The “possibility of no minimum wage in the European Union exists today”, so “a political agreement” during the Portuguese presidency of the EU is “relevant”, says Vieira da Silva, European Commission advisor for social rights
Vieira da Silva, former Minister of Labor and advisor to the European Commission for social rights during the Portuguese presidency of the EU, in the first half of 2021, underlines, in an interview to Lusa, that “the symbolic value of being a European directive is a relevant sign”, because“ it becomes European legislation”.
“The possibility of no minimum wage today exists in a country in Europe, in the EU. Why? Because the legal instrument that exists is a recommendation and the recommendation is followed, or not, by the countries. What changes is that it will no longer be a recommendation ”, he says, referring to the directive proposal of a European minimum wage framework, one of the Social Rights Pillar Action Plan that Portugal hopes to see approved under its presidency.
The adviser stresses that countries like United Kingdom or Germany “only agreed on a minimum wage a few decades ago”, in an EU where “most countries have minimum wages”, but “which are established by very different procedures”.
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