ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a comprehensive account of the policymaking process that led to the passage of the socially oriented revision of the Posted Workers Directive between 2016 and 2018. After a period of institutional drift, functional, but especially political, pressures propelled the issue of posting onto the Juncker Commission’s agenda. The Amending Directive was met with both strong support and resistance early on, splitting participants into two opposing camps of high-wage countries (western Member States) and low-wage countries (eastern Member States) that are net receivers and net senders of posted workers, respectively. In several instances, contestation spilled over from the policy of posting to the EU polity writ large, with actors’ discourses belying contrasting visions of the EU integration project. While partisanship played an important role in the policy process, territorial divisions also emerged and remained unresolved on the political right. The chapter stresses the role of executives of key countries, first and foremost France, in moving the policy process forward by engaging in direct private and public negotiations at the highest level of political leadership. This was complemented by the pacifying actions of the European Commission offering strategic concessions and institutional innovation.
