While the Polish Presidency of the EU Council will attempt to secure approval for a ‘general approach’ to the directive on quality traineeships in Luxembourg on 19 June, despite difficult talks to date, it will also submit a memorandum to Member State experts to advance the draft recommendation on the same subject, which has been somewhat sidelined in recent months in favour of the directive.
Presented in March 2024 at the same time as the new directive (see EUROPE 13375/14), the draft recommendation insists, for example, more explicitly on the need to ban unpaid internships.
The aim of both texts is to strengthen working conditions for trainees and to track down employment relationships disguised as traineeships, but the draft recommendation will only be submitted to the EU Council on 19 June for a progress report.
In a text dated 19 May, submitted to the ‘Social Issues’ working group on 3 June, the Polish Presidency of the EU Council points out that the proposed recommendation aims to update and strengthen the existing 2014 recommendation and, once adopted, would replace it. It also aims to provide complementary, non-binding guidance to improve the overall quality and accessibility of traineeships across the EU.
Furthermore, during preliminary discussions on this document in 2024, delegations widely recognised the importance of ensuring consistency between the recommendation and the directive.
More specifically, the delegations will be invited on 3 June “to share their initial reflections on the possible direction for future work. The objective is not to reopen the text at this stage, but rather to explore how and when discussions could resume, once progress on the directive allows”.
In particular, the Presidency will ask the Member States whether it would be appropriate to treat the two instruments as a package.
A number of questions will be asked in this regard, such as the impact of linked treatment on the timetable (“Should detailed work on the recommendation resume after the adoption of a General approach on the directive, or only once a political agreement is reached with the European Parliament?”).
The Presidency would still like to know what the delegations consider to be the recommendation’s priority elements.
A meeting of the working group, this time on the directive, is scheduled for 2 June. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)