Following a meeting of Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Committee of Permanent Representatives - Coreper I) on Wednesday 27 February, the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU obtained some flexibility from the Member States on its proposals to continue negotiations with the European Parliament on chapters related to unemployment benefits and applicable legislation.
Thus, according to our information, the Romanian Presidency would go to the negotiations with a mandate including a totalisation of insurance periods abroad increased to one month (Council position) and an export of duties increased to 6 months (European Parliament position).
On the question of frontier workers, the "free choice" left to workers between the State of residence and the State of activity for social benefits, as proposed by Parliament, has not been retained by the Member States, which consider it inapplicable. It is therefore the Council's position that it will be the last State of activity to pay social benefits and monitor them, which has been adopted in return – a concession made to Parliament – for enhanced cooperation between national authorities to support workers.
As for the applicable legislation, delegations reportedly have clearly rejected Parliament's proposal to introduce a financial deposit mechanism. Over the period of pre-enrolment in social security before a worker is sent, two possibilities are reportedly being considered: 2 months or 3 months with different modalities (the European Commission submitted a series of proposals to the last trilogue on this subject – see EUROPE 12202). On the question of the duration of the posting of workers, delegations would have remained rather silent, but the Council would remain on its position, namely 24 months. As for progress on pluriactivity and notification, the national delegations would have encouraged the Romanian Presidency to continue the negotiations, the first point being by far the most sensitive, according to several sources.
Political guidelines. The Presidency does not start with a mandate as such, but with political guidelines. According to two diplomatic sources, 11 Member States reportedly indicated that they could not support a Presidency mandate, as the Presidency would not have presented the 4-column table to national delegations.
The next inter-institutional meeting is scheduled for 5 March and another one is already planned for 12 March. Member States have reiterated their willingness to reach an agreement before the end of the legislature. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)