The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU will submit to the Member States' ambassadors, on Wednesday, 27 March in the late morning, at a meeting that could well turn out to be tumultuous, the provisional agreement reached with the European Parliament on the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems.
This provisional agreement, sealed on Tuesday, 19 March between the Parliament and the Council of the EU, surprised some observers with some of its particularly ambitious aspects, whether on unemployment benefits (up to 6 months of exports, or even 15 months for frontier workers) or the legislation applicable in the case of postings (see EUROPE 12217/5).
The question of support for the text in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper I) remains open, with the various delegations still analysing the written version of the agreement, even if a majority in favour of the agreement will probably be obtained, according to several European sources. But some unknowns are clouding the picture.
Not surprisingly, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are expected to reject the agreement.
These Member States, together with Belgium (whose intentions are a little less clear, given that the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, who is at the origin of the legislative proposal, is Belgian), sent a seven-page document on Tuesday, 26 March, which was consulted by EUROPE. This document sets out a series of questions whose common purpose is to address legal uncertainties that could potentially arise from the agreement reached.
The objective would be to clarify certain aspects of the text, in order to help delegations take a position, the authors explain. For others, it is a manoeuvre to slow down the decision-making process. However, neither the Romanian Presidency nor the Commission is obliged to answer the various questions point by point. A general response is expected.
The positions of Sweden and Cyprus also remain unclear. Above all, the main issue comes from the Visegrád Group Member States (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), which may be reluctant to support the agreement because of the provisions on applicable legislation. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)