MEPs of the European Parliament's Employment Committee decided, on Monday, October 20, to forward to November 5 the vote of the report on a second reading on working time to have more time for the negotiation with the EU Council of Ministers. This additional time could have no consequences since the report will probably be far from the compromise the European Ministers of Labor had a hard time reaching and are little inclined to discuss again. (Ref. 080809)
Gathered on Monday night, MEPs seemed very
divided on the revision of the “working time” directive. European socialists swore
in June that the Parliament wouldn’t ratify the compromise reached by the EU27
(see our dispatch No. 080696). Socialist reporter Alejandro Cercas is now
standing on his grounds: “The Council didn’t take into account our first
reading recommendations” he complained at a debate.
The
conservatives disagree and the moderates are undecided. The British
MPs Philip Bushill-Matth
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