The European Parliament and the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council managed to seal, mid-afternoon on Thursday 16 December, a new “surprise” provisional agreement on the difficult regulation regarding the coordination of social security systems.
“We have a provisional agreement on a revised coordination of social security systems, a vital EU legal instrument”, the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council said on its Twitter account.
“Today’s agreement will bring real progress to millions of Europeans. I am proud of what we have achieved today. We expect EU governments to approve this agreement next week, as it brings more clarity and fairness to labour mobility in the EU”, said the rapporteur, Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany).
“I congratulate the Slovenian Presidency and the European Parliament for reaching a provisional agreement on dossier 883 [number of the regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems - editor’s note] after so many years of negotiations and 17 trilogues”, the Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, told EUROPE, recalling how important this regulation was for “millions” of cross-border workers and their families.
Prior notification by default
This agreement comes at the end of the 17th inter-institutional meeting and almost 5 years to the day after the presentation of the revision of the regulation on the coordination of social security systems (see EUROPE 11688/23).
The last three stumbling blocks were: - prior notification to the competent authorities of the host Member State of a worker’s activity before the start of the assignment; - export of unemployment benefits; - the definition of pluriactivity.
According to our information, prior notification will be a default feature. However, it will be possible to send a “delayed notification” up to 3 days after the start of the activity. No exceptions will be possible for the construction sector, as we stated in a recent article on the Slovenian EU Council Presidency note (see EUROPE 12833/18).
If a national authority requests additional information on a worker, the competent authority of the sending Member State will have 10 working days to respond. The EU Council wanted 30 working days and the European Parliament wanted 3 days.
Concerning unemployment benefits, the transfer of responsibility from the sending to the host Member State will take place after 3 months of uninterrupted social security contributions or 6 months of interrupted contributions by the worker.
As for the export of benefits, depending on the length of contribution, it will be 6 months or 10 months (in case 24 months of contribution have been reached). The export may go beyond this, if made possible by national legislation. The co-legislators are said to have agreed not to make a distinction between frontier workers and cross-border workers.
As for the criteria on pluriactivity, the criterion of working time was finally abandoned.
The game is not over yet
The Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council has done a remarkable amount of groundwork, several sources told us, noting a very low-key but effective effort. “Let’s wait until it goes through the EU Council again”, said a source. There had already been a provisional agreement under the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council, which was rejected in extremis by the Member States (see EUROPE 12225/15).
The agreement is expected to be submitted to Member States for consideration at the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives I on Friday 17 December, following the agreement reached on the Directive on protection at work from carcinogens or mutagens (see other news).
On the European Parliament side, the text might not be unanimous. The Greens, Renew Europe and the ECR could accept most of the EU Council’s package. The EPP is said be divided, as is the S&D. The Left is against it, a source said. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)