The Legal Service of the Council of the European Union, in an opinion obtained by EUROPE on Wednesday 10 March, validates the legal basis chosen by the European Commission - namely Article 153 TFEU (§1, b and §2) - to underpin the directive on the establishment of adequate minimum wages in the EU. However, it suggests some amendments to better align the directive and its scope.
The EU Council’s legal experts believe that the proposal does not set a level for the various components of remuneration, nor does it directly intervene in the determination of remuneration. Therefore, the legal basis is appropriate, with the exception of Article 6 on variations and deductions.
For this article, the Legal Service considers that there is indeed direct interference in the setting of remuneration. It therefore must either be adjusted or, in its view, deleted outright.
In general, the lawyers advise reviewing and adapting the title of the proposed Directive, as well as the titles of certain articles, “with a view to making [the language] consistent with the actual scope of the obligations provided for in the operative part of the proposal”.
It should be noted that the opinion does not take a position on the link between the level of collective bargaining coverage in a given Member State and the level of coverage of minimum wages. The Legal Service merely notes that the proposal does not require Member States to grant access to a minimum wage to all workers.
However, if this were to be the objective, the EU Council’s Legal Service would then consider that the proposal constitutes a direct interference intended to impose minimum wage coverage on all workers, which would therefore come up against the limits of Article 153 (§5).
Furthermore, the legal opinion states that the Directive establishes the obligation for Member States to use indicative reference values to assess the adequacy of minimum wages, stressing that these reference values are not binding. Therefore, this provision does not amount to direct interference in the determination of remuneration.
The opinion was requested in autumn 2020 by several Scandinavian and Central and Eastern European Member States in order to analyse the relevance of the legal basis put forward by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12600/28).
To consult the opinion: http://bit.ly/3lexRol (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)