Several sources have told EUROPE that in Strasbourg on the evening of Monday, 15 January, a majority of the European Parliament’s political groups came down against the intention of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU to restrict itself to a limited revision of the regulations on the coordination of social security systems—notably by excluding the chapters for which solutions have not been found at this stage (see EUROPE 13328/1).
These options for work that have been envisaged by the Belgian Presidency will be discussed by the EU Council’s working party on Thursday, 18 January.
As of Monday evening, two political groups were not yet in a position to establish their position [on the matter], namely the EPP and ECR groups—some observers expecting both of these groups to fall into step with the other groups.
All of these groups will have to send European Parliament rapporteur Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, German) their position and their comments on how they envisage the work proceeding in writing by Thursday evening.
The idea would then be to reopen discussions with the Belgian Presidency and potentially try to resume interinstitutional negotiations, including those on the most complex aspects, even though the Belgian Presidency would then have very little time to reach an agreement in the EU Council.
In any case, some of the European Parliament’s political groups reportedly felt that the solution proposed by the Belgian Presidency was still insufficient, since it actually would not enable the most thorny issues to be resolved. They also reportedly did not like that the Belgian authorities were not taking into account the European Parliament’s 2018 mandate on all chapters.
Several possible avenues are opening up and will have to be decided upon by the European Parliament, including continuing negotiations on the entire proposal, securing the mandate adopted in 2018 with a plenary vote at first reading (see EUROPE 12157/19), or other options if this passage does not take place during the plenary session.
As for Ms Bischoff, she is expected to speak with the Belgian Presidency this Wednesday. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)