Internal Market Information System/Posting of workers

Background

There are currently five million employees temporarily posted by their employers to work in another EU country. To reduce the complex paperwork often required ─ such as submitting multiple documents in different languages ─ the European Commission has proposed a single declaration portal – an internal market information system related to the posting of workers. The new portal aims to allow companies to use a single form, available in all EU languages, instead of using 27 different national declarations. Although the portal is to be used on a voluntary basis, it is expected to significantly cut red tape, streamline reporting for businesses and better protect posted workers’ rights.

The EESC supports the proposed regulation but urges caution: simplification must not come at the expense of enforcement and worker protection, particularly in high-risk sectors like construction, which accounts for nearly a third of posted workers but also for 23% of workplace accidents, according to Eurostat. The EESC warns that reducing prior notification requirements could fuel fraud and weaken worker protections. It calls for safeguards and the active involvement of sectoral partners in identifying which elements to include in the declaration.

The EESC’s recommendations and proposed amendments seek to balance business efficiency with workers’ rights, ensuring that the regulation strengthens – rather than fragments – the EU’s internal market.

Key points:

In the opinion, the EESC:

  • recognises the importance of digitalisation for the simplification and effectiveness of posting declarations and stresses the importance of combating non-compliance and fraud, which lead to unfair competition for businesses and degrade the protection of workers;
  • underlines that adoption of the regulation should be supported in advance by a proper impact assessment, in view of the simplification objectives that the proposed regulation is seeking to achieve;
  • calls for the regulation to specify in more detail the type of information being requested in the standard form and for the social partners to be involved in drawing it up.

Read the opinion.

Additional information

Section: Single Market, Production and Consumption

Opinion number: INT/1077

Opinion type: Referral

Rapporteur: Bruno Choix

Reference: Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union

Date of adoption by section: 8/4/2024

Result of the vote: 59 in favour/17 against/6 abstentions                                                   

Date of adoption in plenary: 29/4/2025

Result of the vote: 116 in favour/35 against/17 abstentions

 

Contacts:

Press officer: Laura Lui          

Tel.: 00 32 2 546 9189

Email:  laurairena.lui@eesc.europa.eu

Administrator: Marco Manfroni

Tel.: + 32 2 546 9140

Email: Marco.Manfroni @eesc.europa.eu