The German Federal Minister for Economics and Energy, Peter Altmaier, and the German Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, Hubertus Heil, sent a letter to the Presidents of the German delegations of the different political groups in the European Parliament of which strongly insist on the need to introduce a temporary exemption from prior notification before a posting in the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems.
In essence, in the letter, seen by EUROPE on Tuesday 28 January, the two Ministers stress the bureaucratic overload that the introduction of prior notification of A1 forms would generate, particularly for SMEs and local authorities.
For them, the exception in the March 2019 Agreement (see EUROPE 12217/5), which provides for an exemption for business travel, is not a good solution. The best solution, they hammered home, is a temporary exemption from prior notification for postings of between 7 and 30 days.
“Short-term missions, such as those common in maintenance contracts in the mechanical engineering sector, would thus be made impossible”, says the January 16 letter, which recalls that the government is already receiving many complaints about the current situation regarding Form A1 “from pastors, scientists, police officers, mayors or assistants for the disabled”.
The introduction of a temporary exemption has already been rejected by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12387/18), where the dossier is in the hands of MEP Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany). It is also controversial in the EU Council, where France, among others, opposes such a proposal (see EUROPE 12364/21).
The aim, one source analyses, would be to put pressure on the German delegations (the leader in terms of number of MEPs) to weaken Parliament's position on the issue, in order to be able to make progress in the interinstitutional negotiations, which are currently still pending (see EUROPE 12411/31). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)