On 28 October the European Commission presented its legislative proposal to guarantee decent minimum wages in all EU Member States. The text promotes collective bargaining and introduces clear criteria for setting and assessing legal minimum wages. For this, the EU Commission has chosen to use a Directive, which differs from the solution advocated by both the main European employers' federation, BusinessEurope and several of the EU Member States, and which could lead to problems during the adoption process.
Following two consultation phases with the European social partners (c.f. articles No.11980 and No.11587), the European Commission has published its legislative project on minimum wages. This initiative is politically highly sensitive, as the European treaties do not allow the EU to intervene directly on remuneration levels. The Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB), a body charged with advising the Commission, gave an initial negative opinion on the initiative on 02 October, before giving a second positive opinion albeit ‘with reservations’ on 14 October following the Commission’s work in terms of addressing the RSB’s several recommendations.
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