Conflicting views at the Forum about recent European Court cases
On 9 October 2008 the European Commission invited hundreds of participants from the Member States and the social partners to a Forum about the recent cases from the European Court of Justice; Laval, Viking Line, Rüffert and Luxembourg.
The remaining impression from the day is that of conflicting views. On the hand the ETUC, representatives from the European Parliament (MEPs Jan Andersson, PES, SE and Jan Cremers, PES, NL) and the invited labour law professors were in favour of finding a solution at European level. All of them advocated a revision of the Posting of Workers Directive (POWD).
On the other hand we have the European Commission, the employers’ organisations and the governments from the Member States most affected by the rulings (Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Luxembourg). It is only natural that the employers seek a status quo, they welcomed the rulings in for instance the Viking Line and Laval cases. It was a bit more surprising to hear the Danish and Luxembourg employment ministers criticize the Commission and the Courts interpretation of the POWD but still reaching the conclusion that a revision of the Directive is not necessary. The Swedish minister said he was very surprised and disappointed by the judgement in the Laval case but that he was confident in finding a national solution. The German minister was a bit more vague and did not mention a revision of the POWD. They all agreed that the recent rulings should not stand in the way of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
The Forum did not leave us with any indications that the Commission will take initiatives to open up a discussion about a revision of the POWD. The French Presidency seemed slightly more positive, while the coming Presidency, the Czech Republic, welcomed the Courts interpretation of the POWD since is going to improve EU’s competitiveness and lead to social progress. The motto of the Czech Presidency is “Europe without barriers”, indicating that they will put their effort on reducing red tape and obstacles to the internal market.
The Commission intend to launch a broad in depth study on the application of the POWD in the different Member States during 2009. It also supports and encourages a joint analysis of the situation by the social partners. Besides these measures the Commission put much emphasis on enhanced administrative cooperation and referred to the Commission Recommendation of 3 April 2008 on enhanced administrative cooperation in the context of posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services.