The Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU will seek a mandate from the representatives of the Member States on Friday 28 April to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament on the revision of the Regulation on the coordination of social security rules.
At the end of 2021, the Parliament deplored the failure of the EU Council, under the Slovenian Presidency, to agree on this reform (see EUROPE 12869/16).
The German rapporteur on the dossier, Gabriele Bischoff (S&D), said at the time that the Slovenian Presidency had reached a good compromise. However, the Swedish Presidency has largely based its work on the text of that period.
In a final compromise document and draft mandate of the EU Council dated 21 April, the Presidency considers that it has reached the “centre of gravity” between the Member States on both the issue of prior notification and possible exemptions for short-term or professional postings, the duration of export of unemployment benefits for frontier workers (10 months), the designation of the Member State competent to pay unemployment benefits to these frontier workers and the framework for their job search (the State of activity and not of residence after 6 months of uninterrupted work), and the rules on pluriactivity.
While several Member States had opposed the last text of 17 March (see EUROPE 13158/13) and the proposals on exemptions from prior notification of postings had worried the European construction sector in particular, the Presidency is finally proposing very few changes.
It recalls that, on the exemptions from prior notification for postings of less than 3 days or business trips, a “majority of Member States” support making life easier for businesses and therefore not increasing their administrative responsibilities for short postings.
Prior notification to the competent authority will therefore not be required for such secondments, unless requested by that authority.
On pluriactivity, the Presidency compromise recognises that there are two elements to be taken into account to determine the competent Member State, namely: the location of the registered office or place of business, explains the 21 April note.
“In view of the divergent views on the factors to be taken into account”, the Presidency suggests moving these elements to a recital.
A new recital thus proposes that “in determining the location of the registered office or place of business of an undertaking, where a person pursues activity in two or more Member States, a series of factors should be taken into account in the framework of an overall assessment, giving due weight to each of them according to the circumstances of the case and to the habitual nature of the activity. Examples of such factors are the length of time that the undertaking has been established in the Member State, the place where the undertaking uses office space, pays company taxes, the turnover or the place where financial and particularly banking transactions mainly take place”.
Contacted by EUROPE, representatives of FIEC (European Construction Industry Federation) issued a rather negative initial assessment on Monday 24 April, saying that their concerns about prior notification exemptions had not been heard.
For the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the new text presented does not seem to meet the expectations or lift the red lines that the ETUC had also drawn on this issue of prior notification exemptions.
On the European Parliament side, the obligation to provide prior notification to the competent authorities of the host Member State of a worker’s activity before the start of the assignment was also a red line in 2021.
The interinstitutional Agreement reached at the end of 2021 with the Slovenian Presidency provided for prior notification by default and prohibited exemptions from prior notification for the construction sector, which is no longer the case (see EUROPE 12855/10).
Links to documents: https://aeur.eu/f/6hy ; https://aeur.eu/f/6hz (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)