COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Accompanying the document 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
Date: 2024-11-13
Institutions: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
Subjects: administrative cooperation, administrative formalities, application programming interface, cross-frontier data flow, digital single market, exchange of information, information system, labour mobility, multilingualism, posted worker

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 13.11.2024  SWD(2024) 258 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Accompanying the document 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             {COM(2024) 531 final}  
 
 
CONTENTS 

A. 

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 2 

B.  Administrative burden associated with complying with national declaration obligations ..... 4 

1.  Estimating administrative burden associated with posting of workers ................................ 5 

2.  Estimating  effort  for  online  submission  of  posting  declarations  based  on  controlled 
scenarios ...................................................................................................................................... 6 

3. 

Interpretation of the estimations of administrative burden .................................................. 8 

C.  Stakeholder and social partner consultations .......................................................................... 8 

1.  Consultations on requirements and implementation options for an e-declaration system ... 8 

2.  Social partner consultations ................................................................................................. 9 

3.  Expert group on a common electronic form for the declaration of posting of workers ..... 10 

D.  A multilingual electronic interface.........................................................................................11 

1.  Public interface ...................................................................................................................11 

2.  Standard form..................................................................................................................... 13 

E.  Objectives to be achieved ..................................................................................................... 14 

1.  Reducing administrative burden for businesses ................................................................. 14 

2.  Supporting administrative cooperation between Member State authorities and enforcing the 
protection of workers’ rights ..................................................................................................... 17 

3.  Reducing administrative burden for Member State authorities ......................................... 18 

F. 

Implementing the public interface ........................................................................................ 19 

1 

 
 
 
This  staff  working  document  (SWD)  outlines  the  rationale  and  context  for  the  proposed 
establishment  of  a  multilingual  electronic  public  interface  connected  to  the  Internal  Market 
Information  System1  (‘IMI’)  for  the  declaration  of  posting  of  workers.  By  streamlining  the 
declaration  process  this  interface  aims  to  reduce  administrative  burden  for  businesses  and  to 
support administrative cooperation between national competent authorities, whilst also facilitating 
the effective monitoring by Member States of compliance with EU legislation aimed at ensuring 
the protection of posted workers. 

A.  INTRODUCTION 

In  its  Communication  on  ‘Long-term  competitiveness  of  the  EU:  looking  beyond  2030’2,  the 
Commission stressed the importance of a regulatory system that achieves objectives at minimal 
costs. In this context, it has committed to making a fresh push to rationalise and simplify reporting 
requirements, aiming to reduce the associated administrative burden by 25%, without undermining 
the  related  policy  objectives.  Streamlining  reporting  obligations  and  reducing  administrative 
burdens  is  therefore  a  priority.  Reducing  administrative  burden  is  crucial  for  sustaining  the 
competitiveness of European businesses and for facilitating the cross-border provision of services 
in  the  single  market.  Streamlined  administrative  processes  reduce  bureaucracy  and  red  tape, 
making  it  easier  for  companies  to  operate  across  borders.  The  SME  Relief  Package3  further 
elaborated on this action and flagged the creation of an electronic format for the declaration of 
posting  of workers as  an example for using digital technologies to  reduce burden and improve 
resilience. 

In  response  to  the  Commission’s  announcement  to  reduce  the  administrative  burden  by  25%, 
European businesses and employers called on the Commission and Member States to rationalise 
reporting  requirements  for  the  posting  of  workers  as  a  priority  matter.  This  should  simplify 
compliance with declaration obligations, provide streamlined, digital solutions for the declaration 
of  posting  of  workers  and  respond  to  the  lack  of  or  unclear  information  regarding  the 
documentation, translations, registration requirements and the responsible authorities in different 
Member States. This was confirmed by a Commission consultation of the Industrial Forum Task 
Force 1 - Single Market, KPIs and industrial ecosystems - on the most burdensome and most urgent 
changes to reduce and/streamline reporting obligations that companies face in the Single Market, 
which  was  conducted  to  gain  input  for  the  Commission’s  initiative  to  rationalise  and  simplify 
reporting requirements.  

Compliance with the national obligations for the declaration of posting of workers and the required 
administrative procedures can place considerable administrative burdens on companies seeking to 
provide services across borders. In this context, stakeholders have often identified the declaration 

1  

2  
3  

Regulation  (EU)  No  1024/2012  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  25  October  2012  on 
administrative  cooperation  through  the  Internal  Market  Information  System  and  repealing  Commission 
1,  ELI: 
Decision 
http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2012/1024/oj). 
COM(2023) 168 final. 
COM(2023) 535 final. 

IMI  Regulation’) 

2008/49/EC 

14.11.2012, 

(OJ  L 

(‘the 

316, 

p. 

2 

 
 
for the posting of workers as a substantial reporting obligation and an administrative barrier to the 
cross-border provision of services within the single market. The resulting increase in transaction 
costs  may  hamper  or  restrict  the  cross-border  provision  of  services,  especially  for  small  and 
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

Streamlining  the  administrative  procedures  for  the  posting  of  workers  will  also  benefit  public 
administrations.  Simplified  procedures  can  reduce  the  time  and  resources  needed  to  process 
declarations  and  allow  to  better  target  monitoring  and  enforcement  work.  At  the  same  time, 
streamlining  procedures  can  reduce  administrative  costs,  while  providing  better  and  more 
complete data. To this end, in its March 2024 Communication entitled ‘Labour and skills shortages 
in  the  EU:  an  action  plan’4,  the  Commission  announced  that  it  will  promote  the  widespread 
implementation of a common form, in electronic format, for posted worker declarations. This will 
be complemented by the development of a digital multilingual portal enabling companies to submit 
posting  declarations  to  Member  States  that  decide  to  make  use  of  this  tool,  thereby  reducing 
administrative burden. 

