Sweden hits back at commission in trade union row

BRUSSELS - Sweden has condemned an attack on its labour rules by the internal market commissioner and threatened to withdraw its support for the EU services directive - championed by Brussels.

Internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy said on Wednesday (5 October) that the European Commission would stand against Sweden in a legal case over the country's collective wage agreements.

The EU's top court is supposed to decide whether Stockholm can refer to collective agreements when dealing with companies employing foreigners to work in Sweden.

But Sweden has reacted furiously to Mr McCreevy’s statements.

Swedish industry minister Thomas Ostros suggested Mr McCreevy's statement was viewed as an attack on the most successful social models in Europe.

"To hear that the commission is behind a lunge against a member state which has regulated its labour market in a different way than most other member states, but with the same purpose and goal, is unacceptable", Mr Ostros wrote in a letter to Brussels.

Scandinavian countries generally do not regulate the labour market by law, but by agreements between the trade unions and employers.

Mr Ostros added he hoped the opinion was of a single commissioner, not the line of the whole college, as "a lot of member states will be worried and have a hard time explaining to their citizens what European collaboration is about".

The minister also suggested the dispute could "affect the Swedish governments possibility to work in a constructive way together with the commission on the service directive."

Surprise in the commission

Mr McCreevy’s statement also came as a surprise to the commission itself which has not yet made up its mind on the matter.

It is to be consulted by the court’s judges before they take a decision.

However a spokesperson confirmed that commission officials have not yet drawn up a common position on the case yet.

"The Commission needs to agree on its opinion which it will present to the court, and the discussion about this has so far not been featuring on the agenda up until December," said the spokeswoman.

Progress on the services directive, which is strongly pushed by Mr McCreevy himself, now threatens to become embroiled in the issue.

The law, which aims to cut down barriers in Europe's services markets, has turned out to be very controversial but Sweden has so far proved to be one of the countries more supportive of it.

According to an EU official, the recent war of words between Brussels and Stockholm could seriously affect the ongoing legislative work, and it could also come up at the forthcoming informal summit of EU leaders at Hampton Court near London in 27-28 October.

Brussels is set to hammer out its report about the future of the European social model on 20 October and present it to the EU leaders at the summit.