The European Council yesterday on the establishment of a European labour authority with the aim to support EU member states in implementing EU legislation in the areas of cross-border labour mobility and social security coordination, including free movement of workers, posting of workers and highly mobile services.  

The new labour authority will be called the ‘European Labour Agency’, instead of the European Labour Office, as the European Commission had proposed. 

The Agency will also bring together the technical and operational tasks of several existing EU bodies (EURES European Coordination Office, Technical Committee on the Free Movement of Workers, Committee of Experts on Posting of Workers and the European Platform on Tackling Undeclared Work).

These bodies will continue to exist after the entry into force of the regulation until ELA is fully operational. The Council states that the aim is to establish a permanent structure and to achieve improved and more efficient results on the basis of a strengthened cooperation.

Beate Hartinger-Klein, Federal Minister of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection of Austria, commented, “The ELA will help employees and employers to deal more easily with complex aspects of cross-border labour mobility. It will also help national administrations to better coordinate the application of the Union legislation.”

The tasks of the ELA will be limited to the support of member states in the implementation of existing relevant Union acts. Member states will participate in most of ELA's activities on a voluntary basis. These activities include:

• facilitating access to information on rights and obligations in cases of cross-border mobility for employees, employers and national administrations;
• supporting coordination between member states in cross-border enforcement of relevant Union law, including facilitating concerted and joint inspections;
• mediating between member state authorities in order to resolve cross-border disputes;
• facilitating cooperation between relevant Union and national stakeholders in order to find solutions in the event of labour market disruptions;
• supporting cooperation between member states in tackling undeclared work.

The seat of ELA will be decided by common agreement between the representatives of the member states.