Press remarks by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis and Commissioner Schmit

Remarks by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis:

Let me begin by referring to the principle of the free movement: all EU nationals have the right to travel, work and live in another EU country.

These are some of the EU's great benefits for people in their daily lives. They are some of the keys to our economic prosperity and the strength of our single market.

They date from the earliest days of European integration.

And they go hand in hand with common rules on social security coordination.

It is thanks to these rules that people continue to receive benefits – such as for unemployment, healthcare, pensions – when they travel or move to another EU country.

Let's take the European Health Insurance Card as an example.

It comes free of charge.

Around 235 million people hold one to help them get medical support when they are temporarily abroad.

The card allows you to be treated under the same conditions and costs as local nationals.

Unfortunately, accessing social security benefits in another EU country does not always work so smoothly or seamlessly.

There are interoperability issues between different social security systems that make it difficult for national authorities to access and share data.

In turn, this brings more costs for issuing and verifying people's entitlement documents.

Just to note, each year there are 3.6 million requests for proof of social security coverage in cross-border situations.

It takes more time, because these procedures often rely on physical presence and paper documents.

And it means a lot of paperwork and hassle for millions of European citizens and businesses.

Today, we are proposing to work together with Member States to end all this – and to go digital.

Digitalisation is the key for making the EU's national social security systems more automated, interoperable and integrated.

So what does the Commission propose in today's communication?

As part of the EU's drive to embrace digitalisation, we can build on several existing EU initiatives that support the development of cross-border digital public services so that people get fast access to eligible benefits.

This includes the Single Digital Gateway, which requires that people and businesses have full online access to key administrative procedures by the end of this year.

Then, to make handling of cross-border social security cases between institutions more efficient, we want Member States to speed up implementation of the Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information System.

This system replaces paper-based exchanges between national social security institutions.

It should be fully operational across Europe by the end of 2024.

We want to move forward with introducing the EU digital wallet to allow EU nationals to carry digital versions of their social security entitlement documents – again, such as the European Health Insurance Card.

This will make it easier for social security institutions, labour inspectorates and healthcare providers to verify them instantly.

Various EU funding instruments for digitalisation are available – such as the Digital Europe Programme, InvestEU, European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund Plus.

Nicolas will give you more detail but just to conclude, digitalising the coordination of national social security systems will benefit both people and businesses across Europe.

It will make it easier for people to move around the EU to travel, live, work or study in other Member States.

It will help to reduce errors, prevent fraud and simplify procedures for businesses providing services abroad.

In short: removing barriers and red tape, providing a seamless digital experience.

Ultimately, digitalising this sector will stimulate sustainable growth and help to improve the EU's competitiveness.

Thank you – and with that, I pass over to Nicolas.

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Remarks by Commissioner Schmit

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Single Market. This is also about free movement of people.

There is no free movement of people without guaranteeing their social rights, and that's why coordination of social security across borders is so important.

As part of the right to free movement, you can access your normal social benefits even when you are abroad, be it your pension, child benefit or healthcare.

To give you some figures:

• • In 2021, around 16 million citizens lived in another EU or EFTA country.
  • There were 9 million claims for cross-border healthcare.
  • 6 million pensions were disbursed to pensioners residing in another Member State.
  • And 3.6 million people obtained the document to be posted abroad for work.

This can mean a lot of paperwork, which often becomes time-consuming, and leads to delays in receiving your benefits.

Today's Communication aims to encourage Member States to keep making the procedures simpler, faster, more accurate and more secure by making them as digital as possible.

The first action relates to the Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information, a system links the different social security institutions across Europe and helps them exchange information electronically.

The electronic system also helps clamp down on the number of cases of fraud or errors.

All EU countries as well as 5 others [Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the UK] already use this system, but many of the countries have not fully implemented it, for example when it comes to reimbursing healthcare costs.

This means that all the countries that have the full system up and running have to maintain paper-based systems in parallel.

If one country is not fully operational, the whole system does not function at its optimum.

So one of the actions we call for in the Communication is for all countries to fully implement this system by the end of next year.

Another action relates to the European Social Security Pass pilot (the so-called “ESSPASS”). This system aims to digitally verify and issue citizens' social security entitlements across borders, such as the E-HIC card to get healthcare abroad, or the PD A1 document needed for posted workers.

The ESSPASS would help people travelling or moving to another EU country - and companies doing business abroad - to interact digitally with social security institutions and other public bodies, like labour inspectorates and healthcare providers. Currently 12 Member States are taking part.

So in the Communication, we call on all the Member States to join the pilot so everyone is at the same level.

The Commission will then analyse the results and make a study, and see whether a legislative framework would be needed in the future.

There is also the Single Digital Gateway Regulation, which requires Member States to ensure that citizens and businesses can complete 21 administrative procedures fully online by December 2023. Three of these procedures relate to social security.

The Communication invites Member States to deliver additional portable documents (in the fields of sickness, accidents at work, family and unemployment benefits) fully online by 2025.

We also want Member States to start working towards introducing EU Digital Identity wallets, which would allow EU citizens to carry digital versions of their entitlement documents, alongside all their other digital services.

If Member States take forward these actions:

• • citizens' interactions with national authorities would be simplified, and they would get quicker access to their eligible social benefits from abroad such as pensions or healthcare, with digital versions of their entitlement documents available on their smartphone.

• • • This is good for those already moving around Europe, and it could also encourage more mobility;

• • It would have a huge cost- and time-saving effect on companies doing business cross-border as they could request and receive the necessary social security documents in a digitalised form; and

• • It would allow national administrations to coordinate social security across borders more effectively. For example, labour inspectorates would be able to verify immediately whether a worker is covered by the social security system of the sending country by checking the digital reference documents, instead of needing to contact the authorities that issued the document.

We also count on the European Labour Authority to help national administrations share best practices.

Thank you very much.