The role and limits of European social security coordination in guaranteeing migrants social benefits
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1388262720967938 |
| Author | Herwig Verschueren |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The role and limits of
European social security
coordination in guaranteeing
migrants social benefits
Herwig Verschueren
University of Antwerp, Venusstraat, Antwerp, Belgium
Abstract
This article examines whether the EU social security coordination Regulations 883/2004 and 987/
2009 contribute or fail to contribute to the EU policy objective of guaranteeing adequate social
protectionand fighting against poverty as set by Article9 TFEU. Even if this coordination systemdoes
not directly interfere with the social protection systems of the Member States, it plays an important
role in preventing persons who use the right to free movement within the EU from ending up in a
situation in which they would lose entitlement to social benefits because of their migration. In ana-
lysing this issueI will concentrate on the role of the underlyinggeneral principles of this coordination,
more specifically,on the rules for the determination ofthe applicable legislation, the principleof equal
treatment, the export of benefitsand the aggregation of periods. I will also elaborate on a number of
examples where this coordination system fails to prevent the loss of entitlement to social benefits,
such as the position of workers in non-standard forms of work, the limited rights of economically
inactive migrants, therecent introduction of waiting periods for newcomers,and situations in which
the migrants risk falling between two stools. I will conclude with the notion of fairness.
Keywords
Migrants, EU social security coordination, combating social exclusion and poverty
1. Introduction
The research question of this contribution is whether the EU social security coordination Regu-
lations 883/2004 and 987/2009, which apply to persons migrating within the EU, contribute or fail
to contribute to the EU policy objective of guaranteeing adequate social protection and fighting
against poverty as set by Article 9 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
Corresponding author:
Herwig Verschueren, Professor of International and European Social Law, University of Antwerp, Venusstraat 23, Antwerp,
B-2000, Belgium.
E-mail: herwig.verschueren@uantwerpen.be
European Journal of Social Security
2020, Vol. 22(4) 390–402
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1388262720967938
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