Decision (EU) 2016/344 on establishing a European Platform to enhance cooperation in tackling undeclared work

What it is

to establish a Platform to enhance EU cooperation in the prevention of undeclared work. PROPOSED ACT: Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: the draft decision notes that undeclared work has serious budgetary implications through decreased tax and social security revenues. It has negative impacts on employment, productivity and working conditions, skills development and life-long learning. It results in lower pension rights and less access to health care and causes unfair competition between undertakings. A closely related phenomenon is falsely declared work, or bogus self-employment, which also has negative consequences in terms of health and safety and social security coverage of the workers concerned. The Council took note of a progress report on a decision establishing a Platform to improve cooperation at EU level in order to prevent and deter undeclared work more effectively. Many ministers expressed appreciation for the rapid progress made on this dossier during the Hellenic presidency and regretted that the Council was not in a position to agree a general approach. They called for the completion of the discussions as soon as possible under the Italian Presidency . The Platform will aim to facilitate the exchange of best practices and information, provide a framework at EU level to develop expertise and analysis, and promote joint actions between the different national enforcement authorities of Member States. The proposal envisages the participation of all Member States in the Platform, as this is crucial to address cross-border situations. Each Member State would be invited to nominate a single contact point. In its progress report, the Council noted the following main elements: - legal base : while favourably welcoming the text, a number of delegations raised legal questions, including the legal basis as such. At the request of the Working Party, the Council Legal Service (CLS) provided its opinion in writing. In particular, the Working Party has examined the appropriateness of the proposed legal basis (Article 153(2)(a) TFEU) and the different limitations on the legislator in using that Article, including the possibility of Member States' mandatory participation in the proposed Platform . A consensus could be found that so as to offer a solid legal framework for the Platform (based on Article 153 TFEU) with a certain flexibility within this framework. A large number of delegations supported this text, considering it as a good negotiation position of the Council with the European Parliament. - other questions debated : the two main issues discussed during the Hellenic Presidency related to the nature of the Member States' participation in the Platform and to the initiatives the Platform could take. - definition of undeclared work : certain delegations note that there is no Union level definition on undeclared work and that a definition should be included to cover (or not) the question of “falsely declared work”; - participation in the…

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