The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU has been unable to conclude its latest efforts to reach an agreement on the revision of the regulation on the coordination of social security schemes (883/2004) and informed the European Parliament’s teams on Monday 18 December that its informal talks had failed (see EUROPE 13314/16).
Envisaged on Monday 18 December and again on Thursday 21 December, the new and potentially final trilogue with the European Parliament on this dossier, which has been on the table since 2016, has therefore been cancelled, the German rapporteur, Gabriele Bischoff (S&D), said in an email to the shadow rapporteurs.
The Spanish Presidency has been in informal contact with several Member States and with the European Parliament over the last few days in an attempt to reconcile positions, for example on the issue of prior notification and sectoral derogations for temporal derogations (no prior notification for postings of less than 3 days or business trips, except in the construction sector) or on the duration of a frontier worker’s affiliation to determine the competent State for the payment of unemployment benefits (the Spanish Presidency is said to have worked on a reduction to 22 weeks compared to 25 weeks in the previous compromises).
When consulted over the last few days, some Central and Eastern European countries, such as the Czech Republic, reportedly explained that they could support a new draft agreement based on the new suggestions. But the Spanih Presidency was slowed down by the absence of a position from Poland, a key country for achieving a qualified majority, at a time when the country is undergoing a political transition, although one or two other delegations also expressed difficulties.
The Polish government is now waiting for the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU to make a decision, said another source.
However, having practically only two months in which to work, the Belgian Presidency may be tempted to concentrate only on those dossiers with a good chance of success.
Some sources contacted in recent days have also wondered whether the Belgian Presidency might be tempted to split the 883/2004 dossier and have only those chapters of the regulation on which a consensus has already been reached approved in 2021.
In any case, on Monday the European Parliament rapporteur again promised the shadow rapporteurs that she would do her utmost to reach an agreement before the end of the parliamentary term and secure the European Parliament’s mandate, she wrote to them. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)