Among the most emblematic proposals put forward by Guillaume Balas (S&D, France) in his report on the regulation for coordinating social security systems examined by EUROPE on Tuesday 21 November, is the proposal to integrate the European authority project in the control system.
Therefore, several amendments explicitly mention the European employment authority announced by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker (see EUROPE 11861). The MEP is proposing, for example, that the European employment authority can interview people and examine the dossiers of certain workers, if necessary, under the same terms as the requesting entity in a member state.
According to the explanation provided to EUROPE, the role of this authority, whose parameters are still not yet known, given that the Commission is expected to present its proposal in 2018, would mostly be involved in tackling large-scale fraud cases involving several member states. Balas sees the European employment authority as a sort of “intervention brigade” with a small number of very mobile staff members whose powers of dissuasion would be very high.
“Crossroads bank for Social Security”. The MEP also puts forward a number of other proposals that go well beyond those submitted by the European Commission, such as the introduction of a “crossroads bank for Social Security”, similar to the one in Belgium, which would consist of an interconnection between European social security systems. The idea would be to enable an undertaking in a member state to directly consult the data of an individual without having to go through a lengthy exchange procedure, which could possibly see an electronic information exchange system for social security develop.
European social security card. Balas also mentions the introduction of the European social security card that would be impossible to falsify throughout the European Union and which would contain all data required for employment controls involving the cardholder in the area of wages, social insurance, working time and, if needs be, specific rules on postings, whilst in strict respect of data protection rules. This card would go much further than the single European Social Security Number.
Digitalisation of A1 form. The MEP is also in favour of the European Commission’s standardisation aims for the A1 form. This document endorses social security legislation applicable to workers when they are working in another member state of the European Union. It also, however, seeks to strengthen the digitisation procedures by highlighting the electronic format as a means of ensuring the un-falsifiable nature of the form and including the single European Social Security number. In the event of a posting, Mr Balas is requesting that the form is granted before the beginning of the mission.
Exporting unemployment benefit rights. The MEP also wants to go further than the Commission proposal with regard to exporting unemployment benefit rights, namely, in relation to the duration of unemployment benefits for a citizen when they go to another member state and to change the six-month limit for exporting all benefits. Balas introduces a point that mentions “the rights to unemployment benefits being maintained until they come to an end”
Reduction in exchange deadlines between national authorities. The rapporteur also introduces a range of amendments to reduce the response time between the competent national authorities. He is proposing, for example, a maximum deadline of five working days in the case of a request for supplementary information, without which, the receiving authority would be to take action “as if the document had never been issued” by notifying the issuing institution. In this case, Balas believes the absence of a response by the issuing institution would constitute a violation of fair cooperation between member states and would give the right to the receiving institution to re-qualify the documents delivered by the issuing institution.
No to indexing family benefits in the place of children’s’ residency. In the reasons he provided, Balas indicates that he is opposed to indexing family benefits in the place of children’s residency. The MEP considers that such a provision would involve a “complicated and costly” system, given that the phenomenon would only involve 1% of total family benefits.
The first debate will take place on 28 November during the employment and social affairs committee. The current cut-off date for the amendments has been set for 10 January. The committee vote is expected to take place in April and during the plenary in May or June 2018. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)