The European Commission had issued the Council of Ministers and the EU Parliament with an ultimatum: unless progress was made over negotiations before the end of June the Commission was going to drop the draft directive that has been languishing for four years on extending maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks. In a letter from Frans Timmermans, first vice-president of the European Commission in charge of “Better regulation” to the Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, it was confirmed that the draft directive would be dropped but only after measures to improve working parents’ rights had been defined.
Background. The European Commission had clearly signaled to both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers that unless progress was made over negotiations by June 2015 then it was withdrawing the draft directive on maternity leave (c.f.
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