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Confederation of Danish Employers

DA

The Confederation of Danish Employers represents around 23,000 private companies across manufacturing, retail, transport, service and construction, promoting flexible collective bargaining and competitiveness.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Karen Vandekerckhove (Head of Unit Justice and Consumers) and BUSINESSEUROPE and

3 Dec 2025 · Exchange on the implementation of Directive (EU) 2023/970

Response to Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness

11 Nov 2025

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) welcomes the possibility to provide input on the European Commissions upcoming strategy on Intergenerational fairness. Our input focuses particularly on skills and labour market dimensions of the long-term opportunities and challenges related to the twin transition and a shrinking European labour force due to demographic decline. Please see our input attached.
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Meeting with Nils Behrndt (Deputy Secretary-General Secretariat-General)

5 Nov 2025 · Simplification initiatives with a focus on labour law

Meeting with Martin Engell-Rossen (Cabinet of Commissioner Dan Jørgensen)

4 Nov 2025 · Simplification, EU competitiveness

Meeting with Michael Hager (Cabinet of Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis)

28 Oct 2025 · Simplification and administrative burden reduction

Meeting with Ana Carla Pereira (Director Justice and Consumers)

8 Oct 2025 · The input of DA into gender equality and social policies.

Meeting with Henrik Dahl (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

3 Sept 2025 · Subcontracting

Response to Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030

11 Aug 2025

Please find attached the response to the public consultation on the Gender Equality Strategy by the confederation of Danish Employers incl. annex
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Response to Anti-racism Strategy

8 Jul 2025

Please find attached the feedback response provided by the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA).
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Danish employers urge EU to prioritize culture over new regulations

24 Jun 2025
Topic — The EU is developing a new strategy to combat LGBTIQ inequality and discrimination.
Message — The strategy should focus on cultural change and societal biases instead of formal rules. Existing EU legislation already provides adequate protection and remains fit for purpose.12
Why — This approach helps businesses avoid additional compliance costs and new regulatory requirements.3
Impact — Groups seeking stricter workplace mandates lose the opportunity for stronger legal enforcement.4
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Meeting with Christel Schaldemose (Member of the European Parliament)

3 Jun 2025 · AI

Meeting with Per Clausen (Member of the European Parliament) and Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation

26 May 2025 · EMPL-udvalgsmission til Danmark

Meeting with Stine Bosse (Member of the European Parliament)

22 May 2025 · EU Talent Pool

Meeting with Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Mar 2025 · Public procurement directive

Meeting with Stine Bosse (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Feb 2025 · Employment policy

Danish employers call for simplified rules and better labor mobility

31 Jan 2025
Topic — The consultation seeks input on the development of the Single Market Strategy 2025.
Message — The group advocates for harmonized rules and the mutual recognition of professional qualifications across the EU. They also call for reduced administrative burdens for posted workers and easier access for non-EU talent.123
Why — Firms would see lower operational costs and easier access to a skilled workforce.4
Impact — National authorities lose discretion over labor markets if EU funding is tied to reforms.5
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Response to COM Prop Regulation EP+EC for public interface to IMI for posting of workers declaration + SWD

30 Jan 2025

In the attached you will find the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA)'s response to the initiative on a public interface connected to IMI for posting of workers declaration (eDeclaration).
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Meeting with Per Clausen (Member of the European Parliament)

22 Jan 2025 · Traineeship, skills, minimum wage

Meeting with Alina-Stefania Ujupan (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu), Annukka Ojala (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu), Francesco Corti (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu), Max Uebe (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu)

16 Jan 2025 · Exchange of views on the upcoming Commission initiatives

Meeting with Christel Schaldemose (Member of the European Parliament) and BUSINESSEUROPE

15 Jan 2025 · European business priorities for the new EU cycle

Meeting with Per Clausen (Member of the European Parliament) and Danish Trade Union Confederation EU Office

14 Jan 2025 · AI, skills, traineeship, the danish model, right to disconnect, competitiveness

Meeting with Per Clausen (Member of the European Parliament) and Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation

5 Dec 2024 · Arbejdsmarkedsbriefing

Meeting with Kristoffer Storm (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Dec 2024 · European Works Council

