The Member States resumed discussions on the revision of Regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security schemes in the ‘social questions’ group of the EU Council on Wednesday 8 February, after the Swedish Presidency submitted new ideas for work.
At the end of 2021, the Member States stumbled over the Slovenian EU Council Presidency’s compromise (see EUROPE 12859/10) and again rejected a surprise agreement reached in trilogue.
Some Member States, such as Poland, reportedly pointed out at this time the administrative burdens generated by the arrangements found on prior notification (fixed by default, with the possibility, however, of a late notification at most three days after the start of the activity, except for the construction sector).
Others, such as Luxembourg, reportedly expressed concerns about the consequences of exporting unemployment benefits. The transfer of responsibility for monitoring the unemployed person from the sending to the host Member State is also thought to have been called into question.
The Swedish Presidency has therefore made proposals on those chapters that are still open, namely the applicable legislation and unemployment benefits.
On unemployment, it has used the Slovenian text, but proposed that the minimum insurance period for entitlement to unemployment benefits with the jurisdiction of the last State of employment (triggering the ‘switch of jurisdiction’) be increased to six continuous months, as opposed to three continuous months or six discontinuous months in the Slovenian compromise. This was one of the concerns raised by Germany.
On the specific export period for unemployment benefits, Sweden retains a period of 10 months for cross-border workers who have completed a period of 24 months of insurance in the last State of employment.
Further adjustments have been made to the determination of the place of the registered office of a company and also to the prior notification of an activity. EUROPE will continue to follow this story. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)