SOCIAL LEGISLATION: FRANCE, GREECE AND LUXEMBOURG TO FACE LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.

Summary: The European Commission announced on December 15 that three Member States - France, Greece and Luxembourg - are to face legal proceedings before the European Court of Justice for the late transposition into national law of three key social policy Directives, those on working time (93/104/EC), protection of young people at work (94/33/EC) and biological agents at work (95/30/EC). Social Affairs Commissioner Padraig Flynn urged "all Member States to fulfil their commitment to eliminate delays in transposition". Infringement proceedings have also been opened against other Member States, but remain at an earlier stage.

The Working Time Directive, which should have been grafted onto national law books by November 1996, has still to be transposed by France, Greece and Luxembourg. The Directive on the protection of young people at work has not yet been transposed into national law in France and Luxembourg. The deadline was September 1996, and the necessary measures to apply it have not yet been adopted in either country. Luxembourg will face further legal proceedings before the Court of Justice regarding the late transposition of the Directive on the protection of...