Brussels, 13 November 2024
Today, the Commission has proposed to establish a single digital declaration portal for companies providing services and temporarily sending workers to another Member State, known as ‘posted workers’. The EU Single Market counts 5 million posted workers. One of the main administrative barriers faced by their employers is to handle multiple and diverse documentation in each Member State.
Member States will be able to use the public interface on a voluntary basis. In Member States who choose to do so, the new single digital declaration portal will reduce the administrative cost for businesses when posting their workers abroad. This will contribute to the Commission’s objective of reducing companies’ reporting burden by 25%, as outlined in its Communication on ‘Long-term competitiveness of the EU’, while fully maintaining the existing high-level of protection of rights of posted workers enshrined in EU and national legislation.
The proposal will also allow better compliance with existing rules, allowing the enforcement of fair mobility, in line with high worker protection standards. To increase transparency, Member States can also send a copy of the declaration to posted workers.
The tool proposed by the Commission will:
- Reduce the administrative burden for posting workers: A single digital declaration portal will allow service providers to use a single form instead of using 27 different national forms. On average, this will decrease by 73% the time spent on the declarations. This single form will be available in all official EU languages. The information requested is streamlined to some 30 data points. It will provide for a user-friendly one-stop shop for declaring posted workers in the EU. This will facilitate businesses’ compliance with declaration obligations to competent national authorities.
- Enhance cooperation among Member States: The new portal will be part of the Internal Market Information System (IMI). Member States are already using IMI today when launching requests for information or requesting mutual assistance to monitor compliance with the rules on posting of workers. The new public interface will also be based on technical solutions already put in place for the electronic declaration of posted road transport workers, where an electronic public interface, which is also connected to the IMI, is already available since 2022.
- Support protection of workers: The simplification of the process of submitting and updating posting declarations will reduce cases of non-compliance with posting rules and increase the transparency of postings. It will facilitate carrying out of effective and targeted inspections by the Member States, contributing to the protection of posted workers’ rights.
Background
The freedom to provide services includes the right for businesses to provide services in another Member State, by posting their workers there temporarily. When doing so, service providers must comply with conditions of employment in that Member State as set out in Directive 96/71/EC on the posting of workers. Member States are required to work in close cooperation and provide each other with mutual assistance to facilitate the monitoring of compliance with these terms and conditions of employment. Furthermore, Directive 2014/67/EU on the enforcement of Directive 96/71/EC provides the possibility for Member States to impose an obligation for service providers established in another Member State to make a simple posting declaration to the competent national authorities of the receiving Member State, containing the relevant information necessary to allow factual controls at the workplace.
First announced in the Update to the 2020 New Industrial Strategy, this action was part of the March 2024 Communication ‘Labour and skills shortages in the EU: an action plan’. In this plan, the Commission announced that it will promote the widespread implementation of a common form of electronic format for posted worker declarations, complemented by the development of a digital multilingual portal through which companies can submit posting declarations for Member States that decide to make use of this tool. The initiative was also announced in the Commission Work Programme for 2024.
More information
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council — on a public interface connected to the Internal Market Information System for the declaration of posting of workers and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012
Quote(s):
Posting of workers is part and parcel of a functioning single market. The existing EU legislation for posted workers ensures a high protection of the rights of posted workers. Today’s proposal for a new e-declaration portal for posted workers helps to reduce businesses’ administrative burden and improve their compliance with existing rules. The proposal will reduce one of the main administrative barriers in the Single Market for services and is a concrete action to reduce companies’ reporting requirements by 25%.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age
Today’s proposal shows how we can ingeniously combine digital technology with simplification measures to deepen our single market, substantially reduce costs for businesses and make it easier for labour inspectorates to enforce workers’ rights. I hope that all Member States will join this initiative over time so that it can deliver its full potential to boost the competitiveness of the EU economy and protect social rights. It is an excellent example for our future work on implementation and simplification.
Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President for an Economy that Works for People
With today’s proposal, the Commission aims at making use of digital tools to ensure labour markets function better and in a fairer way, including for those who provide services across borders. I invite all Member States to benefit from this opportunity and, once adopted, start using the common electronic form to declare the posting of work. This will increase transparency and reduce complexity, thereby contributing to upholding the social and labour rights of posted workers while alleviating the administrative burden on businesses.
Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights
Source – EU Commission
Questions and Answers on the Commission proposal on a single digital declaration portal to reduce the administrative burden for posting workers
Brussels, 13 November 2024
Why the need for a new regulation to establish the public interface?
A legislative proposal is necessary to expand the use of IMI and to provide for the interaction of the public interface with IMI itself. Personal data is furthermore processed in the creation, submission, and management of declarations of posted workers in the public interface. The proposal establishes the appropriate legal basis in EU law for the processing of personal data, in accordance with the rules on personal data protection laid down in Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
Why the need for a new public interface for posted worker declarations?
The freedom to provide services includes the right of service providers established in one Member State to provide services in another Member State. To fulfil service contracts, service providers may deploy their workers to other Member States, a practice known as posting of workers. A posted worker is an employee who is sent by their employer to carry out a service in another Member State on a temporary basis. In Europe, around 5 million workers were temporarily posted to provide services in another Member State in 2022, with an upward trend over recent years.
