On Tuesday 13 December, the European Commission unveiled a batch of draft legislation on job mobility with a proposal aiming at balanced and consensual changes to the EU rules on coordination of social security systems, (EU Regulation 883/2004).
The initial plan was to publish the entire package in 2015 and the first batch, draft ‘targeted’ changes to an EU directive of 1996 on the secondment of workers was unveiled in March, giving rise to heated debate (see EUROPE 11685). The second batch was delayed due to talks among the EU27 and the UK government ahead of the Brexit vote on whether the United Kingdom is to remain in Europe (see EUROPE 11495).
An agreement signed with London is now being ignored because of the victory of Brexit campaigners in a referendum. Some member states, however, such as Austria, still want to keep the idea that had been agreed upon to allow the option of indexing family allowances to living standards and the level of benefits in the country where a migrant worker’s child actually lives. The European Commission did not include this element.
Unveiling the proposal on the fringes of the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, Commissioner Marianne Thyssen talked of the complexity and cost of implementing such an idea when less than 1% of child benefit is sent from one member state to another. In Austria, this accounts for 0.25% of the cost of family allowances, she pointed out as an example.
The key points of the planned changes to Regulation 883/2004, which will apply to the EU28, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway, are on European immigrants and their right to access social security.
The Commission says that people looking for work should be able to export the unemployment benefits they are entitled to for at least six months, rather than the current minimum of three. When it is the host member states that has to pay the benefit, it should calculate the amount based on a period of work in another member state of at least three months.
The Commission also wants to respond to a legal ambiguity about cross-border work. It suggests setting a simple rule of it being the member state where an individual worked for at least 12 months that would pay the unemployment benefits rather than the current system of it being the member state of residence that pays out.
For people not economically active (unemployed and not seeking work), the rule will be simple. If they do not have enough money of their own to live on and suitable medical cover, they will lose the right of residence and the right to related benefits payments. This codifies in the regulation well-established European Court of Justice case law, such as the ‘Dano’ case (see EUROPE 11195) and the ‘Alimanovic’ case (see EUROPE 11389), relating to what is known pejoratively as ‘social tourism.’
To respond to the demographic challenge, the European Commission wants to include in the regulation’s application the question of payments for long-term healthcare. It suggests using the same ‘logic’ as for the current rules on medical care. In other words, the member states where the individual has health coverage should reimburse costs for healthcare in the country of residence.
With these changes to the law, the Commission is expanding the current debate about revision of the EU Directive on the secondment (posting) of workers. It suggests revising the measures on the ‘A1’ form listing the legislation applying to a worker who is not affiliated to the welfare system of the country where he or she is working, a key document for the secondment of workers. What is proposed is a system of better and more efficient exchange of information including deadlines for measures to be respected by civil services.
Finally, the Commission wants to ‘update’ measures on payments for parental leave, considering that this should be an individual right for cross-border situations rather than the system in the current rules of a right relating to the entire family. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)