POSTED WORKERS (FEATURE) : MEPS FIRED UP AGAINST THE COMMISSION.

• Position: Members of parliament

Whereas the member states and the social partners have had copies of a draft Commission report on the posting of workers since late last year, MEPs on the European Parliament's Employment Committee had not been given the report by the end of February (with the exception of one Irish MEP). A particularly "clumsy"a state of affairs, according to German Green Elisabeth Schroedter, charged with drafting an own-initiative report on the topic: " I am meant to draft report on a European Commission document that has still not been released". Needless to say, the Committee's meeting on 21 February saw MEPs fire a broadside at the representative from the Directorate-General for Employment, a barrage backed up by opinions from experts on the ground (see opposite). Nevertheless, MEPs do not appear inclined to press for a revision of the Directive. "That would risk opening Pandora's box", according to the most committed MEPs, concerned that "in view ofa the current context we risk finding ourselves with an even weaker text than the current Directive". All are, however, demanding that the EU executive live up to its responsibilities, albeit in different ways, though differences are geographic rather than ideological. Anthology

Anne Van Lancker (PES, Belgian): "Everything cannot be settled simply by flying the subsidiarity flag as the European Commission often does. ( ) What is needed is real networking of agents on the ground and not just ofa senior officials. ( ) The notion of closer administrative cooperation, as outlined in the current services directives is interesting. Clarification is needed even though this is a delicate and difficult topic".

Karin...