S&Ds achieve better co-ordination of social security systems in the interest of workers
Date
20 Mar 2019
Sections
Social Europe & Jobs
Good news for mobile workers in the European Union: The European Parliament agreed in negotiations with the member states on an update of social security coordination rules including unemployment benefits, long-term care and family benefits as well as better rules for posting and applicable legislation.
Guillaume Balas, S&D negotiator for the European Parliament, said:
“We reached a progressive agreement that puts workers at the centre of our interest. In times of increased labour mobility, protecting social rights is of utmost importance. If workers move to another country, they can export up to six months of unemployment rights from one country to another, and, for frontier workers, after 6 months of activity, they will be entitled to export up to 15 months of unemployment benefits. Member states will no longer be able to apply unilaterally national periods. This leads to more social security of workers in Europe.
“I am glad to succeed in the posting and applicable legislation that additional rules will improve the cooperation between member states and strengthen the tools to address potential cases of abuse. A new tool will be the introduction of an obligation of notification in advance of the start of a working activity in another member state in all cases, except business trips. We Socialists and Democrats are against loopholes for the disadvantage of employees.
“We also achieved more legal certainty and transparency in the area of long-term care benefits. Under the revised rules, member states will have in the case of family benefits the option to pay them in full to both working parents. In this way, the sharing of parental responsibilities will be able to remove potential financial disincentives for parents. The aim was an equal treatment of mobile workers. For that reason, ideas such as the indexation of family benefits have clearly been rejected by all three institutions.”