Coordination of Social Security Systems
SEDEC-VI/024
Coordination of Social Security Systems
The opinion expresses its support for free and fair labour mobility and therefore welcomes the revision of the rules on coordinating social security against the background of the increasing mobility of EU citizens within the EU.
no impact so far
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- stresses the importance of regional advisory and support networks for mobile EU citizens. These are essential to prevent the exploitation of mobile workers and organised fraud. The CoR calls for these networks to be strengthened;
- would point out that the proposal in hand for amending Regulation No 883/2004 with an update to the arrangements for issuing the A1 attestation constitutes a key element for better protection against the social abuse of posted employees, as part of parallel work revising the Posted Workers Directive 96/71/EC. With a view to the importance of this aspect, each step towards a binding, clear and direct shaping of the way the A1 attestation is granted in the future is particularly important and should be given due consideration;
- reiterates in this regard the Committee's view that the time limit beyond which the law of the host country applies in full to employment relationships in posting situations should be 12 months;
- notes that the coordination of long-term care benefits extends the scope of coordinating law, which is necessary in order to achieve the objectives of the proposed action; the ban on overlapping of sickness and long-term care benefits is likely to be difficult to implement, however;
- welcomes the planned extension of the possibility to export unemployment benefits from three to six months. It would, however, point out that this should be coupled with appropriate active labour market policies (ALMPs), constituting a key element of the so-called "activation strategies", which address the interplay between unemployment insurance and assistance systems, ALMPs and benefit conditionality. The CoR considers it necessary to clarify how Member States should be able to extend the export period beyond the applicable provisions of European law.
- stresses the importance of regional advisory and support networks for mobile EU citizens. These are essential to prevent the exploitation of mobile workers and organised fraud. The CoR calls for these networks to be strengthened;
- would point out that the proposal in hand for amending Regulation No 883/2004 with an update to the arrangements for issuing the A1 attestation constitutes a key element for better protection against the social abuse of posted employees, as part of parallel work revising the Posted Workers Directive 96/71/EC. With a view to the importance of this aspect, each step towards a binding, clear and direct shaping of the way the A1 attestation is granted in the future is particularly important and should be given due consideration;
- reiterates in this regard the Committee's view that the time limit beyond which the law of the host country applies in full to employment relationships in posting situations should be 12 months;
- notes that the coordination of long-term care benefits extends the scope of coordinating law, which is necessary in order to achieve the objectives of the proposed action; the ban on overlapping of sickness and long-term care benefits is likely to be difficult to implement, however;
- welcomes the planned extension of the possibility to export unemployment benefits from three to six months. It would, however, point out that this should be coupled with appropriate active labour market policies (ALMPs), constituting a key element of the so-called "activation strategies", which address the interplay between unemployment insurance and assistance systems, ALMPs and benefit conditionality. The CoR considers it necessary to clarify how Member States should be able to extend the export period beyond the applicable provisions of European law.
