Yves Jorens

General principles of coordination in Regulation 883/2004

Fifty years after Regulation 1408/71, a new Coordination Regulation, 883/2004, will shortly enter into force and become the new coordination instrument. The general principles of the coordination of social security (equal treatment, aggregation of periods, export of benefits and rules for the determination of the applicable legislation) still constitute, after 5 decades, the general framework of coordination. No fundamental changes can be reported, although these principles were adapted in line with the modernisation and simplification exercise of the whole coordination framework, in order to take into account several developments in national social security legislation as well as in the case law of the European Court of Justice. New developments in the framework of European citizenship, and the influence of the other “constitutional” principle of the free movement of people in the EU Treaty, play an important role and might in the future further challenge the coordination framework. This is in particular the case with respect to the derogations to the exportability rule, as well as with respect to the rules on the applicable legislation. The general rule on equal treatment was strengthened through the generalisation of the assimilation of facts. Although some small improvements have been obtained with respect to the personal and material scope of the Regulation, a lot of burning issues remain and already call for further attention in the future. Regulation 883/2004 might be the welcomed new start of the coordination framework, but the challenges currently encountered raise the question whether it is not time to reflect on a new framework, perhaps leaving aside decisions taken decades ago and re-confirmed today by the community legislator.

The Implementation of Regulation 1408/71 in the Member States of the European Union

In the year 2000, reports were written on the implementation of co-ordination regulations in each of the Member States. These reports present interesting new information on how the regulations work and on implementation problems that were encountered. In this paper an overview of the main findings is given and some recommendations that might improve the co-ordination process are made.

New Forms of Social Security for Persons Moving Between the EU and the UK

In this chapter, a short history of the UK’s integration in the EU with respect to social security is presented. Moreover, the so-called Brexit agreement is analysed, with the emphasis on family benefits arrangement and possible consequences on their coordination within the EU even after this agreement did not become applicable. Most importantly, some options for a potential relation between the EU and the UK are discussed, where special attention is paid to some actual examples of relations with other countries. The impact and consequences of such examples are looked at.

Vers de nouvelles règles pour la détermination de la législation applicable

La determination de la legislation applicable est l’un des principes fondamentaux de la securite sociale des travailleurs migrants (746). L’objectif est de ne pas laisser la moindre place au doute quant a la legislation specifique qui regit la protection sociale des travailleurs migrants. En l’absence de ce principe, il est possible, sachant qu’il appartient aux Etats membres, au titre de leur souverainete natio-