EU law defines a set of mandatory rules regarding the terms and conditions of employment to be applied to posted workers, to guarantee that rights and working conditions for posted workers are protected throughout the EU. To ensure the effective monitoring of compliance with these rules and the protection of worker rights, host Member States can ask service providers established in other Member States to declare the posting of workers to their territory, provided that such a declaration obligation is justified and proportionate in accordance with EU law. All Member States have introduced such a declaration obligation, which, however, differ widely in form and information requested.
Businesses continuously highlight that the current declaration procedures represent a key administrative burden in the Single Market. The creation of a common electronic declaration portal for declarations of posted workers will help to streamline the reporting obligations and significantly reduce the administrative burden for businesses, including SMEs.
What will the new interface look like?
The public interface will mirror the EU Portal for road transport posting declarations (RTPD), an e-platform already available for declarations of posted workers in the road transport sector. Use of the portal will be free of charge and enable businesses in a user-friendly way to submit posting declarations to the Member States making use of the public interface, and to manage the posting declarations they submitted. The public interface will be available in all official EU languages, with a user-friendly registration process and the possibility for businesses to reuse data from previously submitted posting declarations.
What information will be required on the standard form used in the public interface?
The specific content of the standard form will be defined by the Commission in an implementing act, based on input of participating Member States.
In general, this standard form will provide the relevant information that may be necessary to allow factual controls at the workplace, in accordance with EU law. It will contain information related to the service provider, the posted worker, the posting assignment, the contact person for competent authorities and the service recipient.
How will the proposal help reduce businesses’ administrative burden?
Streamlining posting declarations will significantly reduce the administrative burden for businesses, including SMEs. A multilingual public interface using a standard form will allow posting companies to make their posting declarations in one place for all postings to the Member States making use of the public interface. They will also be able to make the posting declaration in their own language.
The public interface will lead to significant time savings when filling in the prior declaration. Preliminary estimates point to an average reduction of approximately 73% in the time needed to complete a prior declaration compared to the current different national declaration systems.
In this way, the proposal will also help to contribute to the Commission’s commitment to reduce reporting requirements resulting from EU legislation. In particular, it will contribute to the Commission’s aim to rationalise and simplify reporting requirements as outlined in its Communication on ‘Long-term competitiveness of the EU’, with the ultimate aim to reduce the associated administrative burden by 25%, without undermining the related policy objectives.
Will the public interface be used by all Member States?
The public interface will be made available by the European Commission for voluntary use by Member States. Member States who wish to maintain their national declaration system are under no obligation to make use of the public interface offered by the Commission. When Member States decide to make use of the public interface, they will have to ensure that service providers posting workers to their territory can comply with their obligation to declare the posting of workers using that portal, without filling in additional forms or declaring posting in parallel in national portals.
How many countries are expected to make use of the public interface? What will the Commission do to ensure a broad take-up?
Our proposal to make the public interface available on a voluntary basis will allow Member States to join the single declaration portal at their own pace. We are convinced that the early adopters’ streamlining of administrative processes and enhanced protection of workers’ rights will speak for themselves. Already before today’s proposal, an initial group of nine Member States have announced that they will align their current information requirements with a common form devised by a Commission expert group ahead of the new portal. That common form can be the basis of a future standard form adopted by an implementing act, and the Commission proposal foresees a mechanism allowing the Commission to adjust the standard form on request by Member States.
How will the public interface benefit public administrations?
The public interface will be connected to the Internal Market Information System (IMI) made available by the Commission. Making use of IMI will allow Member States to discontinue their self-standing national declaration systems when connecting to IMI, saving the costs of operating and maintaining these systems. IMI will also provide a digital solution for Member States that do not yet use a digital national declaration system, without the need to invest time and resources into its development. Member States who wish to use the portal while maintaining their national digital databases for the monitoring of postings can benefit from the possibility to connect those to the public interface.
The new public interface will reuse a similar EU-managed public interface which already exists for the declaration of postings in the road transport sector. Aligning the administrative procedure for the declaration of posted workers in other sectors with the procedure for declaring posted drivers in the road transport sector will further help to streamline the use of databases and administrative procedures.
How will the proposal support public administrations in the monitoring of compliance with rules on posted workers?
The submission of posting declarations via a common public interface will allow for a better and more uniform application of EU law. The fact that posting companies will no longer need to use different national declaration portals, each featuring different information requests, will make it easier to declare posted workers. This will reduce the cases of non-compliance and lead to increased transparency. The initiative will thus facilitate effective, adequate, and targeted inspections by Member States’ competent authorities, contributing to the protection of posted workers.
How will the new public interface help to improve cross-border cooperation among public administrations?
Administrative cooperation between national authorities in charge of monitoring compliance with rules on the posting of workers is implemented through the Internal Market Information System (‘IMI’). The system allows an authority in one Member State to request information or assistance from an authority in another Member State. IMI plays a key role in supporting the strengthened administrative cooperation and mutual assistance in the area of posting of workers.
