WORKING TIME : THE IMPOSSIBLE COMPROMISE.

The Czech EU Presidency has given itself until March to work out a compromise on amendments to the Working Time Directive. There are two challenges involved. First, a negotiating brief has to be obtained from the Council, identifying the aspects on which the 27 may possibly be prepared to give in (which will be no easy task, since the common position proved extremely difficult to seal in June 2008). Second, common ground will have to be found with the European Parliament which, in December 2008, massively rejected the Council's common position.

Time is of the essence. After March, "debates on a more flexible labour market as a result of the draft directive could fall victim to the [European Parliament's] election campaign," observed Petr Necas, the Czech minister of labour and social affairs, on 23 January, in the wings of an informal Council in Luhacovice.

In the absence of an agreement, "the existing directive will remain in force," Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla explained recently. "It allows derogations, without any framework, from the rule of a 48-hour work week," he added.

Europolitics Social takes a look at the main stumbling blocks and the positions defended.

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