On Tuesday 13 February, the European Parliament’s various rapporteurs, meeting with the rapporteur responsible, Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, German), will discuss the follow-up to the European Parliament’s work on the revision of the regulation on the coordination of social security schemes (883/2004) following the failure of discussions with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, which did not wish to resume broader negotiations on this reform due to a lack of time and chances of success within the Member States (see EUROPE 13342/17).
The vote in the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee, originally scheduled for 14 and 15 February, has now been withdrawn from the agenda.
This vote was potentially intended to secure the mandate found by the European Parliament in 2021 under the Slovenian Presidency, but the rapporteur would not have a strong majority on this, as some of the groups felt that the mandate was too weak.
The majority would not be any broader on securing a first reading, also with the 2018 mandate, which is also considered too old by some groups.
The other option would be to refer to Rule 240 of the Rules of Procedure on unfinished business, leaving the next European Parliament free to restart work on the basis of previous reports or to start from scratch.
The next Commission could also choose to withdraw the entire 2016 revision dossier, regardless of the message it receives from the current Parliament.
The European Parliament rejected the Belgian Presidency’s option of endorsing the 4 chapters of this regulation on which there was consensus, even though some political groups, such as the EPP, would have preferred not to exclude this scenario. The Member States’ ambassadors had a briefing on the subject last week, during which the Belgian Presidency of the Council confirmed the current impasse.
EUROPE will continue to follow this story. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)