Paychecks: Agreement at night – lead negotiator Dennis Radtke (CDU): “Agreement writes socio-political history in Europe”
Straßburg/Düsseldorf, 07. Juni 2022 – “With the agreement on minimum wages, we are writing socio-political history in Europe. For the first time, EU legislation will make a direct contribution in ensuring that workers are getting fairer, better paychecks”, the lead negotiator of the European Parliament, Dennis Radtke (CDU), commented the result on a statement sent to The European Times.
Until deep in the past night, the EPP-Coordinator for Employment and Social Affairs had negotiated in the Trilogue between the Parliament, the Council and the European Commission and reached a compromise on the EU Minimum Wage Directive.
With the agreement on minimum wages, we are writing socio political history in Europe. For the first time, EU legislation will make a direct contribution in ensuring that workers are getting fairer, better paychecks
MEP Dennis Radtke
According to the North Rhine-Westphalian MEP, the compromise contains the following key points:
- The “Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages in the European Union” sets, among other things, EU-wide procedural standards for the setting, updating and enforcing of statutory minimum wages;
- the framework includes provisions to promote collective bargaining on wage-setting;
- the directive requires the Member States to establish action plans to increase collective bargaining coverage if the latter is below 80 per cent.
“It was a tough job and we wrestled with the Council and the Commission until the very last moment”, Radtke assesses the agreement. “But I may say – it was worth it! Political soapbox speeches about the dignity of work are now finally being filled with life throughout the EU. The implementation of the standards set out in this directive will make a crucial difference in the lives of millions of workers with low and sometimes even existence-threatening wages.”
Together with his Dutch MEP colleague Agnes Jongerius (S&D), Radtke led the negotiations on the side of the Parliament. Parliament, Council and Commission are now working on the technical details of this deal. The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council is expected to take a decision on June 16. After that, the European Parliament must confirm the informally agreed text.
