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ECAS Welcomes Council’s Approval to Revise Current Social Security Systems

25 June 2018

ECAS is pleased that the Council of the EU has confirmed its general approach on the coordination of current social security systems.

This new coordination will aim at revising regulations 883/2004 and 987/2009 in order to harmonize social security systems in EU Member States.

ECAS especially welcomes the commitment to ensure legal clarity for economically inactive workers when accessing their benefits.

Other changes include longer periods for jobseekers to export their unemployment benefits, better coordination between Member States of residence and of previous employment, more stability for long-term care benefits.

This results from the Commission’s reform proposal, largely based on a contribution by ECAS: a series of recommendations for a fair and complete labour mobility package, submitted last year.

The lack of social security coordination is an ongoing issue for EU citizens, when moving from one country to another. Each Member State can decide its own conditions of access and what benefits each citizen is entitled, which results in citizens frequently encountering legal and administrative hurdles in another EU country.

For more information on current social security-related challenges, as well as others faced by EU citizens when exercising their free movement rights see our latest free movement study.