WRITTEN QUESTION E-3387/01 by Luciana Sbarbati (ELDR) to the Commission. Temporary employment agencies.
Date: 2001-12-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EC Directive, labour law, occupational health, occupational safety, temporary employment, temporary employment agency

C 134 E/226

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.6.2002

The Commission is looking into this matter within the scope of the infringement procedure laid down in
Article 226 (ex Article 169) of the EC Treaty. In addition, this matter gave raise already to financial
corrections within the procedure of clearance of accounts of the European Agriculture Guidance and
Guarantee Fund (EAGGF).

(2002/C 134 E/239)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3380/01

by John McCartin (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(7 December 2001)

Subject: Fishing licences/registration and third-country agreements

Can the Commission state whether new fishing vessels, constituting additional tonnage to the Community
fleet and which have no quota allocation in Community waters may obtain registration as fishing vessels
and under what conditions such registration takes place? Can the Commission also state if registration for
such vessels as part of the Community fleet actually constitutes a licence to make private agreements with
third countries or to apply for a share of the Community quotas agreed with such countries? Can the
Commission state how many such vessels are registered?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Pursuant to Article 1 of the Commission Regulation (EC) No 2090/98, of 30 September 1998 concerning
the fishing vessel register of the Community (1) all Community fishing vessels flying the flag of or
registered in a Member State shall be registered in the fishing vessel register of the Community.

Such registration does not automatically constitute a licence to make private agreements or to apply for a
quota share. However,
individuals and companies have a right to make private agreements with third
countries as well as to apply for an allocation of quota under a fishing agreement concluded between the
Community and the third country concerned. The latter application transmitted to the flag Member State
by the fisherman is therefore forwarded by the Commission to the third country, inside the share of fishing
possibilities allocated to that Member State under the conditions laid down by the fishing agreement. It is
then the third country concerned which issues the licence to the Community fishing vessels wishing to fish
in the waters of that country.

As regards allocation of quotas to individual vessels and issuing fishing licences pursuant to Article 3 of
Council Regulation (EC) No 3690/93 of 20 December 1993 establishing a Community system laying
down rules for the minimum information to be contained in fishing licences (2), it must be stressed that it
is the flag Member State (and not the Commission) which is responsible.

(1) OJ L 266, 1.10.1998.
(2) OJ L 341, 31.12.1993.

(2002/C 134 E/240)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3387/01

by Luciana Sbarbati (ELDR) to the Commission

(7 December 2001)

Subject: Temporary employment agencies

Temporary work is an arrangement under which temporary employment agencies provide companies with
workers to cover their short-term labour requirements. The worker is employed and paid by the agency,
while the company pays the agency the worker’s salary, plus a commission for the service which the
agency performs.

6.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 134 E/227

Such jobs are intended to last for a short period, to save companies the trouble of having to employ
someone on a permanent basis. However, some temporary contracts are in fact open-ended (which is
clearly contrary to the definition of temporary work itself and runs counter to the need for a flexible
labour market).

Temporary employment agencies often operate in more than one European country and provide mainly
young people with job opportunities in foreign companies and multinationals, some of which involve
interesting posts in foreign countries. Given the differences between the various countries in terms of
social security systems, contractual standards, health and pension systems and the recognition of academic
qualifications, how does the Commission intend to prevent this growing market from becoming too much
of a good thing for agencies rather than a real opportunity for workers and companies?

Does it intend to propose the introduction of Community provisions to regulate the activities of this
atypical type of employer, tighten up the controls on such agencies’ activities already existing at national
level and lay down minimum safety standards to protect workers?

Does it intend to place a limit on the number of workers each agency may have on its books at any one
time?

Does it intend to ensure that proper checks are run on the training and further training programmes
which agencies must organise for workers, using the 4 % of wages which < in Italy at least < must be set
aside for specific initiatives?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(30 January 2002)

Temporary work is an employment model which has been growing rapidly in Europe for the last ten
years. It may be described as a three-way relationship between a worker, a company acting as a temporary
employment agency and a user company. The agency, which is generally the employer, makes this worker
available to the user company to work there under its supervision for a fixed period. In principle, all social
legislation applies also to temporary work.

In light of the development of this new employment relationship, the Commission has introduced various
legislative initiatives since 1982 in order to regulate these practices. To date, only one of these initiatives
has come to something, with the adoption in 1991 of the Directive on the health and safety of temporary
workers (1).

to regulate temporary work was very recent:

following consultations with the
The latest attempt
Commission, the social partners at European level held negotiations on this issue from May 2000 to May
2001. Unfortunately, at the end of the period allocated, the social partners had to concede that they were
unable to reach an agreement.

(1) Council Directive 91/383/EEC of 25 June 1991 supplementing the measures to encourage improvements in the
safety and health at work of workers with a fixed-duration employment relationship or a temporary employment
relationship < OJ L 206, 29.7.1991.

(2002/C 134 E/241)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3394/01

by Marianne Eriksson (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(6 December 2001)

Subject: ADAPT

During the last budgetary period the Community initiative ADAPT was a transnational development
programme co-financed by the European Social Fund to the amount of € 1600 million, with a further
€ 1 700 million in funding being provided in the Member States. A sum of nearly € 3 400 million was
spent by 3 680 project organisers.