EU co-legislators have struck a provisional deal to create a multilingual online portal through which companies can file compulsory declarations when they send employees on temporary assignments to another Member State. The agreement, reached on 23 June under the Cyprus Council Presidency and reported on 25 June, keeps participation voluntary but promises a single standard form collecting 12 data points about the employer and nine about each worker – including proof of social-security cover and, for third-country nationals, a valid residence or work permit. Irish businesses currently navigate a patchwork of 27 national portals, each with different languages and document formats. Compliance teams often devote several hours per assignment to entering duplicate information and securing translations; fines for errors can exceed €20,000 in Germany and France. By opting into the new interface, Ireland could slash administrative overheads for sectors that rely heavily on project-based mobility, such as construction, ICT consulting and pharma engineering. The regulation also lets Member States extend the platform to service providers established outside the EU. That is significant for Ireland, whose contractors frequently post staff to the UK or the Gulf under onward-supply contracts and then back into the EU single market. Once the system is operational, companies will be able to store supporting documents in the portal and reuse profiles for repeat postings, reducing lead times. Implementation will take up to two years after the text is formally adopted, but the Commission must evaluate its effectiveness within five years. Employers are advised to map current posting flows and prepare to integrate the future API into HR or global-mobility software so that data can be pushed directly from assignment-management systems.
Source: Agence Europe
