The permanent representatives of the Member States were still unable to approve, on Wednesday 10 April, the latest draft of the La Hulpe Declaration on the future of the European Pillar of Social Rights, after several countries expressed reservations.
Sweden, in particular, has continued to oppose this project, casting doubt on the chances of the Declaration being adopted at the high-level conference to be held on 15 and 16 April.
The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU is expected to present a new version of the text to the Member States and use a written adoption procedure. It will seek to obtain the consensus of all the Member States, which is deemed necessary to give legitimacy to this text, which will set the social guidelines for the future European Commission.
At the meeting of the EU Council working group on 4 April, Sweden indicated that it had seen an improvement in the text compared to an earlier version, which was considered to be too long and detailed, as the text had been largely watered down and a number of new initiatives removed during successive drafts. However, it continued to express its concerns.
According to one source, these concerns relate mainly to respect for national competences and the autonomy of the social partners, but also to procedural issues.
On 6 April, the Presidency submitted a new version of the Declaration, which in particular tightened the language on collective bargaining (see EUROPE 13386/9). It resubmitted a text, revised on 10 April, in which it specified, among other things, that the SURE instrument on short-time working during the pandemic had been an exception.
Links to the 6 April version and the ‘Room Document’: https://aeur.eu/f/bo7 ; https://aeur.eu/f/bof (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)