Streamlining reporting obligations and reducing administrative burden is a priority not only  for 
the Commission. In October 2023, the European Council called on all relevant institutions to take 
forward work to simplify regulation and reduce the unnecessary administrative burden5. Likewise, 
in  its  resolution  of  17  February  2022  on  tackling  non-tariff  and  non-tax  barriers  in  the  single 
market6,  the  European  Parliament  urged  the  Commission  to  introduce  a  digital  form  for  the 
declaration of the posting of workers, establishing a simple, user-friendly and interoperable digital 
form that suits the needs of European companies and in particular SMEs. 

Reducing  administrative  burden  for  businesses  and  national  competent  authorities,  however, 
should not conflict with EU law on posting workers, in particular with the provisions of Directive 
2014/67/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council7 and the provisions safeguarding an 
appropriate level of protection of posted workers’ rights as established in Directive 96/71/EC of 
the European Parliament and of the Council8. In the case of declarations for the posting of workers, 
it is possible to reduce administrative burden while ensuring the protection of the concerned posted 
workers  and  fostering  effective  administrative  cooperation  between  national  competent 
authorities.  The  homogeneity,  increased  transparency  and  improved  access  of  declaration 
obligations  would  facilitate  compliance  with  the  posting  rules  and  hence  increase  worker 
protection. Additionally, Member States currently do not provide information to the posted worker 

4  
5  
6  
7  

8  

COM(2024) 131 final. 
EUCO 14/23. 
2021/2043(INI). 
Directive 2014/67/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on the enforcement of 
Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services and 
amending  Regulation  (EU)  No  1024/2012  on  administrative  cooperation  through  the  Internal  Market 
Information 
11,  ELI: 
System 
http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2014/67/oj). 
Directive 96/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1996 concerning the 
posting  of  workers  in  the  framework  of  the  provision  of  services  (OJ  L  18,  21.1.1997,  p.  1,  ELI: 
http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/1996/71/oj). 

IMI  Regulation’) 

28.5.2014, 

(OJ  L 

(‘the 

159, 

p. 

3 

 
 
about  the  declaration  being  made.  Providing  information  to  the  posted  worker  on  the  posting 
declaration would increase workers’ knowledge of the posting and help posted workers acquiring 
the necessary information about their rights. 

B.  ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN ASSOCIATED WITH COMPLYING WITH NATIONAL DECLARATION 

OBLIGATIONS 

To ensure compliance with the substantive rules on employment conditions for posted workers, 
Directive 2014/67/EU provides the possibility for Member States to impose certain administrative 
requirements and control measures on service providers posting workers to their territory, provided 
they are justified and proportionate in  accordance with  EU law. Where this  is  the case, Article 
9(1)(a) of Directive 2014/67/EU allows Member States to require a service provider established in 
another  Member  State  to  make  a  simple  declaration  to  the  responsible  national  competent 
authorities  containing  the  relevant  information  necessary  to  allow  factual  controls  at  the 
workplace.  

All 27 Member States have established a prior declaration system for service providers posting 
workers  to  their  territory.  The  implementation  report  for  Directive  2014/67/EU9  provides  an 
overview of the national declaration requirements. 

The declaration obligations for the posting of workers concern a significant number of companies. 
Data from the prior declaration tools indicates a significant economic activity related to the posting 
of workers in the EU. In 2022, approximately 1.9 million workers were posted, with 2.3 million 
posting declarations and 4.7 million individual postings recorded. Excluding the international road 
freight transport sector, where reporting is now handled through a dedicated EU portal for road 
transport operators, the number of postings rose by 14% between 2021 and 2022.10 Available data 
shows a high degree of concentration of posted workers in sectors that demand labour-intensive 
services and highly specialised skills. 

In the absence of coordination between Member States on the development and implementation 
of national declaration procedures, Member States’ systems are not interconnected and differ in 
design and functionalities and in the information requested from service providers. This concerns 
for example: 

•  different registration and login requirements; 

• 

limited availability of other languages; 

9  
10  

COM(2019) 426 final. 
De Wispelaere, F., De Smedt L., & Pacolet, J. (2023), Posting of workers: Collection of data from the prior 
declaration tools - Reference year 2022, Network Statistics FMSSFE, on behalf of the European Commission. 
Twenty-four Member States provided (partial) data on incoming posting undertakings and posted workers 
for the collection of this data, publicly available data was used for one other Member State. 

4 

 
 
 
•  differences in the extent of information required (number of information points, subject 

matters and categories); 

• 

limited or no ability to reuse declaration data. 

This  means  that  preparing  and  submitting  posting  of  worker  declarations  requires  substantial 
effort. Businesses indicate that they generally find the process of navigating differing notification 
requirements between various Member States burdensome, time-consuming, and costly. They face 
difficulties in finding the correct forms and systems, accessing the national declaration systems 
and the forms, in understanding the relevance and meaning of the requested data, in gathering the 
required  information  internally,  and  in  translating  the  forms  and  information  into  different 
languages.  

1.  Estimating administrative burden associated with posting of workers 

In  interviews  conducted  for  the  Commission,  businesses11  indicated  that  outsourcing  the 
management of posting procedures to external service providers incurs costs varying between EUR 
90  and  more  than  EUR  1,000  per  posting.  The  costs  vary  greatly,  depending  on  the  range  of 
services  included  in  the  package  and  the  specific  Member  States  concerned.  Calculating  the 
median of the outsourcing fees per posting reported in these interviews gives an amount of EUR 
200 per posting. 

