On Monday 2 June, Member States held a final working group meeting at the EU Council on the traineeships directive, ahead of a discussion at Permanent Representatives level on 11 June and the Employment and Social Affairs Council on 19 June, where the Polish Presidency will seek a “General approach”.
The Presidency, which had submitted a new compromise (see EUROPE 13649/17), did not intend to explore the possibility of an agreement, which it is reserving for Coreper on 11 June, but indicated that the purpose of the meeting was to confirm that all the technical points had been addressed. After outlining the changes made in the latest text, it once again only asked for the delegations’ general views, and these mainly reiterated their positions, according to a source.
While the most recent text clearly excluded traineeships carried out as part of active labour market policies from the scope of Chapter III (combating false traineeships), introduced a clearer definition of “false traineeships” and made the list of elements for assessing false traineeships optional, eight countries voted in favour of these changes, six against and four expressed reservations.
The meeting, which was very brief on the new compromises, also dealt with other points that were still open, such as the issue of trial periods and collective agreements. On this last aspect, recital 22 in particular, a group of Member States secured a provision allowing the social partners to define, by means of a collective agreement, the objective criteria for trainees. But some delegations argue that this amounts to derogations from the directive through collective agreements, which are undesirable.
While some countries insist on specifying that trial periods should not be considered traineeships, others also feel that this amounts to derogations from the directive.
According to other sources, the countries that are still unable to support the directive at this stage or that have expressed reservations about examining it, while welcoming some improvements, are Sweden, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Lithuania, Malta and Estonia.
Germany is also said to be unable to support an agreement and could abstain.
France reportedly considered the clearer exclusion of active labour market policies a good step, but Spain, for its part, continued to criticise the narrowing of the scope. According to one source, these two countries could be the key countries for obtaining a ‘General approach’.
During this exchange, the Commission, for its part, regretted that the list of criteria identifying a false traineeship had become optional.
The Polish Presidency is expected to submit a new compromise text this week. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)