Meeting in Brussels on 27 and 28 November, European ministers will be asked to adopt conclusions on the digitalisation of social security and their role in reducing the administrative burden, at a time when discussions have resumed between the Presidency of the EU Council and the European Parliament on the reform of the regulation on the coordination of social security schemes to find ways of compromising with the European Parliament, potentially on prior notification.
The public draft conclusions will emphasise that the digitalisation of national and cross-border social security procedures has made more progress since 2020 than in previous years. “Nevertheless, despite the progress achieved, there is room for advancing the digitalisation of social security coordination, also considering the fast development of new technologies opening new perspectives that could be taken into account.”
The financial resources available from the EU, including the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), could therefore help to advance digitalisation in the Member States, particularly in those Member States that are digitally less advanced.
Regular discussions between representatives of the Member States’ administrations and the Commission are essential to give political direction to the digitalisation processes underway and to monitor progress. “ It is also crucial to ensure the involvement of social security institutions in these regular discussions, on account of their expertise, and to promote the sharing of good practices.”
The EU Council should also invite Member States to “continue to take measures to ensure the implementation of existing and new digital and interoperable initiatives that simplify and speed up administrative procedures and communication between Member States' national administrations, in particular by finalising the implementation and full operationality of EESSI (Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information) by 2024 at the latest”. This system should link 10,000 national social security administrations.
They will also be called upon to step up efforts to “meet, by 2030, the Digital Decade’s objectives of 100% of key public services being available online, including in social security, and 100% of people having access to electronic identification (eID) means, to be used for key public services across the EU, including for social security”.
It will also be necessary to maintain investment in the automation of processes for handling national and cross-border cases in terms of social security and social protection, and to ensure that digitalisation efforts help to speed up the determination of the rights, but also the obligations, of mobile citizens and businesses, in order to also reduce the risk of fraud.
Link to the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/9ou (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)