Ms. Marianne Thyssen
Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility
European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200
BE-1049 Brussels
Belgium
Minister for Employment
Ved Stranden 8
DK-1061 Copenhagen K
T +45 72 20 50 01
uk.bm.dk
CBR 10172748
Dear Commissioner Marianne Thyssen,
Thank you for your letter dated 15 December 2017 regarding the European Pillar
of Social Rights (“the Pillar”).
As you know, Denmark engaged actively in the negotiations leading to the adop-
tion of the Pillar and the debates on how it may be used in our future work on em-
ployment and social policies.
For me, a guiding principle is to ensure that our dealings in the employment field
leave sufficient room for a tri-part structure like the Danish labour market model.
As part of this, I presented a declaration on the Pillar in EPSCO in October.
I am glad that you underline in your letter that the Pillar recalls that social and la-
bour marked policies are primarily the responsibility of the Member States.
This is a vital point, which Denmark fully supports. The Pillar does not in itself
contain new legal rights or obligations or entail an extension of the Union's powers
and tasks as conferred by the Treaties.
For this reason, any initiative linked to the Pillar and announced as part of the
Commission’s Fairness Package will naturally have to be assessed by the Council
on its own merits once presented by the Commission.
Denmark will follow this with great attention. For your consideration, I enclose
two short non-papers with preliminary inputs by Denmark on a possible European
Labour Authority as well as a European Social Security Number.
I look forward to our further cooperation on these and related issues.
Yours sincerely,
Date 1 March 2018
File no. 2017 - 8680
Troels Lund Poulsen