EU makes new attempt to reach agreement on unemployed cross-border workers
Published: Thursday, Dec 7th 2023, 10:20
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The Spanish EU Council Presidency wants to revive the dossier on social security coordination. This will also put the new regulation for unemployed cross-border workers back on the table, which is likely to be expensive for Switzerland. On Friday, Spain wants the EU states to give it a mandate for negotiations with the EU Parliament. However, it is anything but certain that an agreement will be reached.
The dossier provides for a whole raft of new regulations. However, the most important for Switzerland is probably the one concerning unemployed cross-border workers. In future, they are to receive unemployment benefits from the country in which they were employed - and not from their country of residence, as is currently the case.
This principle is undisputed. What is disputed among the member states, however, is how long a cross-border worker must work in another country in order to receive support from the country of employment in the event of unemployment.
While countries with many cross-border commuters such as Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark are arguing for the longest possible period, other states are advocating the shortest possible period. The Spanish EU Council Presidency is now proposing 25 weeks.
EU sees Switzerland as having a duty
Switzerland is not obliged to adopt these EU amendments once they come into force. However, Bern assumes that the EU will demand that Switzerland adopts them. This is because Switzerland has always adopted earlier amendments.
The title of the provisional legal text from Spain, which is available to the Keystone-SDA news agency, states that the regulation is also legally "relevant" for the EEA states and Switzerland.
According to an estimate by the federal government from 2018, Switzerland would have to expect additional costs of a "higher three-digit million amount" per year with the new regulation.
Agreement completely unclear
However, it is still unclear whether the EU states will be able to agree on a mandate at all on Friday. If this is the case, Spain will begin negotiations with the EU Parliament next Monday: It would be the 19th meeting between the two institutions.
However, there are still various points to be clarified with the EU Parliament. The main point of contention with MEPs is the so-called pre-registration requirement for postings. This is about who has to register when they want to work in another EU country. There is disagreement as to whether business trips fall under this rule or whether postings can also be registered retrospectively.
If a final compromise were to be reached between the member states and the EU Parliament by the end of the year, which would also be approved by the EU member states, this would be a great success for the Spanish.
This is because both the Romanian (2019) and Slovakian (2021) EU Council Presidencies have already fought tooth and nail over this dossier. Both reached an agreement with the EU Parliament, but then failed to reach a compromise with the member states.
©Keystone/SDA
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