Meeting with Villy Søvndal (Member of the European Parliament) and Danish Trade Union Confederation EU Office

10 Sept 2024 · General discussion

Meeting with Niels Flemming Hansen (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Sept 2024 · Priorities for the mandate

Meeting with Christel Schaldemose (Member of the European Parliament) and Danish Trade Union Confederation EU Office

10 Sept 2024 · den danske model i det europæiske samarbejde

Meeting with Per Clausen (Member of the European Parliament) and Danish Trade Union Confederation EU Office

10 Sept 2024 · Arbejdet i EMPL, mandatet, den kommende tid

Meeting with Morten Løkkegaard (Member of the European Parliament)

20 Feb 2024 · Working Directive

Meeting with Christel Schaldemose (Member of the European Parliament)

19 Feb 2024 · next legislature at the EP

Meeting with Marianne Vind (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

12 Feb 2024 · EU Talent Pool

Response to 2024 Evaluation of the European Labour Authority

5 Jan 2024

You will find the consultation response from the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) in the attached file. Kind regards, Maria Skov
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Response to Communication on maximising the potential of talent mobility as part of the European Year of Skills

12 Oct 2023

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) welcomes the possibility to provide input on the European Commissions upcoming package on maximizing the potential of talent mobility and hereby submits its input to the call for evidence. General Remarks DA supports and welcomes the Commissions efforts to address the challenge of severe labour shortages. Companies are already struggling to find skilled labor, and staff shortages look set to get worse, also linked to the green and digital transition, as also recognized by the Commission. A recent analysis of the Confederation of Danish Employers indicates that the number of skilled workers risks falling drastically. Based on DREAM (Danish Rational Economic Agents Model) projections, DA calculated that the number of skilled workers will fall by 75,000 in 2030 compared to 2023. By 2035, it will have fallen by more than 150,000, a drop of almost 20%. DA strongly supports measures to facilitate that recognition and valida-tion of skills gained inside and outside the EU, as it can contribute to making the EU more attractive to international workers with skills sought by employers. Currently, the slow processing time for recogni-tion of qualifications of international workers is an important obstacle, especially for third country nationals. This is important given the demo-graphic challenges and skills shortages faced in EU member states. DA further suggests that the Commission considers facilitating the ac-cess to certificates and regulatory training courses for international workers, both for EU nationals and third country nationals. Currently, international workers are often prevented from obtaining certifications and regulatory training courses, which they need to perform their work tasks. This in turn poses major challenges for companies in terms of se-curing orders and retaining jobs. This is a particular challenge when it comes to the green transition. DA welcomes that the European Commission plans to focus on filling skills gaps in professions that support the green and digital transition (e.g., construction, energy, transport), and in the health and long-term care sectors. DA would, however, prefer that the forthcoming proposal focusses on companies in general rather than giving priority to skills gaps faced by SMEs, as also larger companies struggle to fill their vacancies. Yours sincerely, CONFEDERATION OF DANISH EMPLOYERS
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Meeting with Margrethe Vestager (Executive Vice-President) and

3 Jul 2023 · European Year of Skills; the confederations 2030 EU policy

Danish Employers urge workplace focus for mental health strategy

14 Feb 2023
Topic — The EU initiative aims to strengthen mental health through promotion, prevention, and cross-policy cooperation.
Message — The organization encourages the Commission to see the workplace as a platform to strengthen public mental health. They recommend promoting employment as a tool and sharing evidence-based knowledge via a portal.12
Why — These measures would help companies retain employees and address severe labor shortages across Europe.3
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Response to Binding standards for equality bodies

7 Feb 2023

Please find attached the Confederation of Danish Employers's consultation response to the two proposals on binding standards for equality bodies (COM(2022) 689 final and 688 final).
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Response to Evaluation of the Council Recommendation on European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning

