German Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil assured MEPs in the European Parliament Committee for Employment and Social Policy on Thursday 16 July that the German EU Council Presidency would do its utmost to reach an agreement with the European Parliament on the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems.
Asked by several MEPs about the aims of the German Presidency on the Regulation, the Minister assured that his country will be an impartial mediator in finding an agreement under its Presidency. Mr Heil indicated that there were very few discussion points left, but that they were particularly difficult. As such, he called on the co-legislators to show a spirit of compromise in order to move forward.
Three major points remain to be decided: the question of social benefits for frontier workers, the definition of pluriactivity and, especially, the question of prior notification of the posting of a worker to the national authorities of the host country prior to posting.
On the latter point, Germany, together with other Member States (see EUROPE 12499/20), had gone to great lengths during the last months of negotiations to introduce derogations, particularly time-based derogations, from this notification in order to avoid introducing too much red tape. This is a bad idea according to other Member States, including France, and for the European Parliament, which sees this as a possible Pandora’s box for fraud.
A digital solution would be under consideration as a way out. Belgium and its Limosa programme could serve as an example (see EUROPE 12507/22).
Three axes
In general, the Minister explained that the German Presidency would be built in the wake of the pandemic around three axes: - 1) social cohesion; - 2) working in the digital age; - 3) working conditions in globalised labour chains (a conference is expected to be held on the subject on 3 November).
In this context, he indicated that he wanted an agreement on the Enhanced Youth Guarantee (see EUROPE 12517/6) in October within the EU Council and hoped to make progress on the proposal for a mechanism to guarantee a fair wage in Europe. The Minister mentioned a conference on the subject on 16 September.
He also stressed the importance of a new European strategy for people with disabilities and his willingness to work to strengthen the social dialogue (a conference on the subject is planned for early November). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)