Work on the minimum wage directive made little progress during the second inter-institutional meeting between the European Parliament negotiating group and the French Presidency of the EU Council late in the morning of Monday 31 January, with the co-legislators seeking above all to understand each other’s positions.
The discussions lasted from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and were conducted in a good atmosphere. “The main objective of the negotiations was to better understand the position of the other side”, commented a source.
Discussions covered the ‘adequacy and fairness’ of minimum wages, as understood by the European Parliament. More specifically, the discussions focused on Article 1 (the objective of the directive), Article 2 (definitions) and Article 6 (variations and deductions from statutory pay).
The EU Council would have preferred to address the issues in an “abstract” way, without referring to the articles and recitals, whereas the European Parliament wanted to address the principles and concepts in the analysis of the text directly, we were told.
The co-legislators will therefore meet on 8 February for a third time. Article 5 on the thorny issue of the adequacy of minimum wages is expected to be an important part of the talks. As a reminder, the French Presidency of the EU Council hopes to reach an agreement fairly quickly (see EUROPE 12864/11). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)