Press conference by Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, presenting the Commission's Social Package,&nbsp;during the EP Plenary session (7-10 March) in Strasbourg.

Presentation of the Commission's Social Package: extracts from the press conference by Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC

Arrival of Marianne Thyssen, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility in the press room

SOUNDBITE (English), Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Today we start broad consultation on the pillar, this will be the basis for broad discussion all over Europe on the social values and rights in today's context; it is open to everyone, to social partners, to member states, to civil society, the academia and most importantly of course to European citizens.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Are our EU and our member states policies in social affairs in the broad sense of the word still up to date? Are they fit to purpose for the 21st century? How can we make the European social model future proof? In short, how can we strive towards a better Europe for our children? It is important to start this debate together in Europe; for Europe to be successful in the future and, equally important, to remain credible for European citizens, we need to further strengthen the social dimension of the EU and particularly for the Euro area.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, The European pillar for social rights will serve as a compass for more convergence within the Euro area; the economic and monetary union needs to become stronger and more stable both economically and socially; economic growth and social progress need to go hand in hand. This is one of the top priorities of this Commission; while this initiative will start within the Euro area, other member states can join if they want to.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Today we are also presenting a legislative proposal on posting of workers; this proposal is an important step toward a deeper and a fairer internal market and a truly European labour market. The aim of this proposal is to promote cross border service provision while ensuring fair competition between companies across Europe and while strengthening the protection of posted workers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Too often we have seen 2 workers side by side, doing the same job but one earning much less than the other; this is not what a fair and European labour market should look like. This is why we are proposing a update of the rules; the main issue is that we want to ensure that local and posted workers are subjects to the same rules on remuneration, not just the minimum rate should apply to posted workers but all elements of remuneration that are mandatory in the host country.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, The proposal does not interfere with member states competences or national specificities on wage setting; we simply propose that what applies to local workers also applies to posted workers. Furthermore to improve clarity and legal certainty, we propose that workers posted for more than 2 years should be fully covered by the labour law of the host member state and thirdly and finally, we propose that conditions applying to local temporarily agency workers within a member state also apply to cross border temporarily agency workers.

Presentation of the Commission's Social Package: extracts from the press conference by Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC

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