The national experts from the Member States, set to meet on 18 January in the ‘Social Affairs’ Working Group of the EU Council, will examine the scenarios envisaged by the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council to modify - and limit - the scope of the reform of the European rules for social security coordination, the famous Regulations 883/2004 and 987/2009 (the implementing regulation).
The Presidency will ask the Member States to give their views on two possible scenarios: the first consists of sticking to the four chapters of the regulation on which there is already a consensus, notably with the European Parliament, and the second, on an outline taking these four chapters and adding to them the elements that have made progress in the two most complex chapters that are still open, namely those relating to the rules on unemployment benefits (particularly for cross-border workers) and the rules on applicable legislation, including the provisions on multi-activity.
These last two chapters are the most difficult, as they are fraught with long-standing and deep-seated political divisions and material interests that differ from one country to another, as the Belgian Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Frank Vandenbroucke, said in Namur on 11 January (see EUROPE 13326/1).
In any case, the Presidency stated that “on 9 January, a majority already came out in favour of a more limited scope for the revision of the coordination regulations”, it explained in a note dated 12 January.
“At the Social Questions Working Party on 9 January 2024, it emerged from the discussions that a majority of delegations seem to be open to the idea of proceeding with a more limited scope of the revision of the social security coordination regulations”.
While “it may be acknowledged that this scenario is arguably not an ideal outcome on this legislative file, this approach may also be seen as an opportunity to build upon the progress made so far and as the way out of the deadlock in view of the end of the legislature and the very long negotiations that have been conducted to date”, it justifies.
As far as possible outcomes are concerned, the Presidency will first of all propose that the Member States give their views on the first scenario envisaged, which would consist of a complete exclusion of the two chapters on applicable legislation and unemployment benefits from the revision.
Only the following chapters “would consequently be retained in the revision: family benefits, equal treatment of economically inactive citizens to certain social benefits, long-term care and miscellaneous. This proposal would allow the two open chapters to be revised coherently in the future, taking also into account new evolutions such as digitalisation and teleworking”, says the Presidency, while some delegations have been campaigning for some time in favour of new proposals from the Commission, with the current draft revisions dating from 2016.
Its second option, the “4-plus scenario” would involve “excluding only the outstanding provisions in the Applicable legislation and Unemployment benefits chapters”.
This second scenario would exclude from the revision only those provisions on which solutions agreeable to the two co-legislators have not been identified so far, namely the following three open points: “the introduction of a prior notification for persons performing work in another Member State, the method for determining the centre of interest of the employer in the event of multi-state activity and unemployment benefits for cross-border workers”.
The Presidency memo also sets out the advantages of each scenario. Option 2, the 4-plus scenario, would, for example, allow some progress to be made in the fight against social dumping, the Presidency argues.
Delegations will be invited to state their preferred approach, but “whichever option is eventually considered, the more limited revision should be accompanied by a reflection on the future works to be carried out”, the Presidency stresses.
The European Parliament rapporteurs on this dossier were due to discuss these new avenues of work on the evening of Monday 15 January in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)