COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 118/97 of 2 December 1996 amending and updating Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community and Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Articles 51 and 235 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament (2),
Having regard to the Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,
Whereas, for the sake of coherence and clarity, it is appropriate to adapt the wording of certain provisions of Council Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 of 14 June 1971 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving with the Community (3) and (EEC) No 574/72 of 21 March 1972 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community (4); and to delete other provisions that have become invalid and superfluous; whereas these amendments are of an exclusively technical nature, intended to improve the said Regulations;
Whereas since the latest updating of Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 and (EEC) No 574/72 through Council Regulation (EEC) No 2001/83 (5) several amendments have been made; whereas it is therefore appropriate, in order to render the relevant Community rules more transparent and accessible, to adopt a new updated version of the abovementioned Regulations, in the form of a single text for each of the Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 and (EEC) No 574/72, which appear in Parts I and II respectively of Annex A; whereas it is already also opportune to present, in an appendix to Part II of this Annex, the text of Article 95 of Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 as amended by Regulation (EC) No 3095/95 (6), which will apply as from 1 January 1998 or, in relations with the French Republic, from 1 January 2002;
Whereas Article 106 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, concerning the balance of payments, was deleted by Article G of the Treaty on European Union and Article 73b (2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community prohibits all restrictions on payments among the Member States;
Whereas, in order to attain the objective of free movement for workers in the field of social security, it is necessary and appropriate that the rules relating to the coordination of national social security schemes should be amended through a Community legal instrument that is binding and directly applicable in each Member State;
Whereas the amendments introduced by this Regulation comply with the condition set by the third paragraph of Article 3b of the Treaty establishing the European Community,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 shall be amended as follows:
1. Article 82 (4) shall be replaced by the following:
'4. The Advisory Committee shall be chaired by a representative of the Commission. The chairman shall not vote.`.
2. the first sentence of Article 88 shall be replaced as follows:
'Where appropriate, money transfers effected in accordance with this Regulation shall be made in accordance with the relevant agreements in force between the Member States concerned at the time of transfer.`.
3. Article 100 shall be deleted.
Article 2
The title, recitals, table of contents and provisions of Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 and (EEC) No 574/72 shall be replaced by the text contained in Annex A Parts I and II respectively, which take account of the amendments made in Article 1 of this Regulation.
Annex B contains the list of amending acts to the Regulations referred to in the foregoing paragraph.
Article 3
This Regulation shall enter into force on the first day of the month following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 2 December 1996.