11 Jan 2023

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) welcomes the possibility to provide input on the European Commissions upcoming proposal for an evaluation on the Council Recommendation on the European Qualifi-cations Framework for lifelong learning and hereby submits its input feedback to the call for evidence. General Remarks DA welcomes the Commissions upcoming evaluation concerning the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (EQF). DA supports the Commissions focus on life-long learning and under-lines the importance of securing that employees have the right skills to match the needs of the labour markets including skills to support the twin transition. It is crucial for Danish companies' competitiveness and development potential that they have competent and skilled employees. It is therefore important to ensure increased mobility across national borders on the European labor market. As per now the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) has limited effect on ensuring increased mobility across national boarders despite the intentions behind the framework. The EQF has been establish with the purpose of making it easier to understand, compare and recognize qualifications across different countries and systems in the EU, but ac-cording to DAs member organizations significant changes need to be made. DAs position is that there is a potential for improving and the further development of the EQF. DA wants to highlight the need for a review of the EQF, which will en-sure that it becomes applicable, and makes it easier to compare qualifica-tions across countries and help employers understand what job appli-cants can do. Above all DA finds, that the EQF as it is intended - has the potential for being an instrument that can be used for comparisons of qualifica-tions across education systems, whereas it does not seem realistic that EQF will have significance in relation to specific recruitment situations. An evaluation must show where improvements must be made to ease generic comparisons of qualifications. It is essential to Danish employers that education and training programs are structured and described to match labour market. It is of utmost im-portance that qualification levels are not determining the learning out-comes of qualifications. This calls for the EQF to remain a flexible in-strument. In conclusion, DA finds it essential to make sure that the upcoming evaluation will involve social partners to an appropriate extent, ensuring that both employees and employers will benefit from it. Yours sincerely, CONFEDERATION OF DANISH EMPLOYERS Elisabeth Lund Nyborg
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Meeting with Joost Korte (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

6 Dec 2022 · Meeting with the Board of Directors from The Confederation of Danish Employers

Response to Strengthening social dialogue

20 Oct 2022

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) welcomes the possibility to provide input on the European Commission’s upcoming communi-cation and proposal for a Council Recommendation on strengthening social dialogue in the European Union and hereby submits its input to the call for evidence. General Remarks DA supports the Commission’s focus on strengthening the social dialogue at national and European level and is strongly committed to play an active and positive contribution to the Commission’s initiative. Social dialogue can play a central role in times of crisis, which was proven most recently during COVID-19 (https://www.ilo.org/europe/publications/WCMS_857214/lang--en/index.htm). The social partners should also play a pivotal role in the labour market of tomorrow, including the twin transition, where reskilling and upskilling will play a fundamental role. At the European level we believe that the social partners play a critical role in the European social market economy. This role has the potential to be strengthened in the months and years to come, and the upcoming Commission initiative on strengthening social dialogue can play an important role towards this aim. The European Social Partners need to be given the necessary room for manoeuvre to reach their full potential. The social partners know the labour market conditions inside out. In addition, agreements by the social partners ensure the ownership of employees and employers and contribute to broadly supported policies in Europe. Models that work in practice lead to respect for national models and ensures legitimacy and acceptance of EU policies at the Member State level. Therefore, social partners should be involved much closer in the European legislation. Here the European institutions play an essential role and the awareness of the benefits of social dialogue must be expanded within the European institutions. As a first practical step towards this end and starting with the European Commission, we believe that a coordinator of social dialogue should be appointed in each relevant Directorates-General. The European Social Dialogue is dependent on a strong social dialogue at the national level. It is therefore of critical importance to support and reinforce the role of social partners in countries where the roots of social partners are less grounded. Here the EU can contribute to national social dialogue through capacity building and exchange of best practices. Today’s uncertainties and its ramifications, including on the European labour market, makes the need for the involvement of the social partners at national and European level even more topical. The social partners should be key players to find sustainable and pragmatic solutions to the critical issues of today and tomorrow. DA is ready to play a positive role in the upcoming initiative on strengthening social dialogue and remain at your disposal for any queries. Yours sincerely, CONFEDERATION OF DANISH EMPLOYERS
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Response to Enabling factors for digital education

