Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-04-Speech-1-114"
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"en.20090504.17.1-114"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am very sorry indeed that the Council and Parliament have failed to reach an agreement in the final round of bargaining over the revision of the Working Time Directive. The Commission has done everything in its power to find a compromise, submitting a range of proposals on all of the main issues in order to help both lawmaking bodies come closer to a final version. In the end, however, the Council and Parliament insisted on their differing standpoints concerning the future of exceptions and the opt-out, which could not be reconciled.
I understand and respect the wish of Parliament to end the use of exceptions with definitive effect. That would also be the ideal solution for me, and we incorporated it into the Commission’s amendment to the directive in 2005. Nevertheless, after several years of negotiations, it became quite clear that this element would not facilitate an agreement in the Council, and that it would not overcome the blocking minority. Too many Member States simply insisted on using individual exceptions and on retaining this provision in the directive. That was why the Commission tabled alternative proposals for improving the legal protection of employees who use exceptions, thus weakening their use in practical terms. The Commission also proposed introducing consistent monitoring of the use of exceptions at national and European levels, and imposing restrictions on the simultaneous use of exceptions, which would have reduced the incentive for Member States to grant exceptions. I firmly believe that this approach would in practice actually improve conditions for workers and more importantly, would enhance the long-term prospects for Member States eventually to agree on scrapping exceptions altogether. Parliament took the view that there is no better arrangement than a complete abolition of the opt-out. I respect the grounds for such a decision, but I hold a different opinion.
As I have mentioned on many previous occasions, I firmly believe that the failure to reach agreement on the amendment is a bad message for European workers and enterprises, for European institutions and, by extension, for Europe as a whole. Firstly, this means that the problem of exceptions has not been resolved and exceptions will continue to be used under the existing directive, with no date for their termination, with a very limited number of restrictions and without any special review at all. I know that many of you have raised the objection that workers would work 65 hours a week, and I fully understand those concerns, but the fact is that the current directive allows for a working week of up to 70 hours. Secondly, even though the ruling of the Court of Justice in the matter of on-call time and supplementary time for rest will remain unchanged, I am afraid that in many cases this will not lead to better protection for workers in practice. Many Member States have areas with a high rate of on-call time, and they are facing real problems in adhering to the rules stemming from the SIMAP and Jaeger judgments. The result so far is that more and more Member States have now started using exceptions in order to solve this problem. At present, there are 15 such countries, and I am afraid that now, since there is no agreement in place for on-call time, even more Member States will start using the opt-out in order to comply with the ruling of the European Court of Justice, as they will have no other option available. With an increasing number of Member States using exceptions, it will be much more difficult to reach agreement in the Council on ending the exceptions. Thirdly, the failure of the negotiations means that a series of very significant special guarantees approved by the Council for workers all over Europe who are currently using the exceptions, will not be valid, and will not come into force. And lastly, we have also missed an opportunity for improvement in terms of the measures aimed at harmonising work and family life, and clarifying the definition of the variations for self-employed workers. However, both lawmaking bodies have now taken their decision and the immediate result is that no special reviews of exceptions will be made, as the existing directive requires. I respect that decision. Together with the other members of the Commission we will now have to consider the situation that has arisen as a result of the lawmakers’ failure to reach an agreement.
However, I would also like to note that after five years of negotiations, during which a number of partial proposals were tabled and many attempts made to find a solution, no solution was found. This means that it will not be easy to submit a new proposal that might miraculously solve the situation. I therefore consider it necessary to review the situation very carefully with the social partners. Only then can the Commission proceed to another decision and another course of action."@en1
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