Brussels, 12/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The report by Ria Oomen-Ruijten (EPP, Netherlands) on the situation of border workers, which will be debated on 17 January in plenary, deplores that the European Commission, Council and the Member States have not followed-up the recommendations already expressed by the European Parliament in its resolution of 28 May 1999 on this very issue. At the present time the coordination regulation on the application of the social security system to salaried workers, to non-salaried workers and to members of their families who move within the EC "is no longer adequate", not only because it co-ordinates social security in relation to the country of work and that it only co-ordinates after many modifications brought to the national social security systems, but also because it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between social aid and social security in the Member States. Moreover, the rules for the coordination enforced at the European level for health care and the costs of sickness are faulty (due to among others the differences existing between private systems and public ones) and are insufficient in terms of social security (for example they create problems with regards to the family grants, the reimbursement of health care and the financing of studies of members of their family under their care).
Mrs Oomen-Ruijten calls on the Commission to draft a binding Directive , the Member States to examine the effects that lead for border workers to the modification of their legislation in terms of social security, unemployment, sick leave, family grants, the financing of studies, pensions and other social systems. This directive should also create a framework for a legal system of compensation, starting from the principal of a State which, after having examined the effects cited, would apply a modification to the social or fiscal legislation bearing prejudice to the border workers, should compensate the losses of revenue that stem from this. The Commission is also invited to: - organise before the end of 2001 an international conference with the EU Member States and the accession candidate countries on the situation of cross border workers; - ensure that the bilateral agreements concluded by the Member States in the fiscal field are in accordance with regulation N°1408/71 with regards to the detachment period 12 months); - support the new initiatives of social security bodies, notably in terms of cross border health services for border workers; - establish a monitoring system for the implementation of measures for the protection of border workers, by granting particular attention to areas in which are enforces bilateral agreements with EFTA countries.
Finally, the Oomen-Ruijten report engages the Commission and Council to interest themselves, in the extension of the Luxembourg process, to the scope and nature of border work, and to propose measures eliminating the barrier to the mobility of trainees, students, volunteers and researchers.