15 Sept 2022

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) welcomes the possibility to provide input on the European Commission’s upcoming proposal for a Council Recommendation on enabling factors of successful digital education and hereby submits its input to the call for evidence. General Remarks DA supports and welcomes the Commission’s focus on the importance of digital education and training, including the emphasis on ensuring universal access to high-quality digital education and training that can support disadvantaged learners. DA finds it important to acknowledge the combined approach of re-skilling and upskilling in combination with a focus on meeting the skills demands of the labour market, in contrast to only focusing on raising the overall level of education (from unskilled to skilled, from skilled to higher educated etc.). DA supports the focus on new and relevant skills and employability more generally in both employment and education policy. DA welcomes the aim of this initiative with regards to supporting the EU Member States with the digital transformation of their education and training system. DA considers that there is a considerable potential to improve digital education and training approaches through peer-learning and existing best practices among the EU Member States. In continuing education, especially continuous vocational education and training (C-VET), digitalization and digital learning has the potential to create new innovative possibilities. Through digitalization didactic tools, such as VR and simulations, can be integrated into the teaching and can provide new flexible ways of learning. Furthermore, digital learning provides possibilities for individually adapted learning that is more targeted the specific needs of the employee and the employer. It also offers the possibility of participation regardless of time and place. For companies this means that they can continue with daily operation, and their employees can participate in the training when it fits into the daily schedule. This will likely increase companies' incentive to encourage and support further training for employees. Also, it can bring employees, who are more reluctant and less motivated for training – for example because of lacking basic skills and/or confidence with education and training – more motivated to reskill and upskill. Nevertheless, in the cases of smaller countries like Denmark, there is a particular challenge in creating a business model when developing relevant digital learning technology for a particular education field or subject in the national language. Yours sincerely, CONFEDERATION OF DANISH EMPLOYERS
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Response to Improving the provision of digital skills in education and training

15 Sept 2022

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) welcomes the possibility to provide input on the European Commission’s upcoming proposal for a Council Recommendation on improving the provision of digital skills in education and training and hereby submits its input feedback to the call for evidence. General Remarks DA supports and welcomes the Commission’s focus on improving the provision of digital skills in education and training and emphasises the importance of ensuring that education and training provide the digital skills needed on the labour market. DA agrees with the Commission that improvements must be made at all levels of education. However, in adult education it is especially important that upskilling and re-skilling of the workforce prioritize digital skills that are required in the labour market. In this regard DA encourages different forms of coop-eration between education institutions and enterprises to provide hands-on skills that are relevant for the labour market. While a wide range of digital skills development options are available for individuals and companies, there is a lack of reliable data when it comes to the extent of use of these offers aimed at strengthening digital competences in enterprises. DA considers that there is a considerable potential to improve digital skills approaches through peer-learning and existing best practices among the EU Member States. Last year Denmark was considered leading in Europe when it comes to the digital skills of the population according to the DESI rapport . According to the rapport 70 percent of the Danish population possess basic digital skills compared to a Euro-pean average of 56 percent. Still, it is true that companies continue to demand a work force with strong digital skills. This is not only a trend in Denmark but through-out Europe. To be able to meet the business demand for digital skills DA supports flexible and digital continuing education which can ac-commodate the demand. In this context, there is also need for empha-sis on the continuous education in digital skills of the educators and trainers to use the advanced digital learning data and technologies, while considering the diverse digital needs of different industries. DA considers the potential for digital interactive, virtual teaching and courses to be very promising. The continuing development of the edu-cational system for digital skills must be prioritized and funds should be prioritized nationally to this important area. Also, here experience sharing between Member States can be fruitful to learn from each other. Yours sincerely, CONFEDERATION OF DANISH EMPLOYERS
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Response to Recommendation on minimum income

