Poland and Bulgaria’s bilateral agreements with Eastern partnership countries in the context of circular migration
| Author | Zvezda Vankova |
| DOI | 10.1177/1388262718771790 |
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Poland and Bulgaria’s bilateral
agreements with Eastern
partnership countries in the
context of circular migration
Zvezda Vankova
Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Abstract
The article aims to examine the existing possibilities for social security coordination with Eastern
partnership countries by taking as case studies two new Member States with relatively recent
migration policies: Bulgaria and Poland. It first presents social security coordination dynamics at the
national level, looking into the bilateral agreements concluded by Bulgaria and Poland and at their
personal and material scope. Then it moves to an analysis of their implementation based on
empirical data gathered through focus groups with migrant workers coming from Ukraine and
Russia, interviews with officials and data obtained from the respective Ministries. The article
employs a rights-based framework for analysis consisting of international standards in the field of
coordination of social security, against which it assesses the bilateral agreements concluded by
Bulgaria and Poland with Eastern Partnership countries.
Keywords
bilateral agreements on social security coordination, Eastern partnership, Bulgaria, Poland, circular
migration
Introduction
The circular migration
1
of third-country nationals and social secu rity coordination have been
intertwined since the first attempt of the EU to legislate on the possibility for circular migration
through the 2001 Proposal for a Directive on Admission for Paid Employment and Self-employed
Corresponding author:
Zvezda Vankova, TRANSMIC Project, Faculty of Law, Maastricht University.
Email: zvezda.vankova@maastrichtuniversity.nl
1. According to the European Commission’s definition, circular migration is a type of migration that is managed in a way
allowing some degree of legal mobility back and forth between two countries. In European Commission, ‘Circular
European Journal of Social Security
2018, Vol. 20(2) 188–203
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1388262718771790
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activities.
2
One of the initial proposals to make use of the competences to legislate on the immi-
gration of third-country nationals granted by the Amsterdam Treaty,
3
the Proposal contained the
right to ‘request and obtain the payment of contributions’ made by economic migrants and by their
employers into public pension schemes during the period of validity of their permits in certain
circumstances.
4
This was in line with one of the aims of this Proposal, which was to ensure ‘that
migrants are not cut off from their country of origin and that they have the possibility of going back
as the situation develops in the country of origin.’
5
Therefore, this Proposal provided for a
‘supplementary protection addressing those cases in which the third-country national has neither
acquired a right to an EU pension to be paid now or in the future in a third country, nor the
possibility of transferring her/his EU pension rights into a scheme in the third country where s/he
resides.’’
6
Due to the limitations of the institutional settings of Title IV of the Amsterdam treaty and the
strong resistance of the Member States, the negotiations on this Proposal were suspended, and it
was subsequently withdrawn.
7
Nevertheless, attempts to link these two policy instruments contin-
ued
8
and provisions in this regard were included in the EU legal migration directives that aimed to
facilitate circular migration, such as Directive 2009/50/EC
9
(EU Blue Card Directive) and Direc-
tive 2014/36/EU
10
(EU Seasonal Workers Directive).
11
In 2012 the European Commi ssion adopted the Communica tion on the EU external dimensi on
of social security coordination, emphasising that its main aim was to facilitate labour mobility.
12
It stated that coordination between the EU and third countries was based on both bilateral
agreements between Member States and third countries, and that a common EU approach to
social security coordination was underway.
13
Yet, as Verschueren has pointed out, in spite of all
the instruments that have been adopted as part of this EU approach, social security coordination
between the Member States and third countries is still, to a large extent, a subject of the
migration and mobility partnerships between the European Union and third countries’, 16 May 2007, COM (2007) 248:
8. For a discussion and author’s own definition, see Vankova, Z. (2016).
2. European Commission, Proposal for a Council Directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country
nationals for the purpose of paid employment and self-employed economic activities, 27 November 2011, COM (2001)
386. Interview with European Commission official, Belgium, November 2017, conducted within the framework of the
PhD dissertation ‘Circular migration from the Eastern partnership countries to the EU: The rights of migrant workers in
Bulgaria and Poland’ (Interview # 30, Annex I).
3. Papagianni (2006:157-158).
4. Article 11 (3) of the Proposal.
5. Article 11 (3) of the Explanatory Memorandum.
6. Article 11 (3) of the Explanatory Memorandum.
7. European Commission, ‘Outcome of the screening of legislative proposals pending before the Legislator’, 27
September 2005, COM (2005) 0462.
8. See for instance, European Commission, ‘Migration and Development: Some concrete orientations’, 1 September
2005, COM (2005) 390, Annex 5, 8.
9. Council Directive 2009/50/EC on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of
highly qualified employment (OJ 2009 L 155:17).
10. Directive 2014/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and stay of third-
country nationals for the purpose of employment as seasonal workers (OJ 2014 L 94:375).
11. In this regard, Verschueren (2016:18) . See also the contribution of Verschueren in this Special Issue.
12. European Commission, ‘Communication on the External Dimension of EU Social Security Coordination, 30 March
2012, COM (2012) 153:1.
13. See K. Eisele’s contribution in this Special Issue.
Vankova 189
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