This  finding  aligns  with  data  from  a  recent  survey  targeting  German  companies.12The  German 
Mechanical  Engineering  Industry  Association  estimated  the  yearly  administrative  costs  for 
postings of workers in the EU for the German mechanical engineering industry at a minimum of 
EUR 31 million, based on 205,000 registered postings. According to the survey, which included 
responses from around 250 companies, the average cost associated with a posting would thus be 
estimated at approximately EUR 150.13  

Consequently, companies consider the typical expenditure associated with posting to be between 
EUR 150 and EUR 200. This cost envelope encompasses efforts going beyond the submission of 
posting declarations, and includes various administrative costs related to the posting. 

68% of the 4.7 million individual postings fall within the scope of the proposal (excluding those 
in  the  road  transport  sector).  Multiplying  this  with  the  cost  per  posting  reported  by  businesses 
would lead to a total administrative cost of posting of workers across the relevant economic sectors 
ranging between EUR 477 million and EUR 635 million. 

11   

12  

13  

30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with a representative sample of businesses of different size 
and type from 9 Member States that are involved in posting workers across the EU.  
The amounts recorded in this survey are predominantly based on German labour costs, which are above the 
EU average for hourly rates. 
VDMA 
https://www.vdma.org/documents/34570/51408454/posting+of+workers_May+2023.pdf/579337ef-9be6-
e78f-2bae-0c4754240f01. 

(2024),  Posting  of  Workers 

the  EU  –  Obstacles 

Internal  Market, 

the 

in 

in 

5 

 
 
2.  Estimating  effort  for  online  submission  of  posting  declarations  based  on  controlled 

scenarios 

To complement this information with data specifically on the effort related to filling in national 
declaration forms in the EU, the Commission has analysed the administrative burden for declaring 
posted workers across the 27 Member States. The analysis was based on the testing of the national 
declaration tools of the receiving Member States under controlled conditions, using a predefined 
scenario to ensure consistency and comparability. The analysis focused on administrative effort 
related to the process of submitting declarations for the posting of workers and did not account for 
wider  effort  associated  with  complying  with  the  posting  workers  acquis  such  as  calculating 
appropriate wages, keeping documents at the place of work, or complying with any other national 
requirements.  It  also  did  not  look  at  the  effort  borne  by  the  competent  national  authorities  for 
setting up and maintaining national declaration portals, since this information lies with the Member 
States.  

The  analysis  showed  that  the  average  time  for  submitting  a  prior  declaration  in  the  controlled 
experiments varies significantly across Member States (for a breakdown per Member State see the 
table below). This is due to different factors, including varying information points required in the 
prior  declaration,  the  different  design,  requirements,  and  functionalities  of  national  declaration 
tools, the degree of reusability of data from previous prior declarations. 

An  overview  of  national  information  requirements  for  the  declaration  of  posting  of  workers 
prepared as part of the analysis suggests that there are more than 300 different information points 
used  between  different  Member  States  for  such  declarations.  Simple  systems  to  complete 
declarations  are  characterised  by  fewer  information  points  and  the  possibility  of  data  reuse  for 
multiple declarations. Burdensome systems usually have declaration tools that are difficult to find 
or to access, language requirements that necessitate translation, or forms featuring a complex range 
of information requirements. It takes five times longer to complete a posting declaration in the 
Member State with the slowest declaration system compared to the Member State with the fastest 
declaration system. 

6 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Baseline results, breakdown of effort for posting of worker declarations per receiving Member State as recorded in 
the controlled experiments14 

Receiving 
MS 

Time required for filling in posting of worker declarations 
Average time for one-off or 
ad hoc components 
(mm:ss) 

Average Time for per 
declaration components  
(mm:ss) 

AT 

BE 

BG 

CY 

CZ 

DE 

DK 

EE 

EL 

ES 

FI 

FR 

HR 

HU 

IE 

IT 

LT 

LU 

LV 

MT 

NL 

PL 

PT 

RO 

SE 

SI 

SK 

EU average 

07:36 

11:46 

04:20 

15:51 

12:45 

13:57 

12:34 

03:49 

21:38 

19:43 

05:17 

11:40 

03:58 

12:30 

04:50 

23:26 

05:23 

08:52 

08:09 

05:14 

05:26 

07:33 

10:05 

19:08 

17:15 

11:52 

06:03 

12:48 

48:02 

19:43 

31:39 

30:33 

29:48 

19:17 

23:38 

17:30 

01:14:50 

42:42 

28:33 

25:54 

44:33 

14:45 

27:34 

37:58 

20:21 

39:05 

32:34 

46:36 

23:00 

24:49 

32:17 

40:25 

18:30 

22:33 

15:24 

26:56 

For the sake of this analysis, the administrative cost for the submission of posting declarations in 
national declaration tools was calculated based on:  

•  Assumptions  on  the  time  taken  to  gather  the  information  required  in  the  national 
declaration  form  by  the  receiving  Member  States,  based  on  experts’  input,  business 
interviews and desk-based research, 

14  

For these experiments, national declaration forms have been filled in using a pre-defined scenario. For each 
information point, assumptions have been made on the time needed to obtain the required information in a 
company and to fill in the form, to calculate the total time.  

7 

 
  
 
• 

• 

the time needed to submit a declaration as recorded in the controlled experiments,  

the  hourly  rate  of  the  administrative  staff  performing  the  administrative  task  (using  the 
labour costs for administrative support in the home Member State), 

• 

the frequency of the obligation.  

This calculation leads to theoretical costs of the administrative burden across the EU of EUR 17.29 
million in 2022, and theoretical average cost for filling in the declaration form of EUR 10.78. 

