Protection of employees: insolvency of employer, transnational situations (amend. Directive 80/987/EEC)

The Commission can accept the six European Parliament amendments in full. These amendments will extend and improve the text of the common position. The amendments are: -a recital which authorises the Member States to set ceilings on the payments made by the guarantee institutions; -a report on the implementation of the new Directive; -the Directive does not prevent Member States from extending protection to de facto stopped payments on a permanent basis; -a clause specifying that, where provided for by national law, severance pay on termination of employment relationships is included in payment of employees' outstanding claims; -an option for Member States to limit payments, so that the ceilings which they may set need not necessarily be a single ceiling. These ceilings must not fall below a level which is compatible with the social objective of the directive; -a report on the implementation and application of the Directive is to be established by the Commission within five years of the date indicated in Article 2 of the Directive.