Following their respective group meetings, ALDE, ECR and EPP would consider postponing the first reading vote in plenary session on the regulation on the coordination of social security systems until after the European elections, according to our information obtained on Wednesday 10 April.
Debates were lively on the part of ALDE in particular, where the shadow rapporteur, Marian Harkin (ALDE, Ireland), as well as some delegations, including the French one, were against postponing the vote on the text adopted ahead of the interinstitutional negotiations last December (see EUROPE 12157/19, 12141/13). Within the EPP, several delegations, including the French one, reportedly did also not agree with the decision to postpone, despite the fact that it was defended by the shadow rapporteur, Sven Schulze (EPP, Germany).
The decision on the postponement will be taken definitively at the Conference of Presidents on Thursday 11 April. While it was decided to remove the text from the agenda, the matter was reportedly not closed: the Social Democrats asked to put the vote back on the agenda of the plenary session on Monday 15 April. The vote would then be by a simple majority. If the majority of the vote is requested, the text will be put to the vote on Thursday 18 April, the last day of parliamentary business under this mandate. Otherwise, more than 2 years of negotiations would potentially be lost.
On Monday 8 April, the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU submitted to the European Parliament negotiating group amendments to the provisional political agreement reached in mid-March in order to ensure a qualified majority in the EU Council. The period after which responsibility for social benefits for frontier workers is transferred between the State of residence and the State of employment has been reduced from 6 to 3 months. This proposal was adopted by the negotiating group, but not the one concerning the modification of the criteria for determining the location of the company in the case of pluriactivity or the one suggesting the abolition of prior notification (see EUROPE 12232/18).
At the time of writing, the response of the Romanian Presidency of the Council was not yet known. But if the latter wishes to submit the amended agreement to the national delegations, it only has Friday 12 April, the date on which the Committee of Permanent Representatives will meet. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)