Mr President, it came as a surprise to me as well that this debate was being squeezed in today. The topic of frontier work has fascinated me for over 21 years, the length of time I have served in politics, in the Dutch Lower Chamber, but also in the European Parliament. It fascinates me not only because I am faced daily with problems which frontier workers experience when they live in one Member State and work in another, but also because the mechanics behind it are quite considerable, mechanics which have to be adjusted annually. It also fascinates me because it demonstrates that parliaments, national parliaments that is, are not getting things moving quickly enough. Another reason why it fascinates me is that what politicians appear unable to sort out, the European Court of Justice manages to settle, and Member States are always being lectured about putting right any existing mistakes. This brings me to a remark which I would like to make vis-à-vis the European Commission. I have no axe to grind with the European Commission. It is particularly the Council, the members of the Council, who are unwilling to grant frontier work the flexibility it needs, and so we politicians, national politicians that is, leave this for the European Court of Justice to solve. I think this is no longer acceptable, or necessary, for that matter, and that we must make every effort, and employ all means, in order to change this situation. What I want in my report – and I would like to thank my fellow MEPs who have helped in the drafting, as well as predecessors who have worked on this dossier – is four things. First of all, I would make an urgent request to the Commission to draft a directive which provides for frontier effect reports. This request has been put to the European Commission and the Member States since 1990. Such reports would oblige Member States, when changing their legislation on social security, taxation or public health, to draft an assessment straight away in order to study the impact on frontier workers. Why? Not because this will make amends, but because it will help us to operate in a preventative manner; and help us to prevent problems from arising. My second request to the Council is at long last to incorporate the amendments in Regulation 1408 without any further delays. I believe this dossier has been with the Council of Ministers, the Social Affairs Ministers, for two years now. It includes a number of improvements for frontier workers, as well as – and Mr Doorn mentioned SLIM yesterday – a whole host of provisions which make everything more simple, easy and more readable. The Council must do something about this; Parliament has codecision rights on this dossier. However, the Council must decide unanimously, and I hope that something can be done there. Thirdly, in my opinion, the Commission should be more alert when it comes to all bilateral taxation agreements which are being concluded, in order to check whether the principles, whereby tax law should be brought into line with social security in the country of employment, are being upheld. This is to prevent problems arising and to prevent people from falling between two stools. As far as this is concerned, the Commission should get its act together a bit more, and check and verify the bilateral taxation agreements more, also in the preliminary phases. The fourth point I want to make concerns medical expenses, or the possibility of benefiting from provisions for medical care in another Member State. Court judgments have been passed on this. This is another area where politicians have let themselves down. There are judgments of the Court of Justice, Kohll-Decker being the most prominent, and I know a few people from my own region, which is a border region, who went to Court. Mr President, neither the Member States nor the Commission have ever submitted any notes to Parliament on this matter. That is shocking. We should not leave matters in the hands of the courts; we as politicians must be able to do something about this. I know very well that when the previous Commissioner, Mr Flynn, was in office, a note was being circulated. I know that the outcome of this was thought to be unpleasant. But it does mean that for once – and I would like to push the Commission in this respect – we had clarity and transparency. The position of active frontier workers, but also that of post-active frontier workers is at stake here. As far as Kohll-Decker is concerned, it applies to all people who live near the border. I would ask the MEPs to vote in favour of the report and certainly also for the amendments which I have tabled. The reason for this is that frontier work is no longer a problem of the old Union of the 15. It impacts on the day-to-day running of the market, also with regard to the candidate countries. I would therefore call for the broadest support possible.

Political group: PPE-DE