The Commission proposes allowing the European Labour Authority to initiate cross-border inspections, while member states retain inspection powers
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The European Labour Authority could request joint inspections on its own initiative when data indicate possible cross-border abuses, according to the reform discussed in the European Parliament. States will continue to decide whether to participate and to exercise enforcement and sanctioning powers, but a refusal will have to be justified within ten working days. At the same time, the Commission wants ELA to use more data for risk analysis and to be able to intervene more effectively in cases involving workers from third countries.
The European Labour Authority could request the organization of cross-border inspections on its own initiative when data analysis indicates possible violations of workers’ rights, according to the European Commission proposal discussed on 12 October in the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. The reform would give ELA a more active role in identifying cases requiring the cooperation of several states, while keeping the actual inspection and sanctions in the hands of national authorities.
In brief
ELA could request concerted or joint inspections on its own initiative when risk analysis indicates possible cross-border problems.
States’ participation would remain voluntary, but a refusal would have to be justified within ten working days.
The Authority would gain access to more data sources and would work with national liaison officers specializing in inspections.
ELA’s mandate would more clearly cover abuses affecting workers from third countries and combating illegal work.
The reform is part of the Fair Labour Mobility package presented on 15 September and must be negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council before entering into force.
The problem the Commission is trying to solve arises when the employment relationship does not stop at the border of a single state. A company may be registered in one country, may post workers to another, may use subcontractors established in a third state, and may have social security obligations in a different system. However, the authorities that must verify the situation work with national databases, procedures, and powers, and a case can become difficult to reconstruct when the relevant information is divided among several administrations.
ELA was created to help states cooperate in such situations, but its current mandate does not turn it into a European inspectorate. National authorities are the ones that enter the workplace, check documents, establish violations, and impose any applicable sanctions. The Commission’s proposal preserves this model but seeks to give ELA more initiative when it must be decided whether coordinated enforcement is necessary.
Under the new approach, the Authority could use the information it receives and its own risk analysis to propose a concerted or joint inspection to the authorities in the states concerned. A government or national inspectorate could refuse to participate, but the refusal could no longer remain unexplained: the draft requires the reasons to be communicated within ten working days. ELA could thus trigger cooperation more easily, without being granted the right to unilaterally send inspectors to a company in Romania, Germany, or any other Member State.
The Commission also wants to strengthen the stage preceding an inspection. The Authority would receive access to more data sources to identify sectors, employment patterns, or cross-border situations presenting a higher risk of breaches of the rules. The resulting information could be used by national inspectorates to direct inspections toward cases warranting additional checks, without ELA’s analysis amounting to a finding of an infringement.
The link between administrations would also be supported through national officers dedicated to inspections. They would facilitate information exchange and the organization of inspections when the documents, employers, subcontractors, or workers involved are located in several states. For a national inspectorate, the usefulness of such a mechanism arises precisely in cases where an important part of the evidence or legal responsibilities lies outside its own jurisdiction.
At the same time, the reform more clearly expands ELA’s scope to workers from third countries. The Authority could support cooperation between states in cases of exploitation, illegal work, or violations of social rights involving people who are not EU citizens. This dimension has become increasingly important as the mobility of the European workforce includes a growing number of workers recruited from outside the Union through intermediaries and subcontracting chains operating across several jurisdictions.
In September, ELA and Europol signed a separate cooperation arrangement on labour exploitation, human trafficking, and fraud. The two institutions have different roles: ELA works with labour administrations and social security systems, while Europol intervenes when information indicates possible forms of serious or organized crime. In some cases, the same situation may begin as a suspected violation of labour law and later lead to an investigation into human trafficking or criminal networks.
The Fair Labour Mobility package links this expansion of inspections to the digitalization of social documents. Through the European Social Security Pass, ESSPASS, the Commission proposes that documents such as the A1 form used for posted workers or the European Health Insurance Card be requested, stored, and verified electronically. Inspectors and social security institutions could check more quickly whether the document is authentic and valid, reducing the time needed for administrative exchanges between states.
However, a valid digital document does not confirm that all the worker’s rights are respected. The A1 form indicates the social security system to which the person is subject, but it does not establish whether pay, working hours, accommodation conditions, or posting rules are respected in practice. ELA and ESSPASS therefore operate on two different levels: digitalization simplifies document verification, while cooperation between inspectorates must make it possible to verify the actual situation at the workplace.
For Romanian workers posted or temporarily employed in other Member States, the change would not create a European service desk to which any complaint could automatically be submitted. The competent authority would continue to depend on the nature of the problem and the applicable legislation. ELA would become more important when resolving the case requires inspectorates or social security institutions from several countries to compare documents and coordinate checks.
Nor would the change mean the creation of a European corps of inspectors with general powers for employers. Enterprise-level inspections and the application of sanctions would remain within national systems, but the possibility for ELA to initiate an inspection request and the obligation to justify a refusal could make it more difficult to block cooperation when the problem crosses several borders.
The Commission also proposes simplifying mediation between national administrations when they hold differing positions on issues concerning worker mobility or social security coordination. In parallel, ELA could fund organizations that provide information and advice to people working in another state and to companies recruiting workers or providing cross-border services.
The reform comes in a labour market where mobility is already significant. The Commission estimates that in 2024 approximately 14 million European citizens lived in another Member State, of whom more than 10 million were of working age. The package seeks to simplify their movement and the recognition of documents, while at the same time reducing the possibility that differences between national systems will be used for fraud, undeclared work, or the erosion of social rights.
The proposal to amend ELA’s mandate was presented by the Commission on 15 September, and the exchange in EMPL on 12 October is part of the subsequent political and legislative examination. The new powers are not yet applicable. The Commission estimates that their implementation could begin gradually during the 2028–2030 period, if the regulation is adopted by the European Parliament and the Council.
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