Travel managers are being urged to act now to assess the potential impact of EU travel regulations or face significant challenges when travel volumes return.
Issuing guidance this week, the ITM EU Taskforce said given the complexity of new rules, buyers should not attempt to tackle issues on their own but should collaborate with HR, tax, legal and mobility teams within their companies and also with third party specialists.
The guidance forms the basis of a new ITM resource ‘Preparing for a Return of Business Travel to the EU‘.
“With the post-pandemic opening of business travel in the EU, many of the corporate compliance challenges that were put on hold over the last two years are likely to emerge,” said Scott Davies, CEO ITM.
“Our EU Travel Taskforce has done an impressive job over the last three months of raising awareness among ITM members of the three key issues that will impact on short-term business travel, relating to social security, labour law and cross-border travel.
“However, these issues are also relevant to HR, tax, mobility and legal departments, but may not be on their radar yet because short-term business travel was previously relatively simple to organise and they didn’t need to be involved.
“There is a limited window for travel managers to get to grips with these challenges, socialise them with the appropriate stakeholders within their organisations and decide on what action needs to be taken.”
The taskforce, set up in June, consists of nine key stakeholders, including representatives from immigration and visa specialist Newland Chase, tax and social security consultants from Deloitte, and buyer members.
Regulatory requirements explored in the ITM guide include Posted Worker Directive and A1 certification.
