EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers will meet on Thursday 8 December in Brussels for a formal session dominated by the fate of the draft directive on digital platform workers.
In addition, the ministers will approve their mandate for the revision of the directive on occupational exposure to asbestos, as well as a series of EU Council recommendations on long-term care, but also on minimum income and active inclusion. They will devote part of the agenda to fundamental rights issues, including equal treatment irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation and gender equality.
Digital platform workers. The fate of the draft text on this dossier, prepared by the Czech Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 13077/19), was still very uncertain on Tuesday 6 December. The Presidency will await the opinion of the Member States on 7 December ahead of the EU Council, but Berlin is still not expected to have a position.
The text does not currently have a qualified majority, but a simple majority, as a group of Member States wish to return to the Commission’s initial text on the criteria for triggering the presumption of employment, while others, on the contrary, want to tighten up these criteria.
One group of countries can live with this Czech text and finds it very difficult to make concessions to this ‘pro-Commission’ group without losing the support of the other Member States. A rather inextricable situation that Prague was to try to resolve on Tuesday 6 December.
Differences of interpretation concern specific provisions, such as the fact that a platform might not be considered to meet one of the European presumption criteria if it is already subject to this obligation at national level or if it is subject to it under collective agreements. This is a weakening for some and a reason to block the text, while other countries argue that clarifications and recitals have been added in the Czech text, precisely to avoid a platform escaping the general principle of presumption.
For those groups that are more supportive of the Czech text, the arguments of the ‘pro-Commission’ side are not necessarily very clear.
In any case, the Czech Presidency will have to hand over the file to the Swedish Presidency if it is not possible to reach an agreement on Thursday.
Protection of workers against asbestos. Ministers are expected to confirm the political agreement reached on 25 November on an exposure limit value of 0.01 fibres/cm³ and the use of the electron microscopy method for calculating asbestos fibres after a 7-year transition period (see EUROPE 13070/33).
The European Parliament’s Employment Committee has set June 2023 as the deadline for adopting its mandate on the review, but some people already consider this deadline too long and want to start negotiating as soon as possible with the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council.
No discussion is planned between ministers, as the issue is not controversial in the EU Council, a source said on 6 December, but they expect more difficult discussions with the European Parliament, which is likely to propose a more ambitious text.
Long-term health care. Ministers will both hold a policy discussion on how to make long-term care more accessible and affordable and adopt a recommendation on the subject. This has been substantially amended in some respects compared to the Commission’s original text presented in September (see EUROPE 13016/7).
The Member States have decided, for example, that it is recommended that Member States communicate to the Commission, within 18 months of the adoption of this Recommendation, all measures taken or planned to implement it, building, where appropriate, on existing national strategies or plans and taking into account national, regional and local circumstances. The Commission’s proposal was for 12 months.
The most important changes concern Articles 3 and 5 on the definitions of long-term care. The main purpose is to detail and adapt these definitions.
The Member States have thus clarified the language by recommending that Member States ”permanently align” the supply of long-term care services with long-term care needs, while the Commission called for “increasing” this supply.
Minimum income and active inclusion. The Council of the EU should also adopt its recommendation on the subject (see EUROPE 13073/20).
Programme of the future Presidency. In addition, the incoming Swedish Presidency of the EU Council will present its priorities for the next 6 months to the ministers.
Fundamental rights
On Thursday 8 December, EU ministers are expected to adopt EU Council conclusions on gender equality in destabilised economies (see EUROPE 13071/18) and on the inclusion of people with disabilities in the labour market (see EUROPE 13066/2).
On the same day, the Czech Presidency of the Council will present its progress report on the directive on equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (see EUROPE 13071/17). This has been blocked in the EU Council since 2008 due to a lack of unanimity. Reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities is at the heart of the differences between Member States (see EUROPE 13032/16).
Link to recommendations and discussion papers on long-term care: https://aeur.eu/f/4hp ; https://aeur.eu/f/4hr (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Hélène Seynaeve)