On Monday 18 November, the Member States discussed the latest compromise text on quality traineeships (see EUROPE 13526/17) in the Working Party on Social Questions, but according to several sources, the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council is still a long way from achieving the qualified majority it is trying to obtain for the Employment and Social Affairs Council of 2 December.
Several countries have expressed reservations about the text, some of them negative, and others, such as Spain, Portugal and Slovenia, have reiterated their disappointment at the weakening of the initial ambitions.
Spain is said to have pointed out that the initial objective of creating a single European framework has not been achieved.
The Commission is also said to have reiterated its dissatisfaction with the amendments made to its text in recent months. In its view, the draft directive as amended would no longer meet the objectives of strengthening the status of trainees who are in an unfavourable situation or of combating bogus trainees, but would instead focus on the employment relationship.
The current text also excludes a whole series of training courses. In this configuration, the Commission reportedly asked the Presidency and the Member States to take a little more time before reaching an agreement.
During this discussion, new questions were asked about the scope of application, with some countries wanting to ensure that the directive is not interpreted as imposing an obligation to introduce a specific employment relationship status for trainees and calling for the specific situation of Member States for traineeship agreements to be taken into account.
The introduction of a collective bargaining clause to justify differential treatment is also said to have been welcomed by northern EU countries such as Sweden and Denmark. A source confirmed that these countries no longer oppose this latest draft text.
The Hungarian Presidency will present a new compromise text for discussion at Coreper on 27 November, which will serve to prepare the EU Council meeting on 2 December. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)