MEP Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, German) will resume work on Regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security rules following the decision by the European Parliament Conference of Presidents (CoP) on Thursday 24 October to relaunch the dossier. She will contact the Hungarian and Polish Presidencies of the EU Council and organise an initial meeting with the shadow rapporteurs, but after the hearings of the Commissioners-designate. The German intends to give a new lease on life to the negotiations that took place under the Spanish Presidency (see EUROPE 13317/17, 13350/27, 13329/23), when the Member States were very close to an agreement. (Interview by Solenn Paulic)
Agence Europe - You have just been officially reconfirmed as rapporteur on 883/2004. What will be the first step?
Gabriele Bischoff - We have a few new members in the European Parliament, so I’m going to get to know the shadow rapporteurs and talk to the Presidencies. I’ll also be talking to the Commission, now that we know it’s really going to press ahead with this project. We received some very good written responses from Roxana Mînzatu. And I’ll see how we are going to do this time. I mean, it will be the third time we try to get a provisional agreement that lasts and survives in the Council. But we will do nothing during the hearings [of the Commissioners-designate] (from 4 to 12 November, editor’s note). We will be pretty occupied.
Have you been in contact with the Hungarian Presidency on this issue, which might also be tempted to re-propose Belgium’s solution of splitting the issue? The Presidency is complaining of a certain boycott on the part of the European Parliament.
We had an exchange before the Presidency started, but until we had confirmation from the CoP, no, we had no more specific contact. The Hungarian Presidency sent us an e-mail, and we told them exactly the same thing: let’s wait until we have a confirmation. We have now the possibility to really start, but after the hearings.
In any case, I have not heard from the Hungarian Presidency that it would push the splitting solution (validating the agreement on the consensual chapters and leaving the controversial issues of cross-border unemployment rules or applicable legislation in abeyance, editor's note). We always have to be careful. There are always a lot of rumours going around about this dossier. We will talk to the various actors, but I would like to remind you that we were quite close to an agreement under the Spanish Presidency, and we will see if we can continue from there.
You mentioned that an agreement was very close under the Spanish Presidency, so do you think it is still possible to reach an agreement on this basis?
Yes, because we only ran out of time last December, but the signals were very good from different Member States and we’ll check if it’s a good idea to continue from there. A lot of work has already been invested into this. And even the Germans were sort of on board.
Some say, however, that this is the reason for the split in the text, which had a qualified majority.
No, I think it’s a move to tell the story. We’re still talking in rumours. It will always be difficult to find a majority on this issue, and when we did, in 2021, in Coreper, some Member States worked to destroy it. It's a very difficult file, but it also deserves that people try to solve it, and not to kill it or boycott it or whatever. In this spirit, we will continue here.
Poland is also very often mentioned as the big country missing last December. Now with the upcoming Polish presidency in January, do you think chances are higher for a deal?
We had just some first contact. But even if we start now, it’s clear that we should really try to achieve something during the Polish presidency, and that’s also feasible.
We have always said that we would only take part in a trilogue if we had something concrete that could work, and we will really focus to try to deliver a solution, because this is too important for millions of mobile workers in Europe. I will always try to bring this issue to a positive conclusion, and the Commission is also ready to support presidencies that wish to go down this road. We’ll see under the Polish Presidency. But we will only go for a trilogue if have the feeling that we can come to an agreement.