For months, the Molière clause has been making its way locally and is spreading. This measure aims to enforce the use of French on public construction sites at the local level.
The president of the Departmental Council, Eric Ciotti, plans to have it voted on next April 7th.
The European Commissioner for Employment, Marianne Thyssen, does not mince her words, stating that the “Molière Clause,” legally speaking, is a discrimination against European legislation.
Regarding the threat from several presidential election candidates to no longer apply the European directive on posted workers in France, the Employment Commissioner responds that “France does not have the right to suspend this directive because it is a European law that stems from the principle of free movement.”
Moreover, its application would have the opposite result to the intended goal: “Eliminating the directive does not remove the posting of workers; it means there are no longer any rules. Employers would then be free to do as they please. A market without rules is social dumping,” she explains.
Furthermore, she reminds that “in view of the abuses,” it was “decided in March 2016 to revise this directive to better protect posted workers.” “If the European Parliament reaches an agreement, a text could be voted on before the summer,” assures Marianne Thyssen.
This nationalist drift, useful in electoral times, because it is clear that this is what it is, risks leading nowhere: “The freedom to speak the language one wishes or to not understand French is a constitutional principle,” explained Frédéric Sicard, the President of the Paris Bar, to the press a few days ago.
