The European Parliament's negotiating group on the regulation pertaining to the coordination of social security systems hopes to resume interinstitutional negotiations with the Council of the EU soon, according to rapporteur Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany), who was contacted by EUROPE on Tuesday 28 April. It is possible that negotiations will resume by the end of May.
“Of course, the current situation makes negotiations difficult. But I am optimistic that we can at least make significant steps forward under the Croatians (the current EU Council Presidency - Editor's note). Then it is up to the German Presidency to successfully finish negotiations”, said Ms Bischoff.
For the MEP, the crisis has shown how important cross-border and frontier workers are for certain sectors, such as health and agriculture, and how fragile the situation can be at times of border closures, such as those seen in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.
21st week of the year
According to one source, a meeting with the Chair's negotiating team might take place during the week of 19-22 May. The chances of a successful outcome to these negotiations under the Croatian Presidency are slim and the dossier should be taken up by the Germans, although they have always only shown a moderate level of enthusiasm for the legislative text. By December, negotiations had stalled, in particular over the question of the exemption regime from notification, requested, among others, by Germany (see EUROPE 12423/18).
“I am optimistic and see that all sides actually have the same goal: legal security, prevention of wage and social dumping and a system that is good and easy to use. I believe that digitisation can take us a step further in finding the right balance between these goals”, the rapporteur said hopefully.
The situation at borders. Most recently, in a letter to the Croatian ambassador Goran Štefanić on Friday 24 April, the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs, along with the Chair of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, Lucia Nicholsonová (ECR, Slovakia), gave warnings about the situation surrounding frontier workers and the need to enforce EU rules laid down in the regulation on the coordination of social security systems.
In particular, they called for measures related to lockdown, such as remote working or isolation and quarantine, to be implemented in such a way that workers do not lose their status as cross-border or frontier workers and even their social security rights under the applicable legislation.
Furthermore, in their opinion, partial unemployment schemes should be made accessible to frontier workers in order to prevent them becoming unemployed, while also respecting their special status and related social security rights in the host Member State. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)