by the Permanent Representatives Committee.
So far, three Member States have applied: Slovakia, Cyprus and Latvia (see EUROPE 12154), but others also appear to want to claim it, such as Bulgaria, Croatia, and even Romania or Italy.
The Authority should reach cruising speed by 2023 and is likely to eventually hire more than 140 staff, with an annual budget of around €50 million. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)