The omission of emails from the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs to Bolt and other mobility tech firms, demanded in a freedom of information (FOI) request, was due to human error, the Ministry's Deputy Secretary General Sandra Särav told Estonian news agency ERR.
The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a watered-down version of the EU's long-awaited platform work directive at a plenary on Wednesday (24 April), ending two years of intense negotiations with 554 votes in favour and 56 against.
In October 2023, mobility company Bolt, headquartered in Estonia, offered to draft a letter on behalf of the Estonian government to push back against the platform work directive — liaising directly with a government official who is a former Bolt employee.
EU countries finally adopted the platform work directive at a meeting of EU labour ministers on Monday (11 March), after Estonia and Greece, which had abstained in the past, voted in favour “in the spirit of compromise”.
As EU ambassadors were due to meet on Friday (8 March) to try to agree again a provisional deal on the platform work directive, France circulated a set of changes it wants to make to the text, throwing another spanner in the works for the ill-starred file.
The adoption of the platform work directive by member states in the next few days is highly uncertain, with Paris refusing to agree to the current text draft – and the French left is ready to put it at the heart of its campaign agenda.
The Belgian Presidency failed to garner the necessary support from member states to agree a new platform work directive on Friday (16 February), effectively shelving the proposal, after more than two years of negotiations.
Negotiators from the European Commission, Council and Parliament struck a deal on the Platform Work Directive - for the second time - on Thursday (8 February), with all eyes now on member states, who have been asked to rubberstamp it on Friday.
Following failed interinstitutional negotiations over the platform work directive last week, the Belgium Presidency circulated yet another draft text, which significantly waters down the file’s flagship chapter on the legal presumption of employment.
The EU's Platform Workers Directive is on life-support and might be split in two after European governments voted down a provisional agreement found in December. “Better no deal than a bad deal,” sources told Euractiv.
The Belgian presidency of the EU Council is edging closer to France’s demands in a new iteration of the Platform Workers Directive obtained by Euractiv, by bringing back critical provisions that are close to Paris's heart.
The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU has circulated a new draft text of the platform work directive, which should be the basis for technical negotiations among member states on Tuesday (16 January), amid persistent divisions about the directive's scope.
Last month, a coalition of EU countries blocked the provisional agreement on the Platform Workers Directive. But while the Belgian EU Council presidency wants to use the political deal as the starting point for future discussion, Paris wants a more comprehensive file reshaping.
Following recent profit losses, e-bike and e-scooter start-ups Tier and Dott announced on Wednesday (10 January) a preliminary merger agreement that seeks to make the new entity the 'European champion' of micro-mobility.
The representatives of the main EU institutions reached a provisional agreement over the Platform Workers Directive in the early hours of Wednesday (13 December) after almost two years of strenuous negotiations.
EU lawmakers reached a deal in the early hours of Thursday (16 November) to regulate data-sharing of short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia.
EU institutions are preparing for confrontation over the functioning of the legal presumption of employment, the most sensitive aspect of the Platform Workers Directive, in a trilogue next Thursday (9 November).
Uber and President Emmanuel Macron had a "hidden deal" going on when he was economy minister, France's parliamentary committee looking into the Uber files case wrote in a highly critical report published on Tuesday (18 July), drawing criticism of a "conspiracy" from pro-Macron deputies.
As inter-institutional negotiations kick off on the Platform Workers Directive, EURACTIV has learnt that the European Commission will endeavour to get the final text closer to its initial proposal, expecting most of the pushback to come from EU countries.
The Council of the EU discusses a telecom EU regulation that aims at fostering gigabit infrastructure deployment across the EU. Member States seem to accept the binding instrument of a regulation, at the condition that it respects "minimum harmonisation".
EU labour ministers endorsed a general approach to the Platform Workers Directive on Monday (12 June), marking the close of a year and a half’s worth of intense negotiations and opening the door to interinstitutional negotiations with the Commission and the European Parliament.
A European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling published on Thursday (8 June) slammed Barcelona’s strict private hire vehicles rules as “contrary to EU law”, in a move that could have EU-wide repercussions.
A meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday (31 May) will look into a new compromise text on the platform work directive, seen by EURACTIV, in the hope of building a bridge between two starkly divided camps and bringing member states together ahead of a ministerial meeting in mid-June.
Uber’s Senior Vice-President Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty testified at the French ‘Uber Files’ parliamentary investigation committee on Thursday (25 May) that he could not recall an email, seen by EURACTIV, whereby he personally requested actioning the data-destruction ‘kill switch’ tool.