3.  Interpretation of the estimations of administrative burden  

The large difference between administrative costs of EUR 10.78 per posting declaration measured 
in a controlled experiment, and about EUR 150-200 based on fees of external service providers as 
reported by businesses is due to three main reasons: 

•  Administrative tasks related to declaring the posting of workers and the services provided 
by external service providers go beyond the mere declaration process. It can include e.g. 
acquiring and managing the necessary information, translation of the required information 
and documentation, administrative overhead, costs for assessing compliance, submission 
of  requests  for  issuing  the  Portable  Documents A1  (PD A1),  provision  of  local  contact 
persons in the receiving Member State and keeping the employment related documents in 
the host Member State when necessary, and engaging external service providers, in addition 
to the activities strictly related to the posting declaration; 

•  While  measuring  effort  in  a  controlled  and  pre-defined  scenario  produces  comparable 
results, the measured times for filling in posting of workers declarations do not necessarily 
correspond  to  actual  times  in  real-life  settings,  where  conditions  and  individual  factors 
vary; 

• 

In the analysis based on controlled scenarios, average labour costs based on administrative 
support functions in the home countries have been used. However, these labour costs can 
greatly  differ. While  larger  corporations  generally  rely  on  administrative  staff  to  handle 
posting declarations, others might outsource the handling to legal advisors. In SMEs this 
task is often even left to the company management, who might have limited knowledge of 
the declaration procedures in different Member States. 

C.  STAKEHOLDER AND SOCIAL PARTNER CONSULTATIONS  

1.  Consultations on requirements and implementation options for an e-declaration system 

Stakeholder consultations were held in the preparation of  the initiative15. In these consultations 
stakeholders outlined a range of requirements, success factors and constraints: 

15  

For details on the consultation process and the stakeholders that contributed to the consultation please refer 
to the explanatory memorandum of the proposal. 

8 

 
 
•  Service  providers  posting  workers  to  other  Member  States  and  business  associations 
stressed  that  it  was  important  that  the  form  to  submit  declarations  to  different  Member 
States had the same or very similar location, structure, look and feel, and way to access. 
This  was  considered  particularly  relevant  for  service  providers  regularly  posting  to 
different  countries  such  as  machinery  and  equipment  manufacturers  (for  configuration, 
maintenance, repair, etc.), construction  firms and the live performance sector. They also 
stressed the importance of a multilingual portal and a user-friendly interface for filling in 
the  form.  For  managing  their  declarations,  a  transparent  overview  (dashboard)  of  the 
declarations  already  submitted  should  be  available,  with  the  possibility  to  update  or 
withdraw them if needed. Also, service providers should be able to reuse information they 
previously  entered  in  other  declarations.  Overall,  service  providers  expressed  strong 
support for the initiative. 

•  Trade  unions  highlighted  the  need  to  ensure  the  protection  of  posted  workers  and  the 
importance of effective systems for their declaration to receiving Member States, as well 
as the need for effective monitoring and enforcement.  

•  National  authorities  and  enforcement  bodies  highlighted  the  importance  of  having  a 
form with a common set of fields and structured in one common data model. They also 
stressed the importance of making available the information provided in the declaration to 
the participating Member States’ competent authorities. In that respect the system needs to 
ensure interoperability and be compliant with data protection rules. Most Member States 
(10  out  of  17  participating  in  the  technical  survey)  stated  their  interest  in  a  technical 
solution provided on EU level, with limited implementation effort at national level. Several 
Member States hoped that the initiative would help gather high quality and comparable 
data on postings to the participating Member States. 

2.  Social partner consultations 

European social partners were consulted regularly while preparing the initiative. Meetings with 
social partners were held on 30 November 2021, 8 December 2021, 8 February 2022, 2 June 2022 
and 11 May 2023. The project of establishing an e-declaration for posting of workers was also 
discussed with Member States and social partners at the European Labour Authority Forum for 
Posting of Workers on 13 March 2023 and 11 April 2024. 

A social partner online hearing dedicated to the e-declaration for posting of workers was held on 
29 April 2024.  

Overall,  there  was  support  for  the  initiative.  Employers’  representatives  highlighted  that  the 
fragmented  obligations  in  the  context  of  Directive  2014/67/EU  and  the  introduction  of 
administrative requirements at the national level had led to increased costs for businesses in the 
single market and complicated the cross-border provision of services in the EU. In this context, 
businesses welcomed the initiative and the idea of a single procedure and central portal for posting 
declarations, seeing this as a major simplification when posting workers to another Member State. 
Simplification and reduction of administrative burden does not mean lowering workers’ protection; 
on the contrary, it would make it  easier  to  comply  with  the notification  obligation. This  would 

9 

 
reduce  the  number  of  infringements  and  help  authorities  focus  inspections  on  clear  cases  of 
fraud/violations. 

Trade union representatives underlined that the success of this initiative will depend on ensuring 
adequate  workers  protection,  considering  that  workers  are  at  risk  when  applicable  rules  are 
circumvented and an appropriate level of protection of the posted worker’s rights is not currently 
fully  ensured. To  achieve this,  the  new system  should allow for enhanced interoperability with 
existing  national  systems  to  enable  cross-referencing  and  data  mining  to  identify  high-risk 
postings. The initiative should increase the transparency of the posting and ensure that the worker 
is  informed of the posting.  Ideally,  workers should automatically receive  a copy of the  posting 
declaration. 