1 Apr 2022

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) hereby submits its comments to the European Commission’s call for feedback on a proposal for a recommendation on adequate minimum income schemes in the EU. National competence and the importance of the context DA supports the European-Commission’s approach to provide guidance while leaving the implementation to countries’ own discretion, thereby respecting the diversity and specific features of national systems. This is also in line with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union article 153(1)(j) and 153(2)(a) stating that any harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the Member States falls outside the scope. Minimum income schemes are country specific and cannot be correctly and sufficiently assessed without taking the context and the wider national social protection systems into account. Any comparisons of minimum income schemes as well as the level of benefits would therefore be extremely difficult and could result in wrongful conclusions. The Commission emphasises the value of converging minimum income schemes. DA agrees with the value of convergence; however, it is imperative that convergence between Member States does not take priority against developing schemes that are effective in the national context. Active labour market policy Minimum income schemes should be supplemented by an active labour market policy. The objective of an active labour market policy is to support job-to-job transition and help unemployed to re-enter the labour market as fast as possible. It requires an active labour market policy to ensure that people are not left outside the labour market. The national systems should incentivize work including part-time work. This should be borne in mind when considering the system of deduction in benefits and eligibility requirements of benefits. It should always be financially attractive to work, even for only a few hours per week. In this regard, it is also important that the system is not too bureaucratic and thereby creating a barrier to take up full-time or part-time work. The system should be designed in a way where the income is significantly increased the more hours the beneficiary works. It is also important to focus on whether the activation is efficient in ensuring employment. That requires evidence-based activities that are linked to the needs of the labour market. These considerations are even more important given the labour shortages in many Member States. The financial advantage of employment Statutory minimum wages or the minimum rates in collective bargaining agreements are relevant when setting the level of minimum income benefits to ensure that the system does not disincentivize employment. Since the monthly minimum wages vary widely across the Member States the appropriate minimum income benefit will and should also vary. Consistent and transparent DA finds it important that the minimum income schemes are transparent and simple in their design. The systems of social benefits are often very complex and consists of many kinds of benefits. DA considers that simpler systems with fewer categories of benefits can help increase transparency. It makes it more obvious for the beneficiaries what they are entitled to and what their financial situation will be on a minimum income scheme. This will also make it more obvious that there is a financial incentive to enter employment in countries where the sum of benefits is close to the salary in lower-paid jobs. DA considers that methodologies, such as linking the minimum income schemes with a reference value on e.g. minimum wages, can be an appropriate way to ensure predictability in the minimum income schemes. Given the different national systems, we find that it should be left for the Member State to decide on the methodology. Yours sincerely, CONFEDERATION OF DANISH EMPLOYERS
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Response to Social and labour aspects of the climate transition

19 Nov 2021

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) welcomes the possibility to comment on the European Commission’s upcoming proposal for a Council Recommendation on addressing social and labour aspects of the just transition towards climate neutrality and hereby submits its comments to the public consultation. **General remarks**: DA supports and welcomes the Commission’s focus on ensuring a sustainable green transition that includes life-long learning and investments in reskilling and upskilling workers to ensure the re-allocation of labour within and across sectors. DA underlines the importance of workers having the right skills to match the needs of the labour market as part of the green transition. Efficient labour market policies and reforms in member states are necessary in order to contribute to a green and sustainable transition and to be able to secure active support to quality employment. DA believes that ensuring access for employers and employees to ac-quire skills, reskilling or upskilling through courses and educational and (continuing) vocational systems and training will support the green and sustainable transition. Therefore, DA welcomes the suggestion of promoting inclusive participation of social partners because reallocation of workers in many countries can be more efficiently reached by collective schemes and collective agreements. **Compensation needs to have a long-term focus to ensure just transition**: It is of utmost importance that the initiative acknowledges that all 27 member states have different tax-benefit and social protection systems which must be respected. Member states are the most qualified to ensure that the tax-benefit and social protection systems fit the national needs. However, DA supports that members states develop best practices and get inspired by each other. In order to secure optimal use of public and private funding, including the new Social Climate Fund, it is important that the measures financed represent a good balance between short-term and long-term investments. DA’s remarks on addressing social and labour aspects of the just transition towards climate neutrality is the following: * Labour market reforms are necessary to secure support to quality employment. *To support the green transition a well-functioning system for continuing education and training to secure competence development and reallocation of labour is of utmost importance. *It is essential to involve social partners when addressing the social and labour aspects of the green transition because it benefits both employers and workers – and is a guarantee of education/courses matching the labour market demand. * Optimal use of public and private funding is secured through short-term and long-term investments.
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Meeting with Margrethe Vestager (Executive Vice-President)

