The Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on Tuesday 23 June on the regulation aimed at facilitating the e-declaration of posted workers (see EUROPE 13888/24).
This regulation is one of the priorities set out by the Heads of State or Government in the ‘roadmap’ on the single market and competitiveness.
It will reduce the administrative burden for businesses by fully digitalising the submission of posting declarations and for national authorities by facilitating the monitoring of the compliance with the posting of workers directive, the EU Council explains in a press release.
The regulation requires the European Commission to create a multilingual public interface for companies to declare the posting of workers. Member states can choose to use this interface instead of their national systems, but once they opt in, they must exclusively use it without requiring additional declarations.
The agreement keeps the voluntary nature of the system and limits its scope to company workers posted in another Member State, and not to self-employed workers, as the European Parliament had requested.
Extension to third-country service providers. Member states will be allowed to use the public interface for the declarations submitted by third country service providers when sending workers on a temporary basis.
Information on these postings will be entered in a standard form, together with a common set of information requirements. An annex listing all information requirements is introduced into the regulation and will be incorporated into the standard form.
Twelve types of information would have to be indicated in this standard form for businesses posting workers, and nine for the worker, including the estimated hourly rate of pay and the Member State of social security affiliation. For third-country nationals, confirmation of a valid residence and work permit, or another arrangement of lawful residence and employment in the Member State where the service provider is established, must be provided. Other information must also be provided on the nature of the posting.
Five years after implementation of the regulation, the Commission should conduct an evaluation to examine whether the information requirements in the standard form are still fit for purpose.
A new functionality in the interface will allow service providers to upload the relevant documents for posting workers.
“While vital for EU firms, posting was heavily hindered by fragmentation. Despite a long list of data points requested by member states, Parliament ensured wide adoption and simplified rules”, commented Andreas Schwab (EPP, German), Parliament’s co-rapporteur together with Swedish MEP Johan Danielsson (S&D).
Danish MEP Per Clausen (The Left) also welcomed “more effective efforts against wage dumping and fraudulent companies, rather than ill-considered simplification”.
The organisation BusinessEurope also welcomed “excellent news for European businesses”. It is now “crucial that eDeclaration is swiftly deployed”. And “wider its uptake, the greater the benefits for companies”.
Link to the four-column document dated 19 June: https://aeur.eu/f/min (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)