The establishment of a European Labour Authority is
a positive step towards fairer cross-border labour
mobility in Europe, the European Committee of the
Regions (CoR) estimates in an opinion drafted by
Doris Kampus (AT/PES), Styria's regional minister
for social affairs, work and integration. However,
the assembly of EU's cities and regions points out
the need for a better coordination of national
penalties and fines to prevent infringements of EU
legislation in the area of free movement of
employees, the posting of workers and the
coordination of the social security systems.
The
opinion
, which was adopted on Tuesday 9 October, highlights
that the establishment of the European Labour
Authority, as
proposed by the European Commission
, should aim to strengthen the basic freedoms of the
single market and assist Member States in combating
irregularities in the field of free movement of workers
and services.
"Abusive use of these freedoms not only weakens the
cohesion of the EU, but also leads to considerable
social, economic and budgetary constraints being placed
on regions, cities and municipalities, local companies
and on citizens themselves. The European Labour
Authority, in supporting national authorities, should
provide more clarity for the enforcement of rules in
cross-border situations where national authorities
currently come up against territorial jurisdictional
limitations. However, its impact might remain limited
without appropriate enforcement mechanisms that have a
dissuasive preventive function against infringements",
rapporteur Doris Kampus explains.
To dissuade from non-compliance and improve the quality
of mobility, the Committee suggests to facilitate
cross-border enforcement procedures of national
sanctions and to introduce greater transparency and
consistency in their implementation in a cross-border
context. The nature of concerted and joint inspections
of national competent authorities should also be
considerably enhanced in order to improve
enforceability of results.
These concerns are shared in the European Parliament's
draft report
. Speaking at the CoR plenary session, European
Parliament rapporteur Jeroen Lenaers
(NL/EPP) said: "Europe must ensure that free mobility
also means fair mobility, that workers’ rights are
guaranteed and protected throughout the EU, that unfair
competition between workers and companies is prevented
and that social fraud and the abuse of free movement
are tackled. The European Labour Authority must have
clearly defined tasks and competences to apply the
rules and make an actual difference in practice."
As the regional and local level is directly affected by
irregularities in matters of cross-border labour
mobility and has the closest contact with job seekers
and employers, regions and cities are requesting to be
appropriately represented through CoR on the European
Labour Authority's management board. In addition to
that, close involvement of the social partners should
be ensured through sectoral and regional representation
in the stakeholders' group.
Finally, the Committee underlines the broad spectrum of
national, regional and local practices and legal
situations in Europe and recalls that the subsidiarity
principle and national competences in labour and social
policy matters must be duly respected, avoiding
duplication of existing structures.
Background information:
Cross-border labour mobility in Europe has notably
increased in recent years. In 2017, 17 million European
citizens lived or worked in a Member State other than
that of their nationality. This figure almost doubled
compared to a decade ago. Postings have increased by
68% from 2010 to 2.3 million in 2016. There are 1.4
million EU citizens commuting to work in another Member
State. There are also over 2 million workers in the
road transport sector who cross intra-EU borders on a
daily basis to transport goods or passengers.
The European Labour Authority, which was announced by
the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude
Juncker in his State of the EU speech in 2017, should
be established and functional in 2019 and reach its
full operational capacity by 2023. Ensuring fair labour
mobility in Europe is a key element of the European
Pillar of Social Rights.
Contact:
Lauri Ouvinen
Tel. +32 22822063
lauri.ouvinen@cor.europa.eu