Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, German) is rapporteur in the European Parliament on the revision of the regulation on the coordination of social security schemes (883/2004). The European Parliament and the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council had reached an agreement at the end of 2021, before the Member States rejected it (see EUROPE 12855/10). In particular, the European Parliament insisted on prior notification by default and rejected exemptions for the construction sector. The Swedish Presidency defends another solution and will seek a mandate from the EU Council on Friday 28 April (see EUROPE 13168/18), although several sources say that the blocking minority is still in place. The German MEP believes that this mandate is not a step in the right direction and that we should not persist in pursuing avenues that are unlikely to be successful with the European Parliament. She calls on the Presidency to explore new avenues. (Interview by Solenn Paulic)
Agence Europe - The Swedish Presidency of the EU Council will submit a new draft mandate to the Member States on Friday. What do you think of the proposals on the table?
Gabriele Bischoff - First of all, I really appreciate Sweden’s efforts to take up this issue, because it takes courage after such a long time and so many presidencies, but the European Parliament’s negotiating team is also concerned that things are unfortunately not going in the right direction, and I had the opportunity to tell the Presidency this.
There is no point in going in directions that will lead to a deadlock. We have the experience of many EU Council Presidencies and we should not continue along paths that do not work. We really hope that the Presidency will take our position into account.
A lot of the points of the revision have already been agreed upon. There are only three major points left open [prior notification, unemployment benefits and multi-activity, ed.]. On the issue of prior notification, we believe that a solution can be found by relying on digital solutions; the digitisation of procedures can really be an ally in this discussion.
This would be to the advantage of the companies with faster and lighter procedures and it would also make it much easier to carry out inspections and controls to examine A1 certificates.
This would make things less complicated, less bureaucratic, including for post-notifications. We are in a very fast-moving world of work, with employers having new skills needs; we learned a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic and we have developed new digital tools.
So you hope that the Presidency’s draft mandate will not be supported tomorrow?
We want the Member States to have a realistic vision; we need a balanced package that can also win a majority in the EU Council and the European Parliament.
Do they also see that the digital solution could at least be a way to find common ground and more modern regulation? Times have changed with digitisation. With the experience of Covid-19, we could ensure that the regulations are also updated.
We agree on so many points that it would be good now not to derail the work again.
Several sources suggest that Germany, your country, can, unlike a number of delegations, support this mandate...
I am the European Parliament rapporteur, not the rapporteur for my country. Of course, I always encourage my country to move forward. But I think Germany also supports digital solutions.
The Commission has announced initiatives on the digitisation of social security procedures, but over the longer term. What we need now are quick tools to bridge the gap.