Joint Position on the Proposal for a Regulation establishing a single digital portal for companies providing cross-border services and posting workers – “eDeclaration”

On 13 November 2024, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation
establishing a single digital portal for companies providing cross-border services and posting
workers, hereafter called the “eDeclaration”. This single digital declaration portal aims to
reduce businesses’ administrative burden by helping companies comply with their obligation
to submit the posting declaration foreseen by the EU legislation.

The legal framework at EU level is laid down in the Enforcement Directive which relates to the
Posting of Workers Directive. This Enforcement Directive provides EU Member States the
possibility to impose an obligation for service providers established in another Member State
to make a posting declaration to the competent national authorities of the receiving Member
State, containing the relevant information necessary to allow controls at the workplace. With
the implementation process, this has created a patchwork of 27 national posting declarations
in the EU Member States. As a consequence, our member companies can only navigate these
national reporting obligations with the input of additional staff or by resorting to external
service providers, incurring extra costs for the member company and creating extra
bureaucracy.

Therefore, the setting up of a European standardised digital platform is welcome by employers
of our sectors as it will facilitate the declaration of postings for companies, reduce the costs of
this administrative obligation and facilitate effective controls – via an easier exchange of
information between the national administration - by the labour inspectors, thus participate in
the fight against frauds.

Although many other obstacles for posting companies are not tackled with the proposal, we
fully support the eDeclaration initiative and strongly welcome the fact that the European
Commission has chosen the Regulation, the strongest legal instrument, to implement it.
For the signatories, the standard form proposed for the digital platform - which will be defined
by the Commission in an implementing act - has the following advantages:

• It contains information related to the service provider, the posted worker, the posting
assignment, the contact person for competent authorities and the service recipient. This
information is sufficient to ensure proper checks on the posting situation and allow legal
certainty for companies. Indeed, these obligations will not change over time and will be
harmonised between the participating Member States.

• It will be submitted via a multilingual public interface in one place for all participating
Member States, thus eliminating the need to submit a declaration through a national
portal.

We therefore call upon the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to approve this
Regulation swiftly, even if we regret that the use of the e-Declaration will remain completely
voluntarily for Member States. For us, this can only be the first step in a longer process to
improve labour mobility within the EU.

Recalling the recently adopted Budapest Declaration, where all 27 Heads of State and
Government of the EU countries unanimously committed to a “simplification revolution” and
to “drastically reducing administrative, regulatory and reporting burdens” we call upon all
Member States to participate in the new system. The eDeclaration can be a first step in
achieving a fully functioning internal market in the area of posting of workers and to reduce
unnecessary burdens.

Finally, we believe that a common digital e-Declaration should be seen in relation to other
digital solutions that can benefit free movement. In this context, the ESSPASS project, which
aims to digitize the A1 certificate, can also contribute to reducing burdens.
To quote the Heads of State and Government: “The need for a unified response has never been
more compelling.” It is time to turn these words into action.