Annexes to COM(2023)501 - Digitalisation in social security coordination: facilitating free movement in the Single Market - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2023)501 - Digitalisation in social security coordination: facilitating free movement in the Single Market. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2023)501 |
| date | September 6, 2023 |
- ensure that by 2025, people can also request and obtain online the other portable documents in the fields of sickness, accidents at work and occupational diseases and unemployment benefits, beyond those for which procedures are to be digitalised under the Single Digital Gateway Regulation.
- sustain the investment in automating processes for handling national and cross-border cases in social security and social protection, while working towards further interoperability between national social security systems.
- step up efforts to meet, by 2030, the Digital Decade’s objectives of 100% of key public services being available online, including in social security, and 100% of people having access to electronic identification (eID) means, to be used for key public services across the EU, including for social security.
The Commission also urges the European Parliament and the Council to:
- swiftly reach an agreement on the revision of the EU social security coordination rules. The Commission will continue to support co-legislators to achieve this objective.
4. Moving towards a more digitally integrated social security coordination system
In recent years, the Commission and Member States have built the foundations of a modern and digitalised system of social security coordination, as regards both exchanges between authorities across borders and the delivery of services to citizens and businesses.
It is crucial to pursue these efforts and accelerate progress towards more citizen and business friendly, interconnected and interoperable social security systems. This depends significantly on political steer, commitment and investments and requires a vision for the longer-term.
The aim is to enable a seamless and secure flow of information across borders, to make the access to social security services quicker and simpler for citizens and businesses and to provide them with burden-free experiences when interacting with those services across the EU.
To achieve this and implement a citizen and business-centric approach, a more integrated data exchange between social security systems would be needed, with further interoperability – in line with the proposal for the Interoperable Europe Act38 –, automation, standardisation of social security data and direct access to the original source of data39.
Such integrated approach would streamline administrative processes, reducing paperwork and manual tasks, and allowing a more efficient allocation of resources. Interoperability would enable national authorities to integrate data from multiple sources and ensure that accurate and up to date information is shared across systems. Such interoperable exchanges are also necessary with systems covering mobile workers who are outside the scope of EU social security coordination rules, such as staff of international organisations and of EU institutions and other bodies. Automated systems could help authorities to detect patterns of fraudulent activity involving multiple locations in various countries. This would lead to cost savings and ensure that benefits reach those who genuinely need them and that people are effectively protected.
People would be able to access services and receive benefits more easily, saving time and effort. Businesses providing services abroad would benefit from lighter processes and increased data accuracy.
To support a seamless experience for cross-border labour mobility – both physical and ‘virtual’ mobility – for people, businesses and national authorities, it is important to act beyond the social security domain and foster cross-sectoral interoperability40. This would require examining the various processes governing not only social security coordination but also posting of workers, cross-border healthcare and the interaction between social security coordination and labour law, taxation41 and company law. The aim is to bring greater clarity, simplify administrative procedures, and explore synergies between digital solutions developed in the different sectors42.
Any way forward would need to carefully assess the needs, added value and expected impact – including financial – of introducing additional interoperability, technical requirements and common standards for exchanging data. It should take into account the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, as well as legal and organisational issues.
Privacy and data protection challenges would also need to be addressed, especially when enabling further data sharing. Similarly, when using algorithms or artificial intelligence, thorough safeguards would be needed, including to protect individuals from the risks of bias and discrimination.
Regular high-level exchanges will take place with Member States to discuss the main actions to be taken and to monitor and evaluate progress.
The Commission will:
- launch a study in 2024 on further developments in the longer term in digitalisation of social security coordination which will, among other things:
- analyse the needs, costs and benefits of establishing further interoperability in the national context and across borders and sectors – building on input received from the ELA, Member States, social security institutions, social partners and other relevant stakeholders.
- examine the opportunity for further simplification and streamlining in the procedures governing free movement of people and workers in the EU, with a view to achieving a seamless digital experience.
- organise, once a year, high-level meetings with Member States to discuss and support implementing further digitalisation, standardisation and automation in social security coordination, facilitating freedom of movement and labour mobility, including increased interoperability with other relevant sectors.
The Commission calls on Member States and all stakeholders to:
- actively contribute to achieving the objective of a more digitally integrated social security coordination system by continuing to invest in digitalisation efforts at national level, duly taking into account the developments at EU level and in other Member States.
5. Conclusions
Digitalisation facilitates citizens’ exercise of their social security rights across borders, reducing barriers to free movement and labour mobility, thus making it easier for people to move around the EU to travel, live, work, study in other Member States. It also helps prevent fraud and lighten the administrative burden for businesses providing services abroad by simplifying procedures. This ultimately stimulates sustainable growth and improves competitiveness.
Significant progress has been made in recent years, but to achieve the objective of a seamless, burden-free experience for mobile citizens and businesses, it is essential to scale up action at EU and national levels, towards more automated, interoperable and integrated national social security systems.
The Commission is fully committed to guiding and supporting Member States and national administrations in their efforts to accelerate the digital transformation across Europe.
Member States’ continued engagement and further political and financial commitment remain prerequisites for building a more digital Europe, including in social security coordination to support free movement and fair labour mobility.
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1 Commission Communication: Single Market at 30.
2 Eurobarometer surveys: “Intra-EU labour mobility after the pandemic”, available through the link: Intra-EU labour mobility after the pandemic - December 2022 - Eurobarometer survey (europa.eu), and “European Union Citizens and Democracy – July 2020.
3 European Parliamentary Research Service (2020) – Coronavirus and the cost of non-Europe and OECD Economic Survey: Euro Area 2021, OECD Publishing, Paris.
