Meeting between Lia-Olguța Vasilescu and Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility

The Minister of Labour and Social Justice, Lia-Olguța Vasilescu, had, on Tuesday, in Brussels, a bilateral meeting with Marianne Thyssen i, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, to whom she presented the priorities of Romania during the exercise of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Commissioner Marianne Thyssen assured the Romanian side of her entire readiness to support Romania, during the exercise of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, to complete and also to promote policies in the field of labour and social protection. The two officials also reviewed the state of the negotiations on the establishment of the European Labor Agency - ELA, which is intended to be a body to fight for combating undeclared work, and also for observing the rules of health and safety at work, at the level of the European Union.

The Romanian Minister of Labour and Social Justice reaffirmed the position of the Romanian Government to support the establishing of the European Labour Authority, institution designed to strengthen the cooperation between labour market authorities at all levels, as well as more efficient management of cross border situations. Thus, depending on the evolution of the discussions during the Presidency of Austria, the objective during PRES RO is to obtain the general approach at the level of EPSCO (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council), and to conduct the informal trilogues with the European Parliament in view of finalizing the file.

The European Commissioner Marianne Tyssen and the Minister Lia-Olguța Vasilescu also discussed about the state of the negotiations on the revision of the Regulation No 883/2004, on the coordination of social security systems of the Member States. Regarding this subject, PRES RO will assume either opening the trialogues with the European Parliament (if Austria will not succeed it), or their continuation, making every effort to reach an agreement depending on the evolution of the discussions.

The provisions with potential significant implications for Romania, in this file, remain those regarding the applicable legislation (the posting of workers) and the family benefits, in particular in the light of the intention of some delegations to introduce the mechanism of indexation of the allowances for non resident children. Moreover, the two officials expressed their concerns about a situation reported by citizens of some European states and also by non governmental organizations, on a possible violation of the rights of the child in Austria, as a result of the intention of the national Parliament to index the allowances of the chidren of the citizens from other European states who reside in Austria and who are carrying on their activity on the Austrian territory.

The Commissioner Thyssen reiterated the negative position of the European Executive toward promoting the mechanism of indexation of the allowances for the children of EU mobile workers. In this respect, Marianne Thyssen reaffirmed also the importance of promoting the principle “for equal contributions, equal benefits” (in the context of the revision of the Regulations 883/2004 and 987/2009 on the coordination of the social security systems) together with the principle of equal remuneration for the same activity carried out in the same place (in the context of the revision of the Directive on the posting of workers).

We remind that Romania will take over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union on the 1st of January 2019, for a period of six months.