Recommendation No 23

of 29 October 2003

on the processing of pension claims

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2004/326/EC)

THE ADMINISTRATIVE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ON SOCIAL SECURITY FOR MIGRANT WORKERS,

Having regard to Article 81(a) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71(1), pursuant to which the Administrative Commission has to deal with all administrative questions deriving from Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 and Council Regulation (EEC) No 574/72(2),

Having regard to Article 81(c) of that Regulation, pursuant to which the Administrative Commission has to foster and develop cooperation between the Member States in social security matters,

Having regard to Article 81(d) of that Regulation, pursuant to which the Administrative Commission has to foster and develop cooperation between the Member States by modernising procedures for exchange of information,

Having regard to Articles 36 to 38, Articles 41 to 43, Articles 45 to 47, Article 49, Article 90 and Article 111 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 574/72, which contain provisions for the investigation of a claim for a pension,

Whereas:

(1) In the interest of the persons concerned, the processing of pension applications should be carried out expediently and without any unnecessary delay.

(2) The Administrative Commission, by its Decision No 182 of 13 December 2000, has established a common framework for the collection of data on the settlement of pension claims.

(3) The Technical Commission, within this framework, has initiated discussions between Member States in order to examine the use of good practice to reduce processing times for pension applications.

(4) These discussions have identified a number of obstacles to the processing of pension claims as well as a number of measures that could be implemented in order to overcome them.

(5) Some of these measures, concerning the organisation of the national institutions and the allocation of resources to them, are entirely the responsibility of the Member States, and the Administrative Commission can do no more than issue recommendations,

HEREBY RECOMMENDS:

The Member States, as regards organisational matters, as well as the use of human and material resources at their disposal, to take the necessary measures in order to ensure optimum processing of pension applications relating to Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71:

1. to provide human resources and computer facilities in sufficient quantities and for the specific purpose of processing applications relating to Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71;

2. to take account of the specific organisation and features of their schemes, to identify the best way to process applications relating to Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71, which for example could be done by centralisation even if national administration is based on a decentralised level or by providing for applications to be handled by a special national or regional body designated for this purpose or for special departments to be set up at the level nearest to the applicant;

3. to provide technical staff responsible for processing Community applications with specialised training on the Community rules to be applied and the tools to be used (forms, computers, telematics, etc.) and to organise measures to make management and technical staff more aware of the Community aspects of their institution's work and the procedures for overseeing the processing of Community applications;

4. to foster the establishment of partnerships between their institutions and those in other Member States, for example by the use of national correspondents, who are specialised on relations with particular Member States and that a list of staff members is produced (names, subject areas, postal and e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers) which could possibly be made available on the CIRCA server.

The Chairman of the Administrative Commission

Giuseppe Miccio

(1) OJ L 149, 5.7.1971, p. 2.

(2) OJ L 74, 27.3.1972, p. 1.