3.  Expert group on a common electronic form for the declaration of posting of workers 

To proceed with the initiative following the stakeholder consultations, an informal Commission 
expert group on a common electronic form for the declaration of posting of workers (‘the expert 
group’) was set up. The expert group’s task is to advise the Commission on the joint development 
and implementation of a common electronic form for the declaration of posting of workers, giving 
to the Commission and interested Member States the opportunity to work together on this task. 
Members of the expert group are Member States' authorities competent in the area of posting of 
workers. The European Labour Authority (‘ELA’) is an observer to the group. The group works in 
full respect of Directive 96/71/EC and Directive 2014/67/EU. 

The Commission received input from the expert group on the national declaration requirements 
and  systems  as  well  as  on  the  relevant  information  necessary  to  allow  factual  controls  at  the 
workplace.  Based  on  the  advice  of  the  Member  State’  experts,  a  common  list  of  information 
requirements for the declaration of posting of workers was completed in December 2023.  

In the meantime, an initial group of nine Member States declared their commitment to aligning the 
information required as part of their declaration process with the information requirements in the 
common  list  of  information  requirements16.  The  interest  and  commitment  expressed  by  these 
Member States to adopt the common list of information requirements indicate its usefulness and 
benefits. Achieving  a  streamlined  system  of  posting  declarations  is  a  cooperative  effort,  which 
aligns with Member States' own interests in streamlining administrative processes and protecting 
workers'  rights.  It  is  therefore  expected  that  even  more  Member  States  will  make  use  of  the 
proposed multilingual electronic public interface connected to IMI (‘public interface’) following 
its successful implementation. 

16  

declaration  was 

2024 
The 
(https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10061-2024-INIT/en/pdf.). The text of the declaration is 
available 
https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/EN/Downloads/declaration-implementation-of-the-
common-electronic-form-for-dec-larations-of-postings-of-workers.pdf. 

the  Competitiveness  Council 

24  May 

presented 

here: 

of 

at 

10 

 
 
 
D.  A MULTILINGUAL ELECTRONIC INTERFACE  

The  legislative  proposal17  which  this  SWD  accompanies  sets  up  a  public  interface  for  the 
declaration of posting of workers. It will be connected to the IMI and use a standard form for the 
declaration of posting of workers. Member States may voluntarily use the public interface to enable 
service providers to submit the required declaration when posting workers to their territory. In such 
cases, a service provider would simply fill in the declaration through the public interface, and no 
longer through a dedicated national declaration process. 

1.  Public interface 

The public interface would be set up at EU level. It would be up to each Member State to decide 
if they want to use the EU system instead of their national declaration system, or if they want to 
keep their own system in place. Service providers posting workers to the Member States that opted 
for  the  use  of  the  public  interface,  and  where  the  declaration’s  obligation  is  justified  and 
proportionate, would declare their postings through this central EU interface. 

The public interface would be for voluntary use by Member States. Member States who wish to 
participate in this voluntary initiative will have to adjust their relevant national provisions in order 
to ensure that  service providers established in  other Member States and posting  workers in  the 
framework of the provision of services to their Member State are required to use this interface to 
make a simple declaration of posted workers (posting declaration) to  their  responsible national 
competent authorities, to allow factual controls at the workplace.  

The public interface could consist of the following main elements:  

•  A web portal with secure login and account management for service providers. Use of the 
portal will be free of charge and  enable them to submit posting declarations to national 
competent  authorities  in  the  participating  Member  States  and  to  manage  the  posting 
declarations they submitted. This portal would also be accessible via the Your Europe portal 
(Single Digital Gateway).  

•  An interface (technical connection) between the public interface and IMI posting modules, 
enabling instantaneous transfer of posting declarations into IMI and follow up with users 
of the public interface if there is a need to send reasoned requests to another Member State.  

•  An interface Member States can use to automatically transfer the submitted declarations 
from the public interface to their national back-end IT systems. This is optional for Member 
States that want to have access to the data contained in posting declarations in their existing 
national back-end systems.  

•  An  optional  function  Member  States  can  use  to  automatically  receive  all  submitted 
declarations via encrypted e-mail. This optional functionality serves Member States that 

17  

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a public interface to the Internal 
Market Information System for the declaration of posting of workers. 

11 

 
 
currently depend on email for receipt of posting declarations and have no immediate plans 
to change their operational procedures.  

•  An optional function Member States can use whereby the public interface automatically 

sends a copy of the posting declaration to the email address of the worker.  

Here is a high-level architectural overview of the proposed public interface: 

EU Login 

service 
provider 

declares posting 

receives and 
answers requests 

Public 
interface 
connected to 
the IMI 

Internal Market 
Information 
System (IMI) 

National back-end 
system 

automatic transfer of 
declarations to IMI 

automatic transfer to 
national back-end 
system (if activated by 
the Member State) 

to 

declarations, 

send  
consult 
        requests 
service  
              providers  &  engage  in  
                   administrative  
                        cooperation 

uses  
declaration  
data  in  national 
system 

automatic transfer to Member State via encrypted e-
Mail (if activated by the Member State) 

email  copy  of  the  declaration  to  the  posted 
worker (if activated by the Member State) 

posted 
worker 

national 
authorities and 
inspectors 

IT architecture 

The public interface would build on the technical solution implemented for the posting of worker 
declarations in the international road freight transport sector18. A comprehensive analysis of the 
reusability of existing digital solutions recommended adopting the public interface connected to 
IMI for posting drivers in road transport (the Road Transport Declaration Portal or ‘RTDP’) as the 
foundation for the public interface. The reasons for this are as follows: 

•  Alignment  on  substance/context:  The  portal’s  current  use  in  road  transport  information 
exchange makes it an ideal basis that has already proven itself in the same policy area, with 
the potential to create additional synergies. 

