Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-04-Speech-1-112"
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"en.20090504.17.1-112"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, the conciliation procedure relating to the Working Time Directive has failed. In this case, Article 65(5) of the Rules of Procedure provides for the Chairman of the European Parliament delegation to the Conciliation Committee to make a statement in plenary. For this reason, I will now make a brief statement on the progress of the negotiations on the Working Time Directive.
After several trialogues and three sessions of the Conciliation Committee, it became clear in the last session shortly after midnight and shortly before the expiry of the deadline that it would not be possible to come to an agreement. The European Parliament delegation had previously voted with a clear majority of 15 votes in favour, none against and five abstentions to oppose the final conciliation attempt of the Commission. This proposal was not accepted as the basis for a genuine compromise. At the same time, it was also rejected by the Permanent Representatives Committee which was meeting in the neighbouring room. In a letter dated 29 April 2009, the two co-chairmen of the Conciliation Committee informed Parliament and the Council of Ministers that it was not possible to come to an agreement on a joint text within the deadline specified in Article 251(5) of the EC Treaty.
I very much regret that the two institutions did not succeed in finding any common ground. However, if we consider the three points which remained in dispute until the end – the opt-out from weekly working time, the conditions of on-call time and the multiple contracts per worker – the differences in positions were so great that there was no possibility of reaching an agreement which would have been compatible with the European Parliament resolution of 17 December 2008.
The Council in particular did not move an inch on the question of the opt-out. Parliament offered several compromises which would have given the employers’ side a great deal of flexibility on working times. Parliament was particularly cooperative on the question of the conditions of on-call time, because the majority of Member States, in this case nine, use the opt-out exclusively for on-call time. However, a blocking minority in the Council prevented every attempt to introduce a derogation. Not even a suggestion of an end to the opt-out was accepted.
On the subject of on-call time, the Court of Justice of the European Communities has made it clear that on-call time is working time. Even the inactive part of on-call time cannot be considered in whole or in part to be a rest period, as the Council demanded. It was also obvious to the Parliament delegation that on-call time is necessary when a continuation of work is required. The Council was not prepared to accept this restriction. What is the result of this? If a waiter sits in an empty restaurant, this counts as inactive on-call time which will, of course, be evaluated differently. This must not be the case. Taking a flexible approach, Parliament also supported the proposal for a maximum working time of 48 hours per worker and not per contract. In this case we could not even agree on this principle being laid down in a recital.
It was clear to the Parliament delegation that no compromise is better than a bad compromise at the expense of the workers. Parliament submitted numerous proposals to the Council until we felt that we had reached the end of our tether. However, there was a group in the Council that was not prepared to compromise in any way. I also believe that at some points the Commission could have submitted proposals which offered more of a balance between the position of the Council and that of Parliament.
During this parliamentary term, Parliament has adopted 389 legal acts in the codecision procedure. Of these, 24 were concluded at the third reading following successful conciliation. This demonstrates clearly that there is a culture of cooperation between the institutions. For the first time since the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, the Conciliation Committee has failed to reach an agreement in the case of the Working Time Directive. I hope that the new Commission will very soon present a new proposal which will, I hope, lead to an agreement.
Finally, I would specifically like to thank the Conciliation Committee secretariat for its excellent groundwork."@en1
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