The European Parliament negotiating group and the French Presidency of the Council of the EU made little progress during the inter-institutional meeting over the minimum wages directive that was held late on Thursday 17 February.
The co-legislators would have mainly discussed Article 5 again on the criteria for determining the adequacy of statutory minimum wages, and in particular paragraph 3, which calls on Member States to use international definitions for calculating it (60% of the gross median wage and/or 50% of the gross average wage).
Paragraph 4 on the updating of minimum wages was also a topic for debate. According to one source, the European Commission did not set out a new compromise on Article 5 during this meeting (see EUROPE 12887/29).
Article 4 on promoting the collective agreements in wage setting was also discussed. Here too, little progress is likely to have been made. The interpretation of the legal basis of the Directive has also been a matter of debate when defining the scope of the Directive, we were told.
One of the difficulties, according to a source, would be the rather unclear position of Germany in the background on the directive, despite a clear coalition agreement between the three political groups (SPD, FDP, die Grünen) on the subject.
The date for the next inter-institutional meeting has not yet been set. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)