12.10.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 342/65

1.

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;

2.

notes that the free movement of workers, being negative single market integration, has to be complemented by coordination of social security, which is positive integration, in line with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the case law of the European Court of Justice (CJEU);

3.

considers the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and its proposal for a Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 to be generally appropriate and helpful and therefore approves them;

4.

would remind the Commission about its better regulation initiative and points out that the complex set of rules in Regulations 883/2004 and 987/2009 must remain understandable so that the legal situation is clear to both the authorities and the public;

5.

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;

6.

stresses that the Commission’s proposal is necessary in order to ensure freedom of movement of workers. Due to the clear legal basis in TFEU Article 48, there are no subsidiarity issues in relation to the Commission proposal. Indeed, the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, but can by reason of the scale and/or effects of this action be better achieved at EU level, as the proposed action involves trans-national aspects that cannot be properly regulated by Member States and/or regional and local authorities acting alone;

7.

stresses its strong interest in the continuation of the technical dialogue with the Commission on this issue and, in this connection, underlines the importance of the impact assessment report that the Commission will submit in due course, on the basis of its cooperation agreement with the CoR;

8.

takes note of the progress in regulating posting and certification of posting. It welcomes the fact that the Commission, with the introduction of Article 76a, is to be empowered to adopt implementing acts in accordance with TFEU Article 291, under which a standard procedure is to be laid down for the issuance, contestation and withdrawal of the portable document A1 (also known as an A1 attestation), so as to hinder misuse thereof. The aforementioned procedure can in particular be suitable for helping avoid various procedures, from lengthy litigation to infringement proceedings, and thus contribute to a stable legal situation within European Union;

9.

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;

10.

in connection with the posting of workers, would point out that social security depends to a considerable extent on the clarification of rules and definitions, for which reason an unambiguous definition of key terms such as ‘self-employment’ and ‘place of business’ would be helpful for dealing effectively with problems relating to ‘bogus’ self-employment or letterbox companies;

11.

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 (1);

12.

regrets the delay in introducing the Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information (EESSI); considers pan-European electronic data interchange to be essential;

13.

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;

14.

notes that the protection of a sick person residing in a Member State has to be ensured, even if that person does not have legal right of residence; points out, however, that it is often difficult to obtain recognition of foreign sickness insurance cover under current EU law and that in some Member States people in precarious employment are often — wrongly — refused any kind of sickness insurance cover;

15.

welcomes, therefore, the fact that entitlement to sickness insurance cover for economically inactive and needy EU citizens will be conditional merely on actual residence in a Member State rather than legal residence. In this regard, the host Member State’s right to reimbursement by the competent Member State must be established;

16.

considers the new rules on coordination of unemployment benefits to be appropriate. Although the exception concerning short-term employment of less than twelve months provided for in Article 65(2) of Regulation No 883/2004 may not be necessary strictly speaking, it clarifies the text;

17.

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. The CoR has concerns about the special provision regarding employment periods shorter than twelve months;

18.

stresses that all EU citizens have a right to family-social benefits in the country where they are registered, employed or subject to tax, although there may be considerable divergences about family-social entitlements amongst Member States;

19.

acknowledges the competence arising from the CJEU’s case law on the powers of the Member States to determine the social assistance entitlements of economically inactive persons and welcomes the statement that these determinations shall comply with European fundamental and human rights. It is welcome that these persons will in future not be excluded from sickness insurance cover on the basis of actual residence and notes that they may be allowed to contribute in a proportionate manner to a scheme for sickness coverage on the basis of their habitual residence. The question remains, however, as to what justification would be needed for restriction of, or complete exclusion from, social assistance. At the same time, the extension of this principle to persons who are actually resident in a Member State other than their own entails regulating its application, also with a view to establishing equal conduct and responsibility for Member States;

20.

regrets the lack of reliable data and information on the number of cross-border workers as described in the legal definition in Regulation (EC) No 883/2004;

21.

points out that the border regions have extensive experience of mobile workers. The CoR calls on the Commission and the Member States to make use of this experience. In this connection, the Committee invites the Commission to strengthen the support services for cross-border labour mobility provided by EURES — including through existing EURES Cross-border Partnerships, while encouraging the creation of new ones — and to enable these services to gather reliable information on the number and profile of cross-border workers and their employers.