Spain fails to reach agreement on social security dossier
Published: Tuesday, Dec 19th 2023, 10:01
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The Spanish EU Council Presidency cannot close the dossier on social security coordination. It failed to reach an agreement, as was announced on Tuesday. The dossier also includes a new rule for unemployed cross-border commuters, which could have been expensive for Switzerland.
The issue of cross-border commuters was also a point of contention among the EU member states. According to the new rules, unemployed cross-border workers should have received unemployment benefits from the country in which they were employed in future - and not from their country of residence, as was previously the case.
Although Switzerland is not obliged to adopt EU social security rules, it has always done so in the past due to the free movement of persons. However, according to Bern, the new rule would have cost Switzerland a "higher three-digit million amount" per year.
The Spanish are not the first to fail on the dossier. Both the Romanian (2019) and Slovenian (2021) EU Council Presidencies had already cut their teeth on it. Both reached an agreement with the EU Parliament, but then failed to reach a compromise with the member states.
What happens next is still open. After the European elections at the beginning of June, the group presidents can decide whether difficult business should be definitively written off - including the social security dossier. If they do not, it will remain pending.
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