At the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives I (Coreper I) on Wednesday evening, 13 March, Member States’ ambassadors to the EU adopted the procedure for selecting the seat of the European Labour Authority.
As a reminder, at the end of February, following the provisional political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the EU Council (see EUROPE 12194/1), the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU presented a roadmap for the selection process that gave a set of criteria, the voting system, and the timetable (see EUROPE 12203/26).
Following concerns expressed by some Member States on the periphery of the EU, the third criterion regarding the location’s accessibility has been modified, the reference to the need for good rail connections having been stricken.
This criterion would have excluded the candidacy of Cyprus — which is competing, along with all the other island States, to host the future seat — from the start. Now, it will be only necessary to have an airport that has a good connection to the seat.
Moreover, the dimensions of the offices have been reduced from 7000 m² to 5000 m².
Member States have until 6 May to apply (so far, Cyprus, Latvia, and Slovakia have applied, and Bulgaria is expected to do so soon). Then, the Commission will have until 3 June to analyse the applications. These will then be presented to the Committee of Permanent Representatives I on 6 June. Finally, the vote will in all likelihood take place during the Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO) on 13 June. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)