•  Modularity,  adaptability,  and  flexibility:  The  system’s  design  allows  for  targeted 
adaptations  and  future  scalability.  The  architecture  is  built  to  accommodate  evolving 
requirements and shifts in operational demands. 

• 

Interoperability:  The  framework  ensures  consistent  and  smooth  data  sharing  across 
different Member States. 

18  

Further  information  can  be  found  here:  https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-modes/road/mobility-
package-i/posting-rules_en. 

12 

 
 
 
•  Availability and support: Relying on an established system promises a streamlined rollout 

process with lower risks and adequate support. 

•  Cost-Effectiveness: Reusing and adapting an existing solution provides a budget-friendly 

and quick solution.  

The RTDP could be used as a basis for the implementation of the proposed public interface for the 
posting of workers. If necessary, the public interface could be enhanced by including additional 
functionalities.  

2.  Standard form 

The public interface would use a standard form that service providers need to fill in when posting 
their workers to Member States which are participating in this initiative. This standard form would 
provide the relevant information that, depending on national circumstances, may be necessary to 
allow  factual  controls  at  the  workplace,  in  accordance  with  Article  9(1)(a)  of  Directive 
2014/67/EU.  The  common  list  of  information  requirements  for  the  declaration  of  posting  of 
workers which has been finalised in the expert group in December 2023 will serve as the basis for 
this standard form. Based on the advice of the Member States’ expert group the standard form will 
contain information on the service provider, the posted worker, the posting activity, the contact 
person for the competent authorities and the service recipient. 

The  Commission  should  be  granted  implementing  powers  in  respect  of  the  more  detailed 
establishment of, and subsequent changes to, the standard form. This will allow for the necessary 
flexibility in the technical adaptation and implementation of the form. The experience from the 
implementation of the standard form for the declaration of drivers in the road transport sector has 
shown that successful technical implementation requires a certain level of flexibility, within a well-
defined framework. Conferring implementing powers on the Commission would also allow for a 
swifter amendment of the standard form, if required, without the need to amend the underlying 
basic act.  

Member States that voluntarily use the public interface would ensure that service providers posting 
workers to their territory can comply with their obligation to declare the posting of workers using 
the  interface,  without  filling  in  additional  forms.  They  may  also  decide  that  elements  of  the 
standard form, that they do not consider relevant information in view of their national context and 
the way they organise the factual controls at the workplace, are not required from service providers 
posting workers to their territory. 

Member States may submit to the Commission any proposal for amending the standard form. The 
Commission will examine any such proposal and may put forward a proposal for an implementing 
act  to  amend  the  standard  form.  This  would  be  discussed  and  voted  by  Member  States  in  the 
committee under the advisory procedure. 

13 

 
 
 
E.  OBJECTIVES TO BE ACHIEVED 

1.  Reducing administrative burden for businesses 

Streamlining the reporting obligations and the procedure for submitting posting declarations will 
significantly reduce the administrative burden for businesses and will make it easier for Member 
States to carry out effective and adequate inspections. 

A multilingual public interface using a standard form will enable companies to make their posting 
declarations in one place and with the same set of requested information, in all the participating 
Member States they post workers to. They will be able to make the posting declaration in their 
own language, thus overcoming the language barrier they regularly face when declaring postings 
in the system of the host Member State. 

a)  Estimating burden reduction based on controlled experiments 

The  Commission  analysis  of  the  existing  level  of  administrative  burden  for  declaring  posted 
workers in the 27 Member States based on controlled experiments looked at the potential time and 
resources  savings  from  introducing  a  common  declaration  for  declaring  posted  workers.  The 
analysis is based on Member States participation and refers to the average burden reduction both 
at EU level and for the participating Member States. The analysis suggests that the impact of a 
common  system  for  declaring  posted  workers  is  influenced  by  the  number  of  Member  States 
joining the initiative and on the volume of posting declarations covered by the new system. 

The burden reduction for service providers posting workers into a participating Member State is 
driven by some key advantages from the adoption of a centralised system: (i) a reduction in the 
average time required to identify the portal, register and read the guidance, (ii) an increase in data 
reuse across those Member States that opt in, and (iii) a reduction of the information requirements 
required  in  the  standard  form  compared  to  the  baseline  scenario. These  lead  to  a  considerable 
reduction in the time needed to complete a prior declaration. 

The following chart provides an overview of the potential savings for filling in posting of worker 
declarations per receiving Member State based on the controlled experiments. The dark blue part 
of the bar shows the time for filling in the declaration in case the Member State would opt in to 
use the public interface with  the standard form.  Under the assumption that each Member State 
would use the form fields that are currently included in their national form, the time needed to fill 
in the form on the public interface ranges from 2:48 minutes to 7:07 minutes. The total length of 
the bar represents the time used for filling in the declaration in the current situation, ranging from 
14:45  minutes  in  Hungary  to  01:14:50  in  Greece.  The  light  blue  part  of  the  bar  indicates  the 
potential time savings through the use of the public interface with the standard form, representing 
potential savings ranging from 66.6% in Estonia to 94.4% in Greece. 

14 

 
Potential savings in the time spent on posting of worker declarations per receiving Member State 

GR
AT
MT
HR
ES
RO
LU
IT
LV
PT
BG
CY
CZ
FI
IE
FR
PL
DK
NL
SI
LT
BE
DE
SE
EE
SK
HU

00:00:00

-94,4%

-85,2%

-88,5%
-85,3%

-85,2%

-87,6%
-86,1%
-87,1%

-84,8%
-81,8%
-77,8%

-84,2%
-85,4%
-82,1%

-89,8%
-79,9%
-74,8%
-72,8%
-75,1%
-75,8%

-71,1%

-75,9%
-68,6%
-70,8%
-66,6%

-70,0%
-71,8%

00:10:00

00:20:00

00:30:00

00:40:00

00:50:00

As the graph shows, there would be a positive effect for service providers declaring workers in 
any receiving Member State due to the introduction of a public interface implementing a standard 
form with full data reusability across the EU.  

