Frankfurt, 19 October 2026 – Commenting on the vote on the eDeclaration in the European Parliament, VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann says:

• “The European machinery and equipment manufacturing industry needs an eDeclaration that makes it easy for companies to post their employees to other EU countries. The eDeclaration now adopted by the European Parliament is a first, positive step in this direction. What is crucial now is that it is implemented in a way that works in practice.”

• “When designing the eDeclaration online form, the European Commission should focus on the essentials. The machinery industry posts hundreds of workers within the EU every day and is familiar with the existing hurdles from practical experience. We stand ready to contribute our experience to the dialogue with the European Commission and to work together to reduce red tape further.”

• “The success of the eDeclaration depends above all on the widest possible participation by EU Member States. If only a few countries make use of this voluntary procedure, the patchwork of differing reporting requirements across Europe will persist. We therefore call on all Member States to participate in the eDeclaration as fully as possible.”

• “The simplification of posting of workers within the Single Market must not stop at the eDeclaration. In particular, the requirement to designate a contact person in the host EU Member State should be abolished. This requirement is outdated. Its removal would immediately make cross-border work assignments easier for businesses.”

The VDMA represents 3500 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 900 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.