The Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU failed to obtain from the national delegations of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper I), on Wednesday 27 November, a renewed mandate to resume negotiations with the European Parliament on the Regulation concerning the coordination of social security systems.
The Finnish Presidency, after two unsuccessful meetings with the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12374/20, 12371/26), returned to the Member States with several proposals, in particular on the arrangements for exemption from prior notification in the event of the posting of workers. The Presidency had thus suggested that the definition of ‘business trips' agreed during the March interinstitutional negotiations should be taken up again, even if this meant reworking it to make it more precise.
It also proposed to introduce an exemption for all missions of less than three days and for missions organised in an emergency (missions announced 14 days before their actual start). On this last exemption, a specific mechanism was reportedly specified by the Finnish Presidency. In this case, the notification of the posting should be sent to the competent authority of the host Member State no later than 14 days after the start of the mission.
On the question of social benefits for frontier workers, the Presidency sought to determine whether Member States were willing to provide for a specific regime going beyond six months. Without success. Finally, it proposed reintroducing the notion of "working time" to define pluriactivity. There, too, without success.
Twelve Member States rejected the Finnish proposal, including Austria, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Malta, for different reasons, however. According to the sources consulted, Germany had a more ambiguous position. Hungary, Poland, Sweden and Bulgaria reportedly said they were more flexible, as were Ireland, Spain and Greece. Only Portugal, Italy and Romania are said to have fully supported the Finnish proposal.
The interinstitutional negotiations scheduled for Thursday evening, 28 November, were finally cancelled by the European Parliament side, for logistical reasons. They should therefore resume on 12 December, under the mandate of the new Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Nicolas Schmit. However, some wonder, on the EU Council's side, whether Parliament will agree to resume interinstitutional negotiations knowing that the EU Council's mandate remains unchanged. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)