The  chart  only  considers  times  required  per  declaration,  not  “one-off”  or  ad-hoc  tasks  such  as 
identifying  the  relevant  portal,  reading  necessary  guidance,  and  registering  on  the  declaration 
portal. These would also become easier by using the public interface, which would use a very light 
registration process, and eliminates the need for an additional registration and guidance on how to 
use the national portal in each participating Member State. Based on the controlled experiments 
and using the road transport portal as a proxy, the “one-off” effort would decrease, with average 
savings  across  all  Member  States  of  61%. An  analysis  including  both,  the  “one-off”  and  the 
recurring effort indicates time savings of about 73%. 

15 

 
 
Under the assumption that an initial group of nine Member States, those who committed to aligning 
the information required as part of their declaration process to the information requirements in the 
standard form, will join this initiative, the average burden reduction for service providers posting 
workers to the territory of one of these nine Member States is estimated to 58%. Individual figures 
for  the  nine  Member  States  differ  because  of  the  frequency  of  declarations  received,  and  the 
complexity of the declaration procedure currently applied at the national level. According to the 
controlled experiments, the burden reduction associated to the use of the public interface based on 
the standard form instead of the current national prior declaration system would range from 48% 
to 90% in these nine Member States. 

The burden reduction for service providers would further increase significantly if all 27 Member 
States  would  join  this  initiative.  The  analysis  estimates  an  81%  reduction  in  the  overall 
administrative cost in the EU related to the submission of posting declarations. The relative savings 
are higher compared to the scenario with only nine Member States, due to several reasons. First, 
the  additional  Member  States  would  include  some  with  the  highest  relative  savings.  Second,  a 
higher  number  of  declarations  means  less  effort  for  completing  one-off  components  (such  as 
registration). Third, the benefits of reusing previously submitted data are higher due to the larger 
number of participating countries. 

Introducing a public interface and a standard form with a common list of information requirements 
would therefore bring considerable positive effects in terms of burden reduction for the interested 
Member  States. The  Commission  will  continue  to  liaise  with  interested  Member  States  so  that 
more than the nine Member States that thus far declared their interest in adopting the common list 
of information requirements and making use of the public interface. 

b)  Estimating  administrative  savings  based  on  businesses  estimates  of  administrative 

costs for posting workers  

Applying  the  time  savings  observed  in  the  abovementioned  analysis  to  the  estimated 
administrative  burden  incurred  by  businesses  yields  an  insight  into  potential  savings.  By 
extrapolating these findings - originating from a controlled setting - we can anticipate a projection 
of savings in real-world posting costs, despite some inherent variability. 

The proposal for the public interface first and foremost addresses the burden from entering data 
on  the  posting  of  a  worker  in  a  declaration  form.  The  possibility  to  reuse  data  from  previous 
declarations  and  the  alignment  of  the  declaration  form  across  Member  States  would  lead  to  a 
reduction in administrative burden. Furthermore, any costs for translation as part of the declaration 
process would be eliminated since the public interface would be available in all official languages 
of  the  EU. A  simpler  and  largely  automatised  system  would  also  lead  to  decreased  legal  and 
compliance risks, and in many cases make outsourcing unnecessary.  

The  simplification  of  the  declaration  procedure  and  the  reduction  in  the  number  of  different 
information fields in the standard form in addition imply the collection of less information and the 
management  and  translation  of  fewer  documents  by  companies,  and  accordingly  reduce  their 
administrative burden even further. 

16 

 
A  study  by  the  German  Foundation  for  Family  Business19  identifies  three  main  drivers  for  the 
administrative effort  associated with  declaring  the  posting  of workers: collecting and gathering 
data  (17%),  entering  company  and  employee  data  (33%),  and  the  compilation  of  documents 
including translations (51%). 

To estimate the administrative savings of the introduction of a public interface implementing a 
standard form, it is assumed that the savings recorded in the controlled experiments would be in 
full realised for entering company and employee data. The administrative efforts for the collecting 
and gathering of data and for the compilation of documents including translations are expected to 
be halved, as they would be reduced, but not eliminated by the introduction of a public interface 
implementing a standard form. 

On this basis, the introduction of a public interface implementing a standard form would already 
result in significant savings if used by the initial group of nine Member States who committed to 
aligning  the  information  required  as  part  of  their  declaration  process  with  the  information 
requirements in the common list of information requirements. These Member States account for 
approximately  1.65  million  postings  in  the  sectors  covered  by  the  proposal.  With  an  average 
administrative cost per posting as estimated by businesses of EUR 150-200, this adds up to current 
administrative  burden  of  about  EUR  247  million  to  EUR  329  million  per  year.  Based  on  the 
assumptions above, namely that savings would be realised in full for data entry, and in half for 
information  management  and  compiling  documents  and  translations,  savings  of  39%  could  be 
reached.20 The savings in administrative burden for postings to this initial group of Member States 
could therefore reach a maximum amount of EUR 95 million to EUR 127 million. 

The burden reduction for service providers would be highest if all 27 Member States were to join 
this initiative. Given the overall estimated administrative burden for the posting of workers of EUR 
477 million and EUR 635 million (as reported in section B above, an estimated rate of savings to 
this current administrative burden of 54%21 would translate into overall savings between EUR 257 
million and EUR 342 million. 

