While a group of Member States has been actively lobbying the European Commission and the future Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU for several weeks to try to find a way out of the reform of Regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security schemes, the Commission may decide on 21 October not to withdraw this proposal from its 2026 work programme, as some MEPs feared.
According to a draft of the Commission’s 2026 work programme seen by Agence Europe and dated 14 October (see other news), the proposed regulation would in fact remain pending legislation at this stage. It was not included in the annex withdrawing the proposals. The text, proposed in 2016, is the oldest text still on the table, with two previous regulations dating from 2015 and 2004.
While Cyprus has already expressed an interest in finalising the work, if the dossier remains on the table, the member countries that supported the latest compromises put together by Warsaw last June have kept up the pressure in recent weeks (see EUROPE 13721/14).
On Wednesday 15 October, a breakfast was again held in the presence of the Commission and the teams of Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu, Cypriot representatives and the European Parliament, according to sources.
Organised by Spain, which also attempted to secure an agreement on this reform defining the new rights of mobile workers in the EU under its Presidency in 2023, the breakfast was attended by countries traditionally in favour of the dossier: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. But Finland has since joined these countries.
According to one source, a new letter is being prepared, addressed to the Commission President’s teams, to ensure that the text is maintained.
For these countries are convinced that a qualified majority exists in the Council of the EU, and that all that is needed is one final step.
At the end of June, the European Parliament and the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU had, among other things, failed to reach agreement on the chapters dealing with liability rules for unemployment benefits for cross-border workers and prior notification requirements for the construction sector.
At the time, Warsaw deplored the fact that only one trilogue had taken place, due to a lack of compromise on the European Parliament side.
At EU Council level, however, there was still the question of how long a mobile worker should have been a member of the scheme before the country where he or she worked - and not the country of residence - became responsible for his or her unemployment benefits.
Warsaw had opted for a range of between 18 and 22 weeks, and the Cypriot Presidency will in any case have to sort out this point if it is to resume work. Member countries are still divided over the period to be used, with as many countries favouring the 18-week threshold as the 22-week one.
The countries opposed to this reform continue to call for a modernisation of this text, which is now too old and no longer adapted to new forms of work. They are not opposed to talking about the compensation rule and the shift in responsibility, but they also point out the potentially huge financial impact for them of a reform maintaining the rule currently proposed.
For these countries, solid guarantees are also needed to control the unemployed they would have to compensate, but who would have returned to their country of residence.
In any case, the Commission’s work programme of 14 October confirms that legislation introducing the European social security passport, a new mandate for the European Labour Authority and a legislative initiative on the portability of skills will be presented, but only in the third quarter of 2026.
The outcome of Regulation 883/2004 could - sources also told Agence Europe - condition the timetable for the ‘Just Mobility’ package, which was recently announced for the second quarter.
But if all goes well and if Cyprus does indeed carry out new work - which the Danish Presidency has refused to do - a final agreement could be reached by March 2026, optimists hope. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)