9 Nov 2021 · Platform work, maternity leave, minimum salary, salary transparency

Meeting with Kim Jorgensen (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager), Mette Dyrskjot (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager)

9 Oct 2020 · Discussion on EU initiative for minimum wage.

Response to Gender equality in the EU

13 Feb 2020

Response to the roadmap on the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2024 The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) recognizes that gender inequality is a challenge across Europe and the European Commission can indeed play a role towards enhancing gender equality in the EU. In order to improve gender equality it is essential to address gender stereotypes and gender segregation on labour markets and education systems. This can, for example, be done by engaging more girls and women in STEM topics and having more women working full-time rather than part time. One way to go about this is to tackle stereotypes in relation to “male” and “female” sectors and jobs and by promoting a cultural change in relation to the choices that men and women make in connection with work and education. It is important to raise aware-ness of the consequences of the choices we make education-wise and when it comes to especially part-time work. On a general note, DA finds that the best instrument to address gender equality challenges is to strengthen the European Semester process. This would allow the Commission to address the specific and very different challenges that each member state needs to tackle. The Commis-sion should consider enforcing the country specific recommendations more efficiently and make sure that member states take action to tackle the challenges which have been identified in their country. The European Semester process guideline 6 of the employment policies of the Member States already states that “Member States should ensure gender equality and increased labour market participation of women, including through ensuring equal opportunities and career progression and eliminating barriers to participation.” It is important that the upcoming EU Gender Equality Strategy 2024 builds on the gender equality focus of guideline 6 and the European commission could consider adding the following elements: • That member states have to document steps taken to address gender segregation on labour markets and in education systems • That member states reports to the Commission once a year on steps taken to address challenges identified in the EIGE Gender Equality Index for the specific countries • That women’s participation on the labour market is increased by ensuring affordable and accessible childcare facilities. To this end the Commission should ensure that member states live up to the Barcelona objectives. Finally, DA has commented further on differences in pay and pay transparency in our comments to the Inception Impact Assessment regarding the initiative “Strengthening the principle of equal pay be-tween men and women through pay transparency”. Yours sincerely, CONFEDERATION OF DANISH EMPLOYERS
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Response to Strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women through pay transparency

3 Feb 2020

The Confederation of Danish Employers shares the view of the European Commission that there is a case for addressing equal pay issues at the European level. Pay transparency can be a useful tool if it is used wisely. (1) Current EU law is clear The Commission states that it is necessary to clarify legal concepts related to equal pay, in particular the concept of “work of equal value”. We find that the concept is quite clear. Recital 9 in Directive 2006/54 on equal treatment between men and women (recast) clearly indicates when workers can be considered to perform the same work or work of equal value. (2) The right to negotiate wages must be maintained While we agree that wages must reflect fair and objective criteria, we find that pay structures should be set at the national rather than at the EU level. Forcing each member state to change well-functioning wage structures could result in a less efficient wage formation, reduced productivity and lower wages. Specifically, the Commission should not impose a rigid and detailed transparency measure which disrupts the right to negotiate wages freely. In many EU member states, wages are negotiated either by individual workers or as part of a collective agreement. This is, for instance, the case in systems based on collective agreements which allow for wage-setting at the firm level with the involvement of a trade union representative. This allows for an efficient wage formation and as a result, wages are comparatively high in countries with these wage systems. It is crucial that legislative measures at the EU level do not conflict with this. (3) EU legislation should allow local solutions The Inception Impact Assessment claims that “It is not possible to measure to what extent gender pay differences are due specifically to gender pay discrimination.” In many member states it is in fact quite easy to gain a precise insight into the sources of the gender pay gap. In the Danish context, for instance, a governmental Wage Commission analyzed the gender pay gap in 2010 and concluded that discrimination is not the issue (see attachment: Faktaark: Lønkommissionen. Finansministeriet, 2010). Therefore, in the Danish context, legislation aimed at preventing discrimination is unlikely to have any effect in this context, other than impose new bureaucratic burdens on workers and firms. It should be acknowledged that the gender pay gap does not always reflect discrimination. The European Semester and the country-specific recommendations provide a platform for initiatives related to equal pay. To this end, it would be beneficial if the country-specific recommendations were more binding. If the Commission decides to address equal pay through a directive, it is crucial that this is done in a manner which allows for country-specific approaches and initiatives. Such an instrument should also respect that some member states have already introduced pay transparency measures in accordance with Commission recommendation 2014/124/EU on strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women through transparency from 2014. (4) Pay transparency should be promoted In some EU member states unequal pay is almost entirely a result of a gender segregated labour market. In these countries it is relevant to increase pay transparency at the sector level rather than at the firm level. I.e., when choosing educations, jobs and careers young men and women should be aware of the remuneration across different jobs and sectors. The Commission’s initiatives in regard to pay transparency should have a general form, rather than force each member state to impose transparency measures at the firm, sector or national level.
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Meeting with Kim Jorgensen (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager), Mette Dyrskjot (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager)

