On October 16th, the European Commission launched the activities of the newly created ELA-European Labour Authority with an inaugural ceremony and the first meeting of its Management Board.
It is said that the Authority will provide workers and employers with better access to information on their rights and obligations and will support national labour authorities in their cross-border activities. This will directly support the millions of Europeans who live or work in another Member State as well as the millions of businesses operating cross-border in the EU.
Pearle, the European live performance alliance, welcomes the fact that one of the aims of the ELA is to facilitate the access to information and services to citizens and business about their rights and obligations. However, Pearle wonders to which extent the information provided will really serve employers in accessing the information they need. Therefore, a comprehensive and sector-wide needs analysis should be part of the start-up phase of ELA.
Pearle is also critical on the focus of enforcement and joint inspections, which is the second aim of ELA. Pearle is of the opinion that enforcement is only justifiable if all necessary information is available to employers, and if easy and user-friendly systems of declarations are developed by member states, as those incentivise rather than frighten employers to still provide services across borders. In the current economic situation, it is of utmost importance that the free movement of services is not hindered by overly administrative and enforcement rules but is supported and facilitated.
Pearle therefore calls upon the Commission to put SMEs at first as they do not have the financial means nor the administrative staff to find out in each country the targeted and necessary information, administrative formalities and others. This is particularly the case for SMEs in the live performance sector that have
Older Post
Newer Post