On Monday 29 June, employment and social affairs ministers from the EU27 addressed the proposals announced by the European Commission on worker mobility, notably including new monitoring measures for cross-border unemployed persons receiving benefits in their country of residence, as it had undertaken to do on 29 April when agreement was reached at the Council of the EU on the revision of the rules coordinating social security schemes (883/2004) (see EUROPE 13859/11).
There was also discussion of the fair labour mobility package, scheduled for the second half of 2026, and ways of combating abusive practices, both as regards the posting of workers, including those from third countries, and those linked to new forms of work, such as ‘posted’ self-employed persons and self-employed individuals active in more than one Member State.
Most Member States thus supported the principle of new rules enabling the employment services of a country of activity to more effectively monitor cross-border unemployed persons receiving benefits in their country of residence, as well as their activation, in order to speed up their return to work.
For Italy, this means equipping the EU with minimum common rules on the activation of unemployed persons, strengthening checks and boosting Member States’ capacity to tackle abuse.
Belgium, which had ultimately accepted the reform championed by the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU, also argued, through Minister David Clarinval, for better monitoring of unemployed persons and stronger administrative cooperation
Still strongly opposed to the new paradigm of the reform of Regulation 883/2004 allowing unemployed persons to receive benefits for a certain period in their country of residence, Luxembourg called for mandatory standards on monitoring and activation for these persons, with compulsory exchange of information on the situation of unemployed persons.
As it had already raised in the past, on Monday Luxembourg reiterated its call on for “massive, standardised and mandatory data exchange” between administrations, Minister Martine Deprez explained.
For her part, Dutch minister Carola Van Rijnsover said she fully supported this revision, at a time when working patterns have evolved over the past decade. The current regulation remains too “complex” and does not meet companies’ requirements for sourcing labour force.
The fair mobility package should also strengthen the mandate of the European Labour Authority and address fraudulent practices linked to the posting of workers from third countries, the minister added.
Member States also called on the European Commission to work towards facilitating these data exchanges and making greater use of digital solutions in order to reduce delays and administrative burdens. For them, it is also essential to have tools providing access to fully up-to-date, real-time data on mobile workers.
Stronger cooperation between public employment services would make it possible to support unemployed persons receiving benefits more effectively and prevent fraud, France added, with its representative considering that “digital tools and AI can help”.
Moreover, the export of unemployment rights must be carried out with simple admin in order to prevent double payments and facilitate reimbursements between authorities.
Competitiveness concerns. However, while most Member States stressed the need to modernise rules initially proposed in 2016 and strengthen the exchange of information between the national competent authorities, they do not all agree on the means or on recourse to new legislation.
Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia thus stressed the need for impact assessments and for sticking to very targeted amendments to European legislation. According to Estonian minister Erkii Keldo, these legislative amendments must be focussed on the objective of efficiency and competitiveness. Arguing instead in favour of guidelines, he also called for an “‘omnibus’ approach in the labour field”.
“A revision that has taken 10 years does indeed raise questions about its content,” German State Secretary Michael Schäfer commented in turn, considering that digitalisation must be part of the new efforts.
The German minister was more nuanced about the automatic use of data exchanges and called for the role of the ELA to be clarified. He also called for robust impact assessments before any new measure.
For Commission Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu, these new measures will essentially be about restoring trust in labour mobility and between institutions. The proposed revision of Regulation 883/2004, by a 883.2.0, will be an opportunity to resolve all these outstanding issues. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)