To facilitate this administrative cooperation between competent authorities and to simplify requests for mutual assistance, information submitted in posting declarations will be made available directly in IMI. A repository in IMI will allow national competent authorities to check the details of posting declarations submitted by posting companies.
Will the new proposal ensure that the rights of posted workers are sufficiently protected?
EU law on the posting of workers aims to guarantee respect for an appropriate level of protection of the rights of posted workers, in particular the enforcement of the terms and conditions of employment, while facilitating the freedom to provide services in the single market.
The proposal supports these objectives. It does not amend the existing EU legal framework for the posting of workers. Rather, it facilitates the submission of posting declarations where required, the administrative cooperation between Member States and the effective monitoring of compliance with the applicable terms and conditions of employment.
The public interface will moreover provide the possibility for posted workers to receive a copy of their declarations. This will make posted workers informed actors in the procedure, helping them to exercise their rights. This possibility does not exist today in national declaration systems.
More information
Proposal for a Regulationof the European Parliament and of the Council — on a public interface connected to the Internal Market Information System for the declaration of posting of workers and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012
Source – EU Commission
Statements der EU-Abgeordneten Daniel Caspary und Dennis Radtke (CDU) zum Kommissions-Vorschlag zur Digitalisierung der Entsendung
Zum heutigen Vorschlag der Kommission zur Einrichtung eines einheitlichen, digitalen Portals zur Deklarierung der Entsendung von Arbeitnehmern erklären:
Daniel Caspary (CDU), Vorsitzender der CDU/CSU-Gruppe im Europaparlament:
“Endlich kommt die Digitalisierung der Entsendung. Damit wird es für Unternehmen und ihre entsendeten Beschäftigten zukünftig viel einfacher, die notwendigen Formalitäten für eine Entsendung ins EU-Ausland zu erledigen. Als CDU/CSU-Gruppe haben wir uns seit Jahren für eine Vereinfachung eingesetzt. Der heutige Vorschlag ist ein wichtiger Fortschritt für den Binnenmarkt und zeigt, dass Ursula von der Leyens Kommission bei Entbürokratisierung und Digitalisierung Ernst macht. Nun muss der Vorschlag schnellstens das Gesetzgebungsverfahren durchlaufen.”
Dennis Radtke (CDU), beschäftigungs- und sozialpolitischer Sprecher der EVP-Fraktion:
“Die Digitalisierung der Prozesse für die Entsendung von Arbeitnehmern ist längst überfällig und ein wichtiger Teil des Bürokratieabbaus. Die Entsendung von Arbeitnehmern muss im Sinne eines vollständig funktionierenden Binnenmarkts so unkompliziert und schnell wie möglich durchgeführt werden können, ohne dabei die Einhaltung der Rechte und Pflichten der Entsenderichtlinie zu gefährden. Ich begrüße daher den heutigen Vorschlag der Kommission für ein elektronisches Meldeportal und werde mich für eine zügige Umsetzung einsetzen.”
Quelle – CDU/CSU-Gruppe im EU-Parlament (per E-Mail)
VDMA: “Die eDeclaration ist ein dringender Schritt zum Bürokratieabbau “
Frankfurt/Brüssel, 13. November 2024 – Zur Annahme des Vorschlags für ein eDeclaration sagt VDMA-Hauptgeschäftsführer Thilo Brodtmann:
„Seit Jahren setzt sich der VDMA aktiv für vereinfachte Verfahren zur Entsendung von Mitarbeitenden in Europa ein. Es kann nicht sein, dass die Entsendung zu einem Montageeinsatz in den USA einfacher ist als der Einsatz in einem anderen EU-Mitgliedsland.“
„Bei Arbeitseinsätzen im EU-Ausland stehen europäische Unternehmen vor einem Flickenteppich nationaler Vorschriften. Der Vorschlag der EU-Kommission, die eDeclaration einzuführen, ist ein wichtiger Schritt zur Harmonisierung der unterschiedlichen Vorschriften. Alle 27 EU-Mitgliedstaaten sollten sich dieser Initiative anschließen.“
„Mit der eDeclaration ist es aber nicht getan. Wir brauchen weitere Schritte, wie z. B. die Abschaffung der verpflichtenden Nennung eines lokalen Kontakts sowie der Ermittlung des korrekten Vergleichslohns im Zielland. Wir setzen hier auf die neue EU-Kommission.“
Notiz
Der VDMA vertritt 3600 deutsche und europäische Unternehmen des Maschinen- und Anlagenbaus. Die Industrie steht für Innovation, Exportorientierung und Mittelstand. Die Unternehmen beschäftigen insgesamt rund 3 Millionen Menschen in der EU-27, davon mehr als 1,2 Millionen allein in Deutschland. Damit ist der Maschinen- und Anlagenbau unter den Investitionsgüterindustrien der größte Arbeitgeber, sowohl in der EU-27 als auch in Deutschland. Er steht in der Europäischen Union für ein Umsatzvolumen von geschätzt rund 910 Milliarden Euro. Rund 80 Prozent der in der EU verkauften Maschinen stammen aus einer Fertigungsstätte im Binnenmarkt.
Quelle – VDMA (per E-Mail)