Following an exchange of views with outgoing Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen on Tuesday afternoon, 3 September, the coordinators of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL) agreed to resume inter-institutional negotiations (trilogues) with the EU Council where they had ended last March.
The coordinators instructed the chair of the EMPL committee, Slovak Lucia Nicholsonová (ECR), to write to the chair of the Conference of Committee Chairs (CPC), Antonio Tajani, asking him to invite the Conference of Chairs to decide to continue the discussion on the matter and resume the trilogues at the point where they had failed.
In addition, they asked for provision to be made for the "flexibility" necessary for the European Parliament negotiating team to agree jointly with the EU Council on the stage at which negotiations should be resumed.
This is good news for the outgoing Commissioner, who, just back from Japan where the G20 Social Affairs Summit (see EUROPE 12318/16) was held, came to defend the March agreement and advocate the importance of the regulation for citizens.
Three options
On 24 July, the coordinators held a first exchange of views to determine whether or not they would continue the negotiations. It was then decided to postpone the discussions until September.
Until last night, three options were on the table. The first was to restart negotiations from scratch, which would clearly undermine the draft agreement on the medium term. The second proposed the resumption of negotiations with the EU Council on the basis of the report by Guillaume Balas (S&D, France) as adopted in December 2018 by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12141/13), which would have meant an agreement within a relatively long period of time. The third suggested that the negotiations should be resumed promptly where they ended last March (see EUROPE 12217/5), which would give hope for an agreement before the end of the current Commission's mandate.
It is therefore the latter option that has been chosen, with the support of the EPP, S&D, RE, Greens/EFA, but also ID. The GUE/NGL is divided, generally in agreement to resume negotiations, with the exception of the Danish coordinator, Nikolaj Villumsen, who does not hold this position, we are told. The ECR is against the strategy of resuming negotiations and wants to restart legislative work from scratch.
Tough negotiations in prospect
The negotiations with the EU Council, which will be led by the new rapporteur, Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany), are expected to be difficult, especially as the timetable is limited.
There are many stumbling blocks, such as the shift in responsibility for social benefits from the state of residence to the state of activity, or the export of social benefits for frontier workers at 15 months.
Another area of contention is the requirement for prior notification to the competent authorities of the host Member State before a worker is sent abroad. In the event of failure by a national authority to reply to a request from another national authority within 35 working days in respect of a form A1 from a specific worker, the requesting authority may consider that form as never having been issued, de facto making the activity of the sent worker illegal.
These new provisions had caused frustration to a large group of Member States for various reasons. On the day of the vote in the EU Council, the "like-minded " group of Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Belgium voted against the provisional agreement. Hungary, Poland and Malta abstained, blocking the agreement.
Discussions could continue after the end of the Juncker Commission's mandate.
The position of Luxembourger Nicolas Schmit
It is therefore important to know the future Commission's attitude towards this legislative text. During the speeches to the EMPL committee, one was particularly eagerly awaited, that of Luxembourg MEP Nicolas Schmit (S&D), who is being tipped as the next Commissioner for Social Affairs (see EUROPE B12280B16).
However, his country is very reluctant to revise the Regulation, due to the planned shift in responsibility for social benefits for frontier workers from the Member State of residence to the Member State of activity. The provision is likely to have a significant impact on the Luxembourg market, almost half of which is made up of frontier workers (see EUROPE B12046B38).
However, the MEP was slightly more moderate compared to his speech at the Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO) in 2018 where, as Minister for Social Affairs at the time, he threatened to use Article 48 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) to block the text (see EUROPE B12047B21).
In his speech, he did not call for a block - which would have put him at odds with the rest of the S&D group - but called for a " just" agreement for workers and for the Member States. In his view, the current situation is sustainable, with the Member State of activity reimbursing the Member State of residence over a period of 5 months to pay for the social benefits of a frontier worker. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)