EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL POLICY COUNCIL : GENERAL APPROACH ON ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS LIKELY.

The Employment and Social Policy Council, to be held on the morning of 4 October in Luxembourg, is expected to adopt a general approach on the directive on electromagnetic fields. A qualified majority of member states will likely back this text, which updates minimum requirements regarding the exposure of workers to risks arising from electromagnetic fields, including exposure limit values(1).

Germany has already announced that it will vote against the compromise drawn up by the Cyprus Presidency due to the method for measuring exposure. According to Berlin, the weighted peak measurement method may produce "excessively cautious results without necessarily strengthening safety in terms of protection of workers [ ] and endanger the use of certain technical applications in the automotive industry and other industrial sectors". The United Kingdom, Hungary, the Netherlands and Malta have said they understand Germany's arguments but have made a commitment to support the compromise.

The Council is also likely to adopt a political agreement on the EU's position on the coordination of social security systems in association bodies between the Union and Albania, Montenegro, San Marino and Turkey. The four draft texts are based in large measure on the Council's 2010 decisions relating to Algeria, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia. They aim to ensure that workers from partner countries (and, on the basis of reciprocity, EU nationals who work in these countries) can receive certain social security benefits granted under the legislation of the member state where they work or have worked. The ministers are nevertheless expected to attach to the draft decision concerning Turkey a written statement expressing their reservation over the legal basis chosen (Article 48 TFEU on free movement). The member states note in that statement that no final...