Commission refers Croatia to the Court for failing to communicate national measures transposing EU rules to enforce the Posting of Workers Directive

The European Commission is referring Croatia to the Court of Justice of the EU i over the failure to notify the measures adopted for the transposition in its national legislation of EU law on the enforcement of the Posting of Workers Directive (Directive 2014/67/EU), almost one year after its transposition deadline.

Directive 2014/67/EU, also known as the 'Enforcement Directive', provides key tools to fight circumvention and abuse of EU rules on posting of workers, and to improve administrative cooperation and exchange of information between Member States to this end. A correct and timely transposition of the Enforcement Directive is, therefore, essential in tackling fraud and abuse in the area of posting of workers, in the interest of all Member States, companies and workers.

The Enforcement Directive had to be transposed in national law by 18 July 2016. Except for Croatia, all Member States have communicated their transposition measures to the Commission. On this basis, the Commission is assessing whether the Enforcement Directive has been correctly implemented. Although the Commission sent a letter of formal notice in September 2016 and a reasoned opinion in February 2017 requesting Croatia to communicate its transposition measures, the Croatian authorities have not yet done so. Therefore, on the basis of the procedure set out in Article 260(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Commission will request the Court of Justice to impose a daily penalty payment on Croatia until the Directive is fully transposed into national legislation. Member States that fail to communicate their transposition measures are pursued by the Commission as a matter of priority. This communication is indeed crucial for the Commission to assess the conformity of the transposition measures and, thus, to ensure the correct and uniform application of the Enforcement Directive.

Background

Tackling social dumping within the European Union is a key priority for this Commission. In light of this, the Commission acts on two fronts. First, the Commission presented a revision of the 1996 Posting of Workers Directive on 8 March 2016, enshrining the principle of same remuneration for the same work at the same place, and the Parliament and the Council are currently discussing this proposal. Second, it requires to make sure the rules on posting of workers are properly implemented, applied and enforced by means of the Enforcement Directive, which provides new instruments to tackle circumventions and fraud of rules on posting, such as 'letter-box companies', and sets up tools to improve administrative cooperation and exchange of information between the Member States.

The Commission addressed a letter of formal notice to Croatia in September 2016, followed by a reasoned opinion in February 2017. To date, Croatia has not formally notified any legislation transposing the Enforcement Directive, leading the Commission to conclude that the Directive is, at present, not transposed into national law. As a consequence, the Commission decided to refer Croatia to the Court of Justice of the EU.

For More Information

-On the key decisions in the July 2017 infringements package, see a full MEMO/17/1935.

-On the July infringements package (on letters of formal notices only), see a full MEMO/17/1936.

-On the general infringements procedure, see MEMO/12/12.

-On the EU infringements procedure.

IP/17/1947