European Labour Authority: Prerogatives and Limits

he European Labour Authority (ELA) has been established in 2019 by the Regulation (EU) 2019/1149. Being as one of the novelties introduced as result of the European Pillar of Social rights, the ELA has the mission to ensure that EU rules on labour mobility and social security coordination are enforced in the EU internal market. This aim cannot be reached without a structured cooperation and a coordination among Member States and among national authorities involved in the application of national and supranational labour law. Due to the increase of labour mobility and cross-border workers, the ELA should also coordinate the exchange of information and good practices to grant a fair and effective protection in every Member States. Simultaneously, the ELA should serve as a coordinating authority to fight abuse and undeclared work all over EU. Unfortunately, there are some concerns about the effective results that ELA could reach in its activities. The ELA, according to its Statute, has no exclusive competence for what concerns inspections and on-field activities. It could only suggest the action on specific issues, but any intervention could only be performed in accordance with Member States and with their approval. Moreover, there are doubts about the leadership of such coordinated initiatives and the competencies of ELA in the territories of Member States and under the jurisdiction of national authorities. This mechanism could be controversial and cumbersome in its smooth application. Secondly, the ELA should play the role of mediator in case of cross-border intervention, but the non-binding nature of the final decision on the participation or not of the national authority could nullify the efforts made to achieve a shared solution. Another emerging problem refers to the fact that ELA has no sanctioning power. Lastly, the ELA proposal for intervention could also not being performed or there is no obligation for the Member States to apply fines or sanctions. In this scenario, the ELA’s powers and competencies should be strengthened. A first opportunity could come from the evaluation of an EU-wide mandate for investigation or for interventions that could impose an obligation on national agencies to intervene under ELA’s coordination, based on Article 9 TEU and Article 153, 2, (a) TFEU. Such initiative could be invoked before August 2024 during the evaluation and review procedure based on Article 40 of the Regulation EU 2019/1149. The essay will deal with the European Labour Authority and its competencies. In the first part, the ELA will be analyzed considering its Statute and functions. Secondly, the research will focus on the lack of competencies and the authorizing mechanism for intervention, alongside with the lack of fining procedure seen as one of the main controversial issues regarding the ELA. Applying a de jure condendo approach, some final remarks will be offered looking at the possible proposals for a revision of the competencies of the ELA considering the Treaties and its funding Regulation.