A draft EU law determining when workers on platforms like Uber and Deliveroo should be treated as employees failed to win EU member states' support in a key meeting on Friday.
The Platform Work Directive would classify workers on "gig-economy" apps as employees in cases where platforms control factors such as how much money workers are paid or their working hours, or supervise their performance electronically.
What was meant to be a final draft of the law on Friday failed to win sufficient support among representatives of the European Union's 27 member states.
The draft was provisionally agreed on February 8 between European Parliament negotiators and Belgium, which was negotiating on behalf of EU governments. But it still needs the support of the other member states—and the wider parliament—to become law.
In a closed-door meeting of national representatives on Friday, the February 8 text failed to win the support of France, Germany, Estonia and Greece, EU officials told dpa.
To pass, the law needs the support of enough member states to represent 65% of the EU population — meaning the lack of support from these four stops this draft from going further.
Friday's outcome puts Belgium in a difficult position, as it had already been forced to renegotiate a previous deal with parliamentarians brokered by Spain on December 13. That deal was blocked in a meeting of national representatives on December 22.