The new Director General of DG Employment and Social Affairs, Mario Nava, who took up his post in June, told members of the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) Committee on Wednesday 4 September that at some point it would be necessary to learn the lessons of another failure on the revision of the Regulation on the coordination of social security schemes (883/2004) and “stop” the negotiations.
“Clearly, at a certain point, if it’s not working, it’s not working. We will then have to take stock and stop”, he told elected representatives who asked him about the European Commission’s various priorities.
However, the Director General welcomed the intention of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU to once again seek a solution to this issue, which has been on the table since 2016 and was blocked once again under the Spanish Presidency at the end of 2023, following a failure in 2021 under the Slovenian Presidency. He also encouraged the European Parliament to relaunch the work and make “another attempt”.
At this stage, the Hungarian Presidency has not yet circulated a working paper to the national delegations, but Regulation 883/2004 is one of its priorities.
In December, the Spanish Presidency believed it was very close to an agreement, but the chapters on unemployment benefits and prior notification continued to stand in the way (see EUROPE 13317/17). The issue remains urgent for Member States such as France, which want in particular to reform the rules on the payment of unemployment benefit to cross-border workers.
On Wednesday, Mario Nava confirmed to MEPs that resolving the issue of Regulation 883/2004 remains a priority for several Member States, who informed him of this at an informal meeting at the end of July.
Germany’s Gabriele Bischoff (S&D) was rapporteur for the European Parliament during the last legislature, but her staff has told Agence Europe in recent days that the dossier does not automatically fall to her. The EMPL Committee will have to vote in the coming weeks on the allocation of reports inherited from the ‘unfinished business’ procedure. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)