4 Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004. These Regulations also apply to Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Specific rules are in place in the agreements with the United Kingdom.
5COM (2016) 815 final.
6 See standard forms for social security rights - Your Europe (europa.eu).
7 The administrative burden caused by the rules on posting workers abroad is one of the main single market obstacles, according to the 2020 Commission inventory of barriers.
8 Conference on the Future of Europe – final report and Recommendation 20 from the Panel on learning mobility.
9 For cases of fraud and errors linked to portable documents and inappropriate use of the EHIC: Fraud and errors in the field of EU social security coordination and Cross-border healthcare in the EU under social security coordination – reference year 2021.
10 See the Resolutions of the European Parliament: P9_TA(2020)0371; P9_TA(2020)0284;P9_TA(2021)0007; P9_TA(2021)0249; P9_TA(2020)0176; P9_TA(2021)0473 ; P9_TA(2023)0203.
11 Decision (EU) 2022/2481 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 establishing the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030. According to a recent Eurobarometer, 74% of EU citizens think that digital technologies will be important in their life by 2030 notably for accessing services online, also in other EU countries.
12 European Year of Skills.
13 European Declaration of digital rights and principles.
14 Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 establishing a single digital gateway to provide access to information, to procedures and to assistance and problem-solving services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012.
15 These procedures cover situations relevant for working, studying, retiring, moving to another country or doing business (both in a national and cross-border context), with procedures such as registering a car or claiming a pension being fully digitalised and eliminating the need for paperwork.
16 https://europa.eu/youreurope/index_en.htm.
17 Proposed Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as regards establishing a framework for a European Digital Identity. On 29 June 2023, the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional political agreement on the proposal.
18 Proposal for a Regulation laying down measures for a high level of public sector interoperability across the Union.
19 See Articles 78 and 79 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 and Articles 4 and 95 of Regulation (EC) No 987/2009.
20 Since the start of the project in 2008, in addition to national resources, more than 120 million euros were made available from the EU budget to support the development of EESSI.
21 13 countries are able to exchange electronically in all social security sectors and with all institutions: BG, DK, EE, FR, CY, LV, HU, MT, PT, SE and IS, NO and UK.
22 The complete implementation of EESSI could effectively support cross-border labour mobility and thus help make labour markets more resilient to the economic cycle: OECD Economic Survey: Euro Area 2021 OECD Publishing, Paris.
23 Recital 19 and Article 7 (3) of the Regulation (EU) 2019/1149 establishing a European Labour Authority.
24 Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information (EESSI) - Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion - European Commission (europa.eu).
25 The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan.
26 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).
27 See in particular Directive (EU) 2016/2102 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies and Directive (EU) 2019/882 on the accessibility requirements for products and services, notably Annex I.
28 The results were presented at the Conference on digitalisation in social security coordination and labour cards. Respondents to the Conference questionnaire believed that ESSPASS would significantly help reduce barriers to free movement and labour mobility (56%) and simplify procedures for: citizens and workers (63%), institutions, labour inspectorates and healthcare providers (66%) and businesses (52%). It would also help reduce errors and social security fraud (61%).
29 Member State institutions in the consortium under the European Digital Identity framework (AT, BE, CZ, DK, DE, IE, IT, NL, PL, PT, ES, SE) are working on the use of EU digital identity wallets for the portable document A1 and the EHIC (among other use cases). Member State institutions in the consortium under the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (AT, BE, DE, IT) are further exploring the use of this infrastructure and blockchain to exchange digital documents.
30 Directive 2014/67/EU on the enforcement of Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of provision of services.
31 Proposal for a Regulation on the European Health Data Space.
32 Under the Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare.
33 Some of the Member States replying to the questionnaire for a working party on digitalisation on social security coordination (on 8 March 2023) highlighted the risks and challenges associated with the different degrees of digitalisation and automation in the social security domain across Member States.
34 See above footnote 34.
35 DIGITAL has a budget of 7.5. billion euros in current prices for 2021-2027, which includes 1.1 billion to ensure the wise use of digital technologies across the economy and society.
36 See for instance: https://reform-support.ec.europa.eu/what-we-do/labour-market-social-protection-and-migration/strengthening-administrative-capacity-italian-national-institute-social-security_en.
37 Several countries are using these instruments to support the initiatives on digitalising social security coordination (e.g. the European Social Fund Plus for EESSI and the RRF and DIGITAL for the ESSPASS pilot project).
38 Cross-border interoperability helps deliver better connected services and will lead to cost-savings for citizens and businesses dealing with public administrations. Cost savings are estimated to be between €5.5 and €6.3 million for citizens and €5.7 and €19.2 billion for businesses dealing with public administrations - Staff Working Document (2022) 721.
39 The need for further interoperability, standardisation of data and automation was shared by many stakeholders at the conference on digitalisation in social security coordination and labour cards and in the working party on digitalisation.
40 80% of respondents to the questionnaire for the conference on digitalisation of social security coordination and labour cards believed that the EU and Member States should invest more in (i) cross-border interoperability covering related policy domains and (ii) automation.
41 The Commission is working on ways to facilitate the implementation of taxpayers’ rights and to simplify tax obligations, as announced in the Tax Action Plan for Fair and Simple Taxation Supporting the Recovery Strategy.
42 For instance, Article 4 of the Commission’s proposal for a Directive to further expand the use of digital tools and processes in EU company law provides for an assessment of the potential interoperability between the Business Registers interconnection system (BRIS) and other systems, such as in the areas of taxation and social security. BRIS provides access to company information free of charge, in all EU languages, gathered directly from national business registers.
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