MEPs and shadow rapporteurs gave a generally positive welcome to the report by Dennis Radtke (EPP, Germany) and Agnes Jongerius (S&D, the Netherlands) on the draft directive to introduce a fair minimum wage in the EU, in a first exchange in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) on Thursday 22 April. Swedish MEPs have openly opposed the very principle of an EU directive.
The two co-rapporteurs make some substantial changes to the European Commission’s text (see EUROPE 12591/8), always respecting the limits of the European treaties in the social field.
Among the major changes, Mr Radtke and Ms Jongerius propose that Member States establish an action plan setting out a precise timetable and concrete measures to ensure respect for the right to collective bargaining and to promote and progressively increase collective bargaining coverage to at least 90% (compared to 70% in the European Commission’s proposal) (Art 4 of the Directive).
Furthermore, the co-rapporteurs specify in the body of the directive (Art 5) that any salary below an indicative reference value of 60% of the gross median salary and 50% of the gross average salary is considered “insufficient”. They remove the criteria of “productivity” and the inclusion of taxes and social security benefits in the setting of statutory minimum wages.
They also demand that public procurement contracts should only take into account bids from companies that apply the collective agreements (Art 9).
The co-rapporteurs welcomed the fact that the two main political groups in the European Parliament had agreed to co-pilot the legislation [as with the Posted Workers Directive during the previous term, for which Ms Jongerius was also co-rapporteur, editor’s note], in order to avoid any political “trench warfare” on such an important project.
The approach and the report were welcomed by most political groups, with the exception of the far-right ID group and, to a lesser extent, the conservative ECR group, both of which insisted on respecting national competences in the social field.
The legal basis in question
Swedish MEPs stressed the need not to override the EU treaties and questioned the appropriateness of the legal basis.
Peter Lundgren (ECR) proposed that a geographical exemption be created for Sweden. For Mr Radtke, the issue of the legal basis, which he sees as an attempt to nip the legislative project in the bud, has been clarified, in particular by the note from the EU Council’s legal service (see EUROPE 12675/13). Therefore, the co-rapporteur felt, the political battle is now being fought on other fronts, namely the content of the text.
For its part, at the end of the exchanges, the European Commission insisted on the importance of respecting the European treaties. Introducing in the body of the text the respect of the poverty line principle to set the minimum wage is problematic, the institution seemed to underline.
It urged caution about the ambition to set a threshold for collective agreement coverage at 90% of the working population. Earlier in the day, in an exchange with the press, responding to EUROPE, Mr Radtke had indicated that only the Nordic countries (with the exception of Denmark) and Austria had reached this 90% coverage threshold.
On the content of the text, Leïla Chaibi (The Left, France) suggested going beyond the poverty line to define the minimum wage. She proposed the creation of a new criterion based on a basket of essential products and services adapted to each Member State.
Amendments to the co-rapporteurs’ draft report should be submitted by 11 May. The vote in the EMPL committee would take place in September, Ms Jongerius said, hoping for an agreement with the EU Council under the French Presidency in the first half of 2022.
In the EU Council, work resumes
In the EU Council, the Portuguese Presidency sent a new proposal to the national delegations to move the negotiations forward. Discussions are expected to resume next week in a working group of national experts.
The question of the legal basis no longer seems to be an issue, several sources confirmed.
At the beginning of February, in a letter to the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, as seen by EUROPE, nine Member States expressed the wish that the Council should opt for recommendations and not for a directive. These Member States were—not surprisingly—Denmark, Sweden, but also Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Greece, and Malta. As this group does not constitute a blocking minority, the Presidency is able to move forward. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)