Luxembourg, 24/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - According to a ruling delivered by the European Court of Justice on 18 July, the German Federal Republic will have to amend its legislation on the various pieces of notification required of foreign workers posted to Germany. However, in its ruling (case C-490/04), the Court considers that some other measures challenged were proportionate and necessary.
This double-edged verdict provides some solace for each of the two sides. Unlike the Commission, the Court considered that the requirement to compile the whole series of required documents in German did not present too great an obstacle for foreign companies. A German inspector would have difficulty checking the compliance and safety of a building site if all the documents were in Polish. This requirement was, therefore, deemed to be compatible. “The (Commission's) accusation against Germany was doomed to failure from the beginning,” rejoiced MEP Thomas Mann (EPP-ED) in a press release. It had been “EU-madness”, he said, to accuse Germany of acting in an anti-Community manner when all it was doing was “protecting the security of workers and flushing out and dealing severely with illegal working”.
However, the rest of the ruling, not spoken about by Mr Mann, will require Germany to carry out certain reforms. In particular, if a foreign temporary employment agency sends a worker to Germany, it currently must not only declare the posting to the German “client” but also any change to where the worker is posted. Since national agencies are not subject to this requirement, the Court said it constituted
an infringement of the free supply of services under the terms of Article 49 EC. This was a barrier with very real effects said Reinhold Mitterlehner, the secretary general of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce: “This has created a huge administrative burden for Austrian companies,” he said, “especially small and medium-sized enterprises in the border area”. While welcoming the outcome of the procedure, Mr Mitterlehner is rather disappointed by the time it took. It was started by the Commission's formal notice in 1998. “To have to wait almost ten years is clearly far too long,” he noted. (cd)