8 Jan 2020 · Employment

Meeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and

12 Dec 2019 · Minimum wage and social dialogue

Meeting with Joost Korte (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

1 Oct 2019 · Meeting to discuss labour market and social policy topics, the new political situation in the EU and the upcoming new European Commission.

Response to More efficient law-making in social policy: identification of areas for an enhanced move to qualified majority voting

23 Jan 2019

The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) as other BusinessEuropes members support very strongly what is set out in the position paper of BusinessEurope. In particular that in the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties the areas under unanimity and areas excluded from EU legislation was introduced in order not to upset the important balance within each Member State in certain key national areas like social security and collective bargaining systems. This is also in line with the role of the EU social policy being to support and complement the activities of the Member States. Not to harmonize national systems. The areas under unanimity are core pillars of national systems defining the different rights and responsibilities of its citizens. They are of primary importance in national democratic political debates and elections and cover issues of key importance for national social partners, national level of expenditures and the functioning of national social protection systems. Unanimity is therefore clearly justified in these areas because any adoption of EU regulation should only happen if there is a strong understanding shared by all Member States of the necessity and added value of such action and an assurance that it will not upset the delicate balance in very different national systems. And therefore the unanimity rule was a way to apply the subsidiarity principle in this very important national area. A key element of the Danish national identity and a well-functioning society that has general public support is a strong autonomous role for the social partners and a universal social security system financed mainly through general taxation and not labour market contributions. It is therefore very different than systems in many other Member States. And similar big differencies are to be found between other Member States. Different social security and social partner models do not impair the good functioning of EU. On the contrary respecting the national identity gives support for the European project we strongly share. The right way forward which the Commission overlook is cooperation in these areas. This is also foreseen as the way forward in article 156 TFEU.
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Meeting with Joost Korte (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

5 Oct 2018 · Meeting with the Board of Directors of the Confederation of Danish Employers to discuss labour market and social policy topics and to learn about DG EMPL perspective on the role of social partners and how Denmark can contribute to a well-functioning social dialogue on European Level

Meeting with Soren Schonberg (Cabinet of Commissioner Margrethe Vestager)

3 May 2018 · EU Current Affairs

Meeting with Marlene Madsen (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

11 Dec 2017 · Written Statement Directive

Meeting with Margrethe Vestager (Commissioner)

24 Jan 2017 · EU Current Affairs

Meeting with Inge Bernaerts (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

8 Nov 2016 · European Pillar of Social Rights and the Mobility Package

Meeting with Michel Servoz (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

8 Nov 2016 · The European Pillar of Social Rights and The Mobility Package

Meeting with Raquel Lucas (Cabinet of Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

7 Nov 2016 · Exchange of views on the European Pillar of Social Rights and of the posting of workers proposal

Meeting with Margrethe Vestager (Commissioner)

30 Sept 2016 · EU Current Affairs

Meeting with Marlene Madsen (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

6 Sept 2016 · CMU

Meeting with Margrethe Vestager (Commissioner)

4 Feb 2016 · Current European Affairs

Meeting with Inge Bernaerts (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

2 Dec 2015 · Posting of Workers

Meeting with Denzil Davidson (Cabinet of Commissioner Jonathan Hill)

1 Oct 2015 · Financial Services Policy