Pending the European Parliament's opinion, the Council was briefed by the Presidency on progress of work on the draft Directive amending Directive 2003/88/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time.
The draft Directive was discussed in detail in the Council meeting on 7 December 2004, when a degree of consensus was noted concerning the extension of the reference period for calculating the maximum weekly working time and the provisions on on-call time and compensatory rest.
The main issue still outstanding is that of the conditions for applying the option of derogating from the provisions concerning maximum weekly working hours (opt-out). The Presidency summarised the state of play in the technical discussions which had been in progress since the beginning of the year with regard to recourse to an opt-out.