The European Parliament’s rapporteur on the draft regulation on the coordination of social security systems, Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany), and the chair of Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL), Lucia Nicholsonová (Renew Europe, Slovakia), expressed deep regret and even anger on Thursday 13 January at the EU Council’s rejection of the interinstitutional agreement reached in December on the draft regulation.
Indeed, on Wednesday 22 December, in the Committee of Permanent Representatives I (Coreper I), the Member States rejected the provisional agreement for the second time (see EUROPE 12859/10), with 9 votes against and 5 abstentions (abstention is considered as a vote against in the framework of the qualified majority) the interinstitutional agreement reached between the co-legislators earlier this month (see EUROPE 12855/10).
Mrs Bischoff expressed her “absolute regret“ at this new failure. “The Council’s numbers were very tight and we needed one more big country to make the hard work pay off”, she said. She added bitterly: “During this legislative period, (...) there has been much talk of strengthening social Europe and improving social rights, but the reality is often different...”
The rapporteur assured the other MEPs that there was a qualified majority at the time of the provisional agreement, but that massive “last minute” interventions tipped the majority, without specifying where they came from. Some sources mention the role of Germany, which is said to have been rather murky on this issue, despite a German chancellery that is now social-democratic and supposedly more favourable to the legislative dossier. Mrs Bischoff now hopes that the French Presidency of the EU Council will take up the dossier (which could be the case, according to a source in Bercy - see EUROPE 12864/11).
“The agreement was a miracle, and that is what you tried to achieve: a miracle! I don’t know why the Council has done this”, replied the chair of the committee. It was a “very good compromise for both co-legislators”, she added, acknowledging that the European Commission had done a “great job as mediator”. “But to me, this 883 [number of the regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems - editor’s note] is like a cursed file: it always collapses at the EU Council level. So a miracle needs to happen on their side, not on our side”, she concluded.
One of the stumbling blocks in the negotiations is the issue of prior notification before a worker is posted. More than five years after the presentation by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11688/23), and despite 17 interinstitutional meetings (the average number of interinstitutional meetings is three to four), no agreement has been reached at Coreper level, which remains very divided on this legislative dossier.
Some in the EU Council believe that the “reasonable negotiation period” has passed and that the European Commission should consider withdrawing from the dossier. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)