In a marathon vote, MEPs of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL) adopted (29 votes in favour, 19 against, 5 abstentions) the report by Guillaume Balas (S&D, France) - against the wishes of the EPP shadow rapporteur - to strengthen the regulation on the coordination of social security systems.
“I am really satisfied with the result because it is much wider than expected, since there are 10 votes difference whereas I thought it would be played out with 2-3 votes", the rapporteur told EUROPE. “It proves that the strategy of uniting progressive forces and then reaching out to other progressive groups is what works best!", he added.
In essence, MEPs adopted the compromise amendment (27 votes in favour, 23 votes against) on legislation applicable to sent workers. Thus, any ‘sent worker’ (which also includes posted workers) will have to be affiliated to a social security system in the Member State where he usually works at least three months before leaving. There must be a notification from the sending Member State to the host Member State before the start of the mission in order to be able to provide the necessary information on affiliation to national security, in particular by means of Form A1 (20-day period).
The maximum duration of sending posted workers to another country is set at 18 months, in line with the recently adopted Posting of Workers Directive (see EUROPE 11985). An exemption for business trips has been provided for. The proposal to introduce an exemption for any worker sent for less than five days, as previously requested by Sven Schulze (EPP, Germany) (see EUROPE 12140), was not retained.
Another source of satisfaction for the rapporteur: MEPs supported his proposal to establish a financial deposit mechanism if the competent authorities of the worker's Member State of affiliation are late in forwarding the necessary documents to the authorities of the host Member State. This means that, if the Member State of affiliation does not provide these documents within 20 days of the date of notification of the posting of the workers, it will be obliged to pay a deposit equivalent to the amount of social contributions that would have been payable if the worker had been affiliated to the social security system of the host country. "This deposit allows the State to be pressured to answer the questions put to it; in other words, it is the responsibility of the national administrations”, explains Mr Balas.
On the other hand, the principle of requalification of Form A1, in the event of non-compliance, was not retained. The Greens/EFA were opposed to it, in particular because such a possibility would amount to punishing the worker for the inertia of the national administration.
The export of unemployment benefits was increased to six months and the aggregation of rights from the first day was also voted. The chapter on long-term sickness benefits has been deleted and reinstated in the chapter on sickness benefits.
Another victory for the rapporteur: frontier workers will be able to choose the State of affiliation to the social security system between the Member State of activity and the Member State of residence. As a reminder, the Commission proposed to transfer the competence of social benefits and services to the Member State of activity after 12 months of activity in the latter's territory. The Council took the logic even further and reduced the deadline to three months (see EUROPE 12047).
No family indexation. Above all, and a major victory for the Greens/EFA in particular, family benefits will not be indexed to the children's place of residence. German EPP MEPs voted in favour of indexation, as did the ECR, some ALDE members and one GUE/NGL member.
Next steps. Guillaume Balas also obtained a negotiating mandate without any problems (32 votes in favour, 17 against, 3 abstentions). “Now we will see whether or not the mandate will be 'challenged' at the next mini plenary session [scheduled for 28 and 29 November]", the rapporteur added. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)