The Commission calls on Spain to fully transpose the Work-life balance Directive

The Commission is adopting a package of infringement decisions due to the absence of communication by Member States of measures taken to transpose EU directives into national law. The Commission is sending a letter of formal notice to those Member States who have failed to notify national measures transposing directives, whose transposition deadline expired recently.  In this case, there are 26 Member States who have not yet notified full transposition measures for five EU directives in the field of  justice, financial stability, energy and environment. Member States concerned now have two months to reply to the letters of formal notice and complete their transposition, or the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.

The European Commission decided to open an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice to Spain for failing to fully transpose into its national law the provision regarding the payment of allowance for the final two weeks of parental leave, as required under the Work-life Balance Directive 2019/1158.

This Directive lays down minimum requirements designed to achieve equality between men and women with regard to labour market opportunities and treatment at work, by facilitating the reconciliation of work and family life for workers who are parents, or carers.

The Directive entered into force in July 2019, with two separate transposition deadlines. Member States had until 2 August 2022 to transpose most of the provisions of the Directive into their national law, for example the provision to provide the right to two months of non-transferable and adequately paid parental leave.

The provision regarding the payment for the final two weeks of parental leave, however, had to be transposed by Member States by 2 August 2024.  As of today, Spain has not communicated to the Commission full transposition of this provision into its national law.

The Commission is therefore sending a letter of formal notice to Spain, which now has two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission.

In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.

Further information: European Commission