Brussels, 27/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 27 July, the Council of Ministers of the EU adopted without debate, two regulations to modernise and simplify the coordination of national social security systems in member states, following a second reading agreement with the European Parliament. This involves the basic Regulation 883/2004 and the application regulation defining the contents of the regulation annexes (29 April 2004). Modernisation is essential in a context of crisis and uncertainty for Europeans. New rules for coordinating the EU social security systems could by applied from 1 March next year, after more than eleven years of negotiations. These new rules will replace the EU provisions currently in force in this area: Regulation 1408/71 on the application of social security systems for waged workers and their families moving within the Community and its application regulation 574/02. Katharina von Schnurbein, the spokesperson for the Commissioner for social affairs, Vladimir Spidla informed the press that, “Regulation 1408/71 on the coordination of social security systems is both very complicated but also very practical. Since the 1970s, the idea was always to allow workers moving and working in the EU to benefit from their social security systems”. Setting out the main changes in the next regulation, Von Schnurbein stressed that, “the new regulation involves anyone moving to temporarily work, study or travel in another member state of the EU, including those out of work”:
1) Modernised coordination expands its field. It is now addressed to workers and their families, as well as those who have no employment (those not working). New allocations are also covered in the field of coordination: paternity benefits, early retirement systems, unemployment benefits, family allowance, health insurance. Independent workers will also be able be able to claim their benefits in the country where they last worked;
2) a new information network will be launched: EESSI (Electronic exchange of social security information), which will help establish dialogue between institutions in different countries by e-mail. Hard copy will disappear and approaches by citizens are expected to be significantly slimmed down;
3) temporary affiliation: when a difference of opinion arises between institutions in different member states about the situation regarding someone identifying the social security legislation that must be applied in their case, temporary affiliation to a social security system is planned, accompanied by the payment of benefits. For the person in question, this opens access to healthcare and health insurance during this period with a legal social security system and means that citizens no longer suffer the complexities of different social security systems.
The new regulation, the same as the current 1408/71 and its regulation of application (574/72) do not create any new social security laws but guarantee that the rights on health insurance and pensions, as well as family allowance are protected in the event of European mobility. Member states and their institutions have nine months to apply the new regulation on EESSI. In March 2012, all member states will have to use this electronic data exchange system between the social security institutions for all the areas covered by coordination. Training is going on in all member states and the Commission is preparing public information on coordination for users, which is currently the case for the European heal insurance card (a subject that underwent a broad information campaign). Currently, 180 million European health cards have been distributed (36% of the European population). 27% of EU residents take holidays of at least 4 nights a year in another member state. In 2007, 10.5 million Europeans resided in an EU member states other than the one in which they were born (21% of the population). More than 1 million workers are frontier workers. Every year, around 250,000 people take their retirement and benefit from the pension export rights due to their having worked in more than one member state of the EU. (G.B./trans/rh)