2.  Supporting administrative cooperation between Member State authorities and enforcing 

the protection of workers’ rights 

The submission of posting declarations via the public interface  will facilitate a better and more 
uniform application of Directive 96/71/EC. 

19  

20  

21  

Stiftung  Familienunternehmen  (2023).  Regulatory  and  financial  burdens  of  EU 
in  
four  Member  States.  https://www.familienunternehmen.de/en/publications/burdens-arising-from-the-
posting-of-workers-directive 
Full savings as recorded in the controlled experiments (58%) for entering company and employee data (33% 
of the overall effort), half of the savings (29%) for collecting and gathering data, and for the compilation of 
documents including translations (17% and 51% of the overall effort). 
Full savings as recorded in the controlled experiments (81%) for entering company and employee data (33% 
of the overall effort), half of the savings (40.5%) for collecting and gathering data, and for the compilation 
of documents including translations (17% and 51% of the overall effort). 

legislation 

17 

 
 
Moreover,  submitting  posting  declarations  via  the  public  interface  will  improve  administrative 
cooperation between Member State authorities. 

Currently,  national  competent  authorities  seeking  mutual  assistance  from  other  Member  States 
when making a reasoned request for information must manually insert the information concerning 
the posting into IMI. This is because the declarations are received in Member State systems that 
are  not  connected  to  IMI.  To  facilitate  administrative  cooperation  between  Member  State 
competent  authorities  and  to  simplify  requests  for  mutual  assistance,  information  submitted  in 
posting declarations should be made available directly in IMI posting modules. This would enable 
the  authorities  to  use  the  information  received  from  declarations  directly  on  the  request  for 
information, if necessary. 

The transparency and easier submission of declaration obligations will be reinforced by the setup 
of the public interface. Employers will be better informed about the procedures they are expected 
to carry out before posting workers and will more likely make the posting declaration. This will 
increase compliance with the posting rules and inspection services will be in a better position to 
locate posted workers and target inspections. 

The  additional  feature  of  sending  the  information  about  the  submitted  declaration  also  to  the 
workers concerned will increase their knowledge of the posting situation, better prepare them for 
the  posting  and  keep  them  informed  of  their  rights  during  posting.  This  should  also  increase 
compliance with the posting rules and allow for fair mobility of services. 

3.  Reducing administrative burden for Member State authorities  

Aligning the administrative procedure for the declaration of posted workers in other sectors with 
the procedure for posting drivers in the road transport sector would reduce administrative burden 
for public administrations. Today, competent authorities must administer and operate two different 
systems  for  their  monitoring  tasks,  using  an  interface  connected  to  IMI  for  the  declaration  of 
posting of drivers in the road transport sector and national declaration systems for posting in other 
sectors. Aligning the two systems could optimise database utilisation and internal administrative 
processes  for  national  competent  authorities,  thus  leading  to  a  more  effective  mechanism  to 
oversee and ensure compliance with posting regulations. 

Participating Member States could benefit from cost- and time-savings. Making use of the IMI 
system enables Member States to discontinue their self-standing national declaration systems, thus 
saving them the costs of operating and maintaining these systems. Member States that do not yet 
use digital solutions for their declaration obligations can use the public interface and IMI without 
the need to invest time and resources into developing an electronic national declaration system. 
Member States who maintain their national databases would benefit from the possibility to connect 
them to the public interface and save costs on the maintenance of the front-end interface.  

18 

 
 
 
 
F.  IMPLEMENTING THE PUBLIC INTERFACE 

Implementation of the public interface will require moderate resource investment at EU level with 
the support of ELA. This would include inter alia:  

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

business analysis, including requirement and reusability analysis; 

adaptations and extensions to the posting of worker declaration portal for road transport 
workers; 

solutions for the interfaces to national backend systems; 

hosting of the public interface; 

IT support, maintenance and continuous improvement; 

system documentation; 

communication and outreach material; 

training offers; 

second line support.  

Building on the expertise with the implementation of the portal for posting of worker declarations 
in the road transport sector, Commission services estimated the costs for initial implementation 
and  operation  over  a  period  of  five  years.  The  possible  reuse  of  existing  IT  solutions  and 
components  has  been  taken  into  account.  Budget  implications  mainly  stem  from  the  following 
work: 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

solution development, EUR 1.3 million; 

solution maintenance, EUR 0.7 million,  

support, EUR 0.7 million, 

training, EUR 0.2 million, 

infrastructure, EUR 0.1 million; 

In total, this amounts to approximately EUR 3 million over five years. Running costs after full 
implementation are estimated at EUR 0.5 million per year. 

ELA  should  furthermore  support  Member  States’  national  competent  authorities  and  service 
providers in the implementation and use of the public interface. Through the Posting 36022 Forum, 
ELA,  the  Commission,  Member  States,  and  social  partners  already  carry  out  mutual  learning 
activities with the view to ensuring the effective enforcement of EU and national rules on posting 

22  

The Posting 360 Programme is a multi-annual mutual learning and understanding programme to strengthen 
and deepen cooperation between the European Labour Authority, the European Commission, the Member 
States and the social partners with a view on ensuring the effective enforcement of EU and national rules on 
the posting of workers. 

19 

 
 
of  workers. Additionally,  the  IMI-PROVE  programme  was  established  by  ELA,  which  aims  at 
strengthening cooperation and mutual assistance between Member States by fostering a stronger 
and more effective use of IMI for posting of workers as well as for the road transport modules. In 
this context, ELA together with the Commission, facilitates the use of the IMI posting modules 
within the framework of administrative cooperation between Member States. 

20