Work Hours Debated
November 7, 2006
The European Union's Finnish presidency said on Tuesday it was abandoning efforts to reach a deal after a set of carefully calibrated proposals was not enough to bridge differences between member states.
"We were quite close to reaching a solution, but not sufficiently close unfortunately," said Finnish Labor Minister Tarja Filatov, who chaired the talks.
EU states have been divided since 2004 over a revised employment law that would specify maximum number of working hours and how companies could negotiate with employees for an opt-out from a limit of 48 hours per week.
As in the past, differences between member states over opt-outs for individual employees on working a maximum 48 hours per week proved to be the main stumbling bloc.
Blocked by minority
Tuesday's talks fell apart after Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy and Spain insisted that reform of the working time rules should include plans to phase out the opt-out, which is particularly dear to Britain.
"There was a blocking minority of five countries, they had a sufficient number of votes to prevent a vote being taken," said Finland's Filatov.
Pressure is building on member states to reach a deal because most of them are in breach of current rules and face the threat of costly legal action. The European Commission estimates that 23 of the EU's member states are breaking the rules and has threatened to push ahead with infringement proceedings against them if a solution is not found.
EU Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla lamented the continuing deadlock, saying: "what we have done today does not represent social progress and to my thinking our duty is to bring about progress."
Germany unwilling
Because Finland has failed to broker a deal, the matter risks remaining unresolved for some time because Germany, which takes on the EU's rotating presidency for six months at the beginning of next year, has said it not will deal with the dossier.
That would leave it to Portugal to try to find a deal when it takes on the EU's six-month rotating presidency in July 2006.