EU states fail to reach agreement on social security dossier
Published: Saturday, Dec 9th 2023, 01:20
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The Spanish EU Council Presidency wants to finalize the dossier on social security coordination by the end of the year. This also includes a new rule for unemployed cross-border workers, which is likely to be expensive for Switzerland. Although the Spanish did not receive a mandate for final negotiations with the EU Parliament late on Friday evening, they want to continue.
There is a blocking minority of over a dozen EU countries, an EU diplomat told the Keystone-SDA news agency. It is now unclear how to proceed. Negotiations with the EU Parliament are actually scheduled for Monday evening.
This dossier has been the subject of dispute for years. The EU diplomat is therefore calling for the dossier to be split up. The Spanish EU Presidency should start negotiations with the EU Parliament on the four undisputed points.
According to the EU diplomat, the two controversial points are to be revised by the EU Commission, especially as they are now outdated anyway with the advent of working from home.
Important question for Switzerland
One of the points of contention between the EU states is unemployed cross-border workers, who in future are to receive unemployment benefits from the country in which they were employed - and not from their country of residence, as was previously the case. There is disagreement about how long a cross-border worker must be employed before they receive unemployment benefits from the country of employment.
This issue is important for Switzerland. Although there is no obligation to adopt these regulations, Switzerland has always done so due to the free movement of persons. However, according to Bern, this would cost a "higher three-digit million amount" per year.
Difficult task
The second point of contention between the EU member states is the obligation to register in advance for postings. The issue here is who has to register when they want to work in another EU country. There is a dispute as to whether or not business trips also fall under this rule.
It is therefore questionable whether Spain will be able to reach an agreement this year. Both the Romanian (2019) and Slovakian (2021) EU Council Presidencies had already cut their teeth on 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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