The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU presented its proposal to the Ambassadors to the EU (Coreper I) to designate the location of the future seat of the European Labour Authority on Wednesday 6 March.
The Presidency has recently developed a procedure for deciding on the location of the Authority's seat, with a set of criteria, a timetable and a precise voting system (see EUROPE 12203). The Member States agreed that the procedure should remain purely intergovernmental - a debate that had, for a time, slowed down the negotiations with the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12194) - and approved the timetable.
However, some Member States, including Cyprus and Ireland, have reportedly expressed their reluctance to formulate the criterion on the accessibility of the seat location, which would penalise insularity. They reportedly prefer the criteria to focus on accessibility within the country and not between Member States.
As for the decision-making process, there will still be a debate between a point-based vote - similar to what was done for the "repatriation" of the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority (see EUROPE 1908) - or a simple voting system.
In its document, the Presidency affirms that the vote will take place in the ‘Employment and Social Policy’ Council (EPSCO) on 13 June in Luxembourg and provides for a multi-round voting process, by secret ballot, with each Member State corresponding to one vote.
The Presidency intends to come back with a finalised proposal either on Friday or at Coreper next Wednesday, we are told.
The Member States currently competing are Slovakia, Cyprus and Latvia. Other Member States are reportedly interested, including Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)