Brussels, 05/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - In the communication on posted workers that the Commission is due to adopt on 13 June (as a follow-up to that of 4 April 2006), the annex of which gives an appraisal of the situation in each EU member state in this field, it is clearly stated that several states are in breach of Community law. Such is the case, for example, of Germany, because it stipulates that the company which posts workers there should draft social papers (hours of work, work contracts, etc) in German only. Also, Scandinavian countries require that a permanent representative be on the spot to negotiate the collective agreements. Such requirements are in no way compulsory according to the 2006 communication. From now on, member states may have an infringement procedure initiated against them for failing to come into line with Article 49 of the EC Treaty (guaranteeing free provision of services) as interpreted by the Court of Justice, and pursuant to Directive 96/71/EC. Germany and the northern countries are not isolated cases. Many other member states only use their national measures as a base for controlling the provision of services. All this may be considered as a barrier to the free movement of services, a Community source states, specifying that the Commission naturally wants controls but controls to combat illegal work, undeclared work and bogus self-employed.
Such situations may be due to a lack of administrative cooperation between member states, unsatisfactory access to information on the way a company can in practice post workers to another member state, or cross-border problems. In order to resolve these problems, the Commission calls among other things, for a recommendation to be adopted to strengthen administrative cooperation between member states, and to establish a high level group for helping member states identify and exchange best practice. (gb)