Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Posting of Workers Directive was enacted in 1996 with the aim of eliminating obstacles and uncertainties concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services. It did this by providing greater legal certainty and making it possible to identify the working conditions that apply to workers temporarily working in a Member State other than the State whose legislation governs the employment relationship. As provided for in Article 8 of Directive 96/71/EC, in the current communication the Commission summarises the results of its review of the implementation of the Directive in the 15 Member States and of its practical application, in order to decide whether the Directive needs to be revised. The communication shows that implementation of the Directive has, generally speaking, been satisfactory, although it should be noted that the United Kingdom and Ireland have no specific implementing provisions and that Luxembourg was the last Member State to complete transposition, which it did only 13 months ago. I would like to reiterate that five years of highly problematic debates were needed before the Posting of Workers Directive was adopted in 1996. It has now been shown that difficulties have arisen, in that the directive requires the businesses to which it applies to comply with the laws of a State other than that in which they are established, laws which are sometimes not readily accessible or comprehensible. These problems need to be resolved at national level, as they are problems related to the transposition of the Directive into Member States’ legislation, which can result in difficulties in monitoring compliance with it. In its communication, the Commission summarises the problems involved in transposing and applying the Directive, which are more practical than legal in nature. It has, in consequence, set up a group of experts – made up of civil servants from the Member States – with the objective of finding solutions to the problems described, such as ways of improving access to, and exchange of, information on national rules and legislation or of collecting required information in a standard form. The Committee is still of the opinion that this directive is a necessary one, and expresses the hope that the problems brought to light may be speedily removed, particularly in view of the fact that, on 1 May this year, 10 new countries will be covered by the Directive. We have to ensure legal certainty for the workers posted by enterprises participating in the internal market. Furthermore, the Committee wishes to point out that it is essential that the implementation of the Directive be monitored in order to assess the effectiveness of the legislation, and that this will be made even more important by EU enlargement. It also calls upon the Commission to submit better and more concrete data on the implications of implementation at national level, to lay down clear definitions of such things as the status of employees, minimum wages and overtime and to prevent the improper posting of workers, which is a consequence of unfair competition and social dumping. We also call on the Commission to examine the provisions regulating liability in the case of subcontracting in with the Posting of Workers Directive. There is a need for comprehensive enquiries and surveys in the 15 – soon to be 25 – Member States if we are to have an exact picture of the situation that makes comparison possible. The Committee also believes that the Commission should support the group of experts and that this work should involve the collective bargaining partners, the European Parliament, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the social partners. The Committee calls upon the Commission to cooperate closely with the social partners in detailed research with the aim to producing proposals for the improvement and simplification of the present Directive, which must give especial priority to the effects of EU enlargement. As the large number of demands made upon the Commission and the Member States makes any delay undesirable, my view, as rapporteur, is that the demand made of the Commission by the Group of the , that it submit a second report on the implementation of the Directive by the end of this year is not one that the Commission will be able to comply with. Although, for this reason, I am unable to endorse Amendment No 1, I do want to put the case for the Amendment No 4 from the Group of the , and to thank all the shadow rapporteurs for their good cooperation. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE