The European Union has officially called for the establishment of an expert panel to look into South Korea’s delayed efforts to ratify key international labor conventions. 

Seoul's Ministry of Employment and Labor revealed on Thursday that the European Commission requested the panel be formed. 

The move comes two months after South Korea said it will seek legislative consent for adopting the International Labor Organization(ILO) standards. It's known the EU positively assessed Seoul’s will, but assessed it's highly uncertain the country’s parliament will ratify them. 

South Korea became a member of the ILO in December 1991 but has still yet to ratify four of the organization’s eight key conventions, including those related to the freedom of association, the right to organize and the banning of forced labor. South Korea vowed efforts to ratify the remaining conventions when it signed a free trade agreement with the EU in 2011. 

With the EU’s request, the two sides will form a three-member expert panel within two months. The experts will inspect whether the delay in ratification constitutes a violation of the Korea-EU FTA and adopt a report outlining its findings and recommendations.