Brussels, 04/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 6 February, the Commission is expected to approve a proposal of Council regulation aiming to extend the social protection provisions of Regulation (EEC) 1408/71 to third country nationals who, because of their nationality, do not yet benefit from the same rights as Community nationals and third country workers with regard to social security health insurance and pension rights. The aim of the communication from Anna Diamantopoulou (Social Affairs), in agreement with Antonio Vitorino (Justice/Home Affairs) is to ensure real integration of third country nationals who are long-time residents on Member State territory and to provide equal treatment to long-term residents as far as social protection is concerned.
The 1971 Regulation on stateless persons already includes refugees as well as family members and the survivors of Community nationals as defined by the Regulation. The nationals targeted by this new proposal must reside legally on the territory of a Member State and therefore have a temporary or permanent right of residence, in order to prevent illegal immigration. Provisional rules are designed to protect the persons covered by this Regulation so that they do not lose their rights as a result of its entry into force and to permit the award, resumption or revision of the benefits. This Regulation will take effect the first day of the month following that of its publication in the Official Journal and will be directly applicable in all Member States.
"There are 13 million nationals living permanently in the EU", said Andrew Fielding, spokesman for Ms Diamantopoulou. "This initiative is important for three reasons: 1) first of all, because in Tampere in October 1999, the Heads of State and Government insisted on the need to treat third country and EU nationals in the same way; 2) then, because this will allow greater worker mobility, which is important for competitiveness with a view to the Barcelona Summit; 3) finally, because it in no way prejudges the EU's future immigration policy given that it concerns the rights of nationals already established within the EU", the spokesman explained. The choice of legal base to be used for extending Regulation (EEC) 1408/71 to third country nationals was the subject of discussion within the Council. Further to the Khalil affair (ruling of the EC Court of Justice dated 11 October 2001), review of the legal bases was necessary, continued the spokesperson, adding that the Employment Council of 3 December 2001 had agreed on the possibility of using Article 63§4 of the EC Treaty for such extension and that the Commission had given its agreement. "It is important to keep a parallelism between the justice and home affairs policy and the social policy of the treaty", concluded the spokesperson.