WRITTEN QUESTION E-2869/01

by Jorge Hernández Mollar (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(17 October 2001)

Subject: Community approval for the Spain-Morocco labour agreement

The signature of the labour agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Morocco on 25 July 2001 in Madrid represents a highly significant step forward in the field of labour relations between the two countries.

The arrangements introduced under the above agreement on the Moroccan workforce in Spain will affect migrant workers from the Kingdom of Morocco as Moroccan citizens authorised to undertake paid work for a third party on Spanish territory.

Given its implications for the remainder of the Community labour market, does the Commission consider the formal structure of this agreement to be compatible with Community provisions in this regard, and does it consider that the agreement tallies with a formal legal model with which all Community countries should comply in order to ensure the homogeneity of Community legal provisions in all the EU Member States?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(14 December 2001)

Relations between the Communities and its Member States and Morocco are governed by the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement, which was signed by the parties in February 1996 and which entered into force in March 2000(1).

Title VI of the Agreement includes a number of provisions in the social field. In particular, Article 64 specifies that Moroccan nationals employed in the Member States should receive equal treatment as regards working conditions, remuneration and dismissal. The Agreement does not, however, include provisions on access to employment by Moroccan nationals. This remains a question for individual Member States.

The Commission has not had the opportunity to study in detail the 25 July 2001 Spain-Morocco labour agreement(2) referred to by the Honourable Member. A priori it seems, however, as if this agreement would indeed raise questions concerning its compatibility with the principles enshrined in the 20 June 1994 Council resolution on limitations on admission of third-country nationals to the territory of the Member States for employment(3).

With the above Resolution the Council of the Union unanimously agreed that the national policies of Member States in respect of third-country nationals seeking admission to, or permission to remain in, their territories for employment should be governed by certain principles which might not be relaxed by Member States in their national legislation.

These principles governing Member States' policies include the general rule that Member States will consider requests for admission to their territories for the purpose of employment only where vacancies in a Member State cannot be filled from within the Community labour market (preference for the Community labour market point C i). Facilitated access of third country nationals under existing bilateral agreements with third countries with especially close links to a Member State remains possible, but Member States undertook to renegotiate these agreements in accordance with the terms of the resolution (standstill-clause, point C vii)

The wording of the 25 July 2001 Spain-Morocco labour agreement contains no indication that an evaluation must be carried out that the concerned Spanish vacancies cannot be filled from within the Community labour market, before offering it to Moroccan citizens. This might be a contradiction with the above-mentioned principle of preference for the Community labour market, particularly as this agreement had been concluded after the adoption of the Resolution on 20 June 1994 (the cut-off date foreseen in point C vii of the resolution).

The above-mentioned Resolution is a political self-commitment of Member States and legally not binding. It does not afford a ground for action by individual workers, employers or Community institutions. Following the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999, the Commission was granted competence to propose binding Community law in the field of migration and it adopted on 11 July 2001 a proposal for a Directive on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of paid employment and self-employed economic activity(4). This proposal takes up several elements of the 1994 Resolution, including the principle that third-country nationals may only accede to the Community labour market, if a post cannot be filled from within the Community labour market.

(1) OJ L 70, 18.3.2000.

(2) Published in BOE num 226 of 20.9.2001, pp. 35091-35093.

(3) Adopted under the former Article K.1 of the Treaty on European Union, OJ C 274, 19.9.1996.

(4) COM(2001) 386 final.