On Friday 13 June, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union formally cancelled a trilogue meeting on 16 or 17 June on the revision of the regulation on the rules for coordinating social security schemes and informed the rapporteur Gabi Bischoff (S&D, German) of this (see EUROPE 13659/20), but on Monday 16 June a group of Member States got down to work to relaunch the process.
Led by France and Labour Minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, the relevant ministers from 13 other countries (Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the Czech Republic) consider in this letter to the Polish Presidency “that, for the first time in a very long time, there is now a reasonable chance of finally reaching an agreement between the co-legislators. This issue was presented as a priority by the Polish Presidency in December 2024. An initial working group was organised in January 2025. The Board’s mandate was adopted on 11 April 2025. Subsequently, a trilogue was held on 3 June. On this basis, we encourage the Presidency to continue to explore all possible avenues for reaching an agreement and to consult the Member States in order to facilitate discussions and create the conditions for an agreement”.
“Some points of agreement already exist between the European Parliament and the EU Council”, the ministers also believe. “Given the timetable and recent progress, we stress the importance of maintaining the trilogue on 17 June 2025 in order to maintain the momentum”, they add. “We’re counting on you to take the final step”.
While the European Parliament had called for the trilogues to be maintained, the Presidency felt that the EU Council did not have enough flexibility. It also noted that it had never officially confirmed that a trilogue would be held on 16 or 17 June.
The team of rapporteurs was due to meet again on the evening of Monday 16 June in Strasbourg to assess the situation and try to find a way forward.
According to sources, the recent ‘Social Issues’ working group meeting on 10 June did indeed reveal some room for manoeuvre on open points, such as derogations for construction and transport. On unemployment benefits, on the other hand, the position of the Member States was more settled.
Even so, these signatory countries alone do not constitute a qualified majority on this issue.
Link to the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/hcy (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)