Estonia suddenly changes mind on EU directive impacting food couriers
The EU Council on Monday approved the platform work directive, with Estonia, which had previously opposed it, also giving it the green light. Chair of the Riigikogu European Union Affairs Committee (ELAK) Liisa Pakosta called Estonia's change of heart unexpected, while Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that conditions unsuitable for Estonia were removed from the directive, making it a logical step.
The current EU Presidency holder, Belgium, announced on Monday via social media that the EU Council had adopted the platform directive, which improves working conditions for those delivering food to people's homes. The directive establishes clearer rules for classifying platform workers as employees and obtaining the associated social guarantees.
Marten Kokk, the ambassador representing Estonia, voted in favor of the platform work directive, even though Estonia had previously been against it.
The directive was supposed to be discussed in the Riigikogu European Union Affairs Committee last week, but committee chair Liisa Pakosta (Eesti 200) told ERR that she removed the item from the agenda because the government did not send in its position.
"The Reform Party accuses me of steamrolling something in ELAK. I emphasize that ELAK has always discussed positions coming from the government, and in this case, we did not receive any positions, as the government failed to submit them due to a lack of agreement," she explained. "I interrupted the discussion of this item until the government's positions arrive, which is nothing unusual."
Prime Minister Kaja Kallas stated on Vikerraadio's "Stuudios on peaminister" program Tuesday that supporting the directive was not at all surprising and that Estonia has been very clear and forceful in this process.
"We have rejected three versions because they did not consider the concerns we had. We have presented our conditions and the positions of the Estonian government, which have also been confirmed in ELAK. These included that if working conditions are prescribed in detail, then we cannot be in favor of this matter. They were removed, meeting us halfway," Kallas said, adding that as things that were unacceptable for Estonia were removed, there is no more basis to be neutral or to vote against the directive.
Economic Affairs Minister Tiit Riisalo, who in December justified Estonia's decision not to support the platform directive by stating that the proposed solutions would facilitate the incorrect classification of independent workers and hinder platforms from developing flexible work forms, now announced that the directive was approved for the sake of compromise, but some issues remain.
"Our duty is to ensure clear and dignified working conditions for the growing number of platform workers in Europe. On the other hand, we should not do this at the expense of the sustainable development of an innovative economic sector," Riisalo stated.
According to the minister, the agreed text reached a balance in terms of regulation and legal clarity, and in light of the compromise, Estonia supported the agreement.
"We believe and hope that it will be implemented in the best interests of workers and platforms," Riisalo added.
However, Pakosta said Estonia's change of heart came unexpectedly. Until now, Estonia had abstained from voting on the adoption of the directive, and Pakosta justified this by stating that the directive could only be agreed upon if it ensured the sector's sustainability and that people could continue working as self-employed individuals.
In other words, while traditionally the employment relationship has meant an agreement between an employer and an employee, where the former specifies what work to do, when and how, and how much will be paid for it, and the latter performs the work in the specified volume, place and time, receiving in return salary, vacation and health insurance, the self-employed mode of work allows the worker to decide when to log into the app and start or finish work.
Pakosta stated that Estonia has been interested in the development of innovative ways of working so that both platform developers and workers can grow.
"The point of contention in Europe is that mainly socialists have believed that something like self-employment should not exist, but rather, a worker must work under the control of an employer. The other, liberal side, says that people have the freedom to work in a traditional employment relationship or to do platform work, but these are not the same thing. People must have the freedom to choose how they work," she explained.
The head of ELAK added that the understanding of European socialists is supported in Estonia by the local Social Democrats, while the liberal wing has been of the opinion that someone invented platform work, and a lot of it has been done in Estonia. The directive, however, tries to cripple platform work from various angles to replace it with a traditional employment relationship.
Pakosta criticized the requirement for a human component, metaphorically speaking, the return of taxi drivers. Additionally, she was not satisfied with the EU leaving it up to each member state to decide the exact regulations.
"It's illogical also in terms of the EU's own functioning if you want each country to regulate something separately. This does not contribute to the creation of a single competitive market; secondly, platform work means making investments in software, now you have to make 27 different developments instead of one. This does not align with Estonia's main goal of supporting the development of platform work," Pakosta summarized her critique.
Margus Tsahkna, Eesti 200 chairman and Estonia's foreign minister, mentioned in a letter sent to the Board of the Riigikogu at the beginning of last week that Estonia abstained from the latest vote on the platform work directive because the text required further refinement. Despite Estonia's efforts in the negotiations, it was not possible to achieve an outcome that sufficiently considered Estonia's concerns.
Pakosta stated that the European Union Affairs Committee honors the government's decision, but the last decision on this matter was made on June 22, 2023, which clearly outlined that Estonia's position emphasizes the importance of the development and flourishing of platform work. She confirmed that no new positions have been received from the government on this issue since then, hence previous understandings remained in effect.
"It's no secret that the government did not reach an agreement, hence those positions were not forthcoming," she added.
Pakosta mentioned that Germany faced a similar situation and therefore abstained from voting, which is a common solution in European politics.
"In my opinion, the old positions, which clearly suggest that abstention from voting should have continued as before, still apply. If a sufficient number of countries abstain from voting, a blocking minority is formed, and the legislative act is not adopted," said the chair of ELAK. "This has been one of our success stories in the EU, that we have been part of a blocking minority and rather expected that the directive would not be adopted in such a form. This development is also unfortunate for communication with other good partners; we have maintained a consistent line until now, and suddenly changing it can damage credibility."
Prime Minister Kallas also noted that until new positions are adopted, the old positions remain valid, but her understanding of the existing positions is different.
"The old positions, which were confirmed by all coalition partners, stated that the conditions we demanded – that conditions related to work be removed – were taken out. Consequently, the basis for opposition disappeared," Kallas stated.
Pakosta: Government must explain its reasoning to ELAK or the Foreign Affairs Committee as soon as possible
The Riigikogu's Rules of Procedure and Internal Rules Act obligates the government to adhere to the valid positions of the Riigikogu. Pakosta pointed out that if the government fails to do this, it must justify its actions to the European Union Affairs Committee or the Foreign Affairs Committee at the earliest opportunity.
Predicting when the platform directive will be implemented in Estonia and what it will look like in practice is challenging, according to Pakosta.
"Even if we resolve it very sensibly in Estonia, other member states may not do the same. The idea behind the EU's functioning is to establish uniform competition rules, but now we're faced with legal confusion that Estonia must somehow resolve for itself. We need to start looking at the articles one by one to see how much we actually need to do," she said.
Pakosta added that there is currently no analysis of the directive's impacts because, until now, Estonia has mostly assumed that it would not be adopted in its current form.
The agreement must be approved by the European Parliament, and after the directive comes into effect, member states will have two years to transpose it into national law.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski