The European Parliament and the Council of the EU continued to face off on the regulation on the coordination of social security systems, without having made any significant progress at the last interinstitutional meeting on Thursday 21 February, due to a Romanian Council Presidency that is reportedly paralysed by tensions between Member States and a Parliament assertive in its positions.
At that meeting, little progress was made in the talks on the applicable legislation, as Parliament wanted the notification of the A1 form of the country of residence to be made mandatory before the worker was sent, which the Council refused.
In addition, the duration of the posting before changing insurance funds in the country of work is also reportedly a source of tension: Parliament would like 18 month, the Council would like 24 months. Again, no agreement appears to be within reach. Similarly, on pluriactivity, the two co-legislators are fumbling, in particular on the provisions for journalists introduced by Parliament, so that they have a choice on the applicable legislation.
At the end of the interinstitutional meeting, the Romanian Presidency of the Council is said to have made a series of proposals on the export of unemployment benefits and the applicability of the legislation. The problem is that tomorrow, the Presidency will return to the negotiating front without a renewed mandate from the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper I). As a result, little progress is expected.
The Romanian Presidency appears to be trapped by a blocking minority made up of the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and the Czech Republic, who want to negotiate in packages and not on an element-by-element basis (see EUROPE 12197). In addition, these same Member States clearly oppose Parliament's proposal to increase the export of social benefits for frontier workers to six months (see EUROPE 12195). The focus is on France, who has a much more flexible position on the issue alongside Portugal, Italy, Spain and Slovenia.
On the European Parliament side, the negotiating group reportedly consider, in view of the limited room for manoeuvre suffered by the Romanian Presidency, adopting its position at first reading before the European elections are held.
The Romanian Presidency would like a final meeting on 5 March, but, in the opinion of several observers, the chances are greatly reduced, given that the probability remains low for the Romanian Presidency to find support within Coreper on Wednesday.
The clock is ticking. The final deadline for reaching agreement is 15 March. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)