As the Danish Presidency comes to a close and the current European Commission marks its first year in office, the latest EPSCO Council on 1 December 2025 offered a timely reflection on the future of the EU’s employment and social agenda. For Europe’s Metal, Engineering, Technology-based (MET) employers, it was encouraging to see that most delegations explicitly supported a genuine simplification agenda and called for rules that are proportionate, implementable and adapted to the realities faced by companies, particularly SMEs.
Ceemet warmly welcomes the Danish Presidency’s clear reminder that employment and social affairs a sensitive field in which every Member State’s concerns must be taken into account when contemplating legislative adaptation. This principle is essential for employer organisations, particularly in sectors as diverse and innovation-driven as MET. Social and employment legislation is primarily the responsibility of Member States, and the EU should not interfere with national competence in this area.
The strong emphasis throughout EPSCO on the important role that social dialogue and social partnership play in regulating the labour market is particularly positive. Employers and trade unions representatives are best placed to deal with the emerging challenges of the labour market and thus to identify which rules function in practice, which create disproportionate burdens, and where guidance or clarification could replace legislative changes. At both national and European level, social partners must be fully involved in the formulation of employment policies from the outset in order to shape balanced solutions.
Throughout the Council debate, digital tools were cited repeatedly as the way to ease administrative burden. The examples presented, from digital labour cards to job portals or interoperable security systems, are promising and useful. Ceemet sees digitalisation as a necessary enabler of a more coherent single market and more competitive industries. Yet, it remains clear that even the most sophisticated tools cannot compensate for the complexity of over 70 pieces of EU legislation that govern employment and social affairs. Without a serious effort to streamline, consolidate or modernise this social acquis, digitalisation alone will not deliver the level of simplification that companies urgently need.
Some voices warned that simplification risks blocking progress in social policy. The reality is that, unlike in other EU policy fields, no genuine simplification effort has yet taken place in the social and employment area, despite repeated political commitments. Simplification is not synonymous with deregulation. Rather, it is a precondition for ensuring high-quality, future-proof social policy that is accessible to workers and manageable for employers. When rules are layered, overlapping or unclear, compliance doesn’t improve because companies are stuck trying to understand which rules to apply. Streamlining legislation, removing outdated provisions and aligning overlapping requirements would strengthen the social acquis by making it more coherent and better enforced.
Ceemet is therefore astonished that the Council has taken on board an additional substance, isoprene, in the CMRD6 proposal. The Commission explained in the Staff Working Document that lowering the limit value for isoprene further would not bring any additional benefit for the health of workers. It would, however, mean an important investment for companies. Adding administrative burden as well as huge costs to companies, without additional health benefits, runs counter to the current simplification and competitiveness agenda.
Ceemet welcomes Executive Vice President Mînzatu’s remarks on strengthening social security coordination and improving clarity around the rules governing mobile and cross-border workers. Her acknowledgement that procedures such as A1, posting declarations, and digital identity systems must be brought closer together is an important step towards reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. A functioning framework for fair labour mobility is essential to Europe’s competitiveness, and we hope that the upcoming Cypriot Presidency will carry this work forward with ambition.
Ceemet urges the Commission, the European Parliament and Council to build on the clear signals seen at EPSCO: that better regulation, solid impact assessments, smarter legislation and meaningful simplification are not merely optional. They are essential to ensuring that Europe remains competitive, innovative and socially resilient.