On Monday 3 July, the European Commission launched the Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information system (EESSI) to facilitate exchanges between the organisations responsible for Social Security in EU member states as part of the social security coordinating framework.
There is currently no European level system available to coordinate the different national systems, although social security coordination has been part of some of the oldest European regulations (1959). The majority of information exchanges up until now have only been available on paper.
The EESSI will help electronically connect around 15,000 social security institutions in EU member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, through exchanges facilitated on the basis of structured electronic documents and shared standards transmitted via the EESSI platform hosted by the European Commission.
Once it is operational, this platform is expected to help speed up coordination and make it secure, as well as more effectively tackle fraud and errors, explained the Commission.
The member states have until July 2019 (two years) to connect their national systems to the central platform.
The regulation for coordinating Social Security forms part of one of the main dossiers currently being discussed by the Council and it is still expected to be taking up the member states’ time over the next few months (see EUROPE 11688). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)