The European Commission has put forward a concrete proposal for establishing a European Labour Authority.

KL/AD – 03/2018

On 13 March 2018, the European Commission published the Social Fairness Package. The package contains new legislative initiatives from the Commission. As part of these initiatives, the European Commission has given details of its proposal for a European Labour Authority.  

 

The DSV last reported on this topic in December 2017

Objectives of the ELA

The aim of the ELA is to ensure labour mobility within the EU Single Market. Its responsibilities will be as follows: 

 

  • The Authority will provide information to individuals and businesses regarding their rights and obligations concerning aspects of work, education and training, mobility, recruiting practices and vocational training. Aditionally guidelines will be presented regarding the rights and obligations of citizens in connection with living and working or any individual business activities in another Member State. 

 

  • It will support cooperation between national authorities in cross-border matters in order to ensure that EU regulations that protect and regulate mobility are followed. 

 

  • The Authority will provide mediation and help find solutions in the event of cross-border disputes between national authorities or when there are labour market disruptions.  

Organisation of the ELA

According to the proposal put forward by the European Commission, the ELA is supposed to cooperate with existing structures active in employment related policy, e.g. with EUROFOUND, the EU foundation to improve conditions of life and work or with EU-OSHA, the EU agency for health and safety at the workplace. Already existing bodies, such as e.g. the Administrative Commission for the Free Movement of workers, will come under the one roof of the ELA. 

 

According to the proposal of the EU Commission, this new institution will be gradually set up as a decentralised agency as from 2019 and will have an estimated budget of approx. 55 million Euro per year as from the year 2023. At that time, a staff of around 140 people shall be working for the new institution. 

 

The location of the ELA is still to be decided by the Member States.