EN    EN EN 
 
EN    EN  COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 3.10.2008 
SEC(2008) 2593 
  
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
 
accompanying the 
Proposal for a 
 
DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 
 
on the application of the principle of e qual treatment between men and women engaged 
in an activity in a self-employed ca pacity and repealing Directive 86/613/EEC 
 
Impact Assessment Report  
{COM(2008) 636} 
{SEC(2008) 2592} 
Disclaimer 
This Impact Assessment Report commits on ly the Commission’s departments involved 
in its preparation; it has been prepared as  a basis for comment and does not prejudge 
the final form of any decision to be taken by the Commission. 
 
EN 2   EN Document accompanying  
the draft proposal for a Directive of the Euro pean Parliament and of the Council on the 
application of the principle of equal trea tment between men and women engaged in an 
activity in a self-employed capacity and repealing Directive 86/613/EEC 
Impact Assessment Report 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
General information ............................................................................................................ ....... 4 
Executive summary.............................................................................................................. ...... 4 
1. Background and institutional context .......................................................................... 6 2. Procedural issues and consulta tion of interested parties.............................................. 6 
2.1. Consultation of the stakeholders .................................................................................. 7 2.2. External expertise and information gathering.............................................................. 8 2.3. Consultation of the Impact Assessment Board ............................................................ 8 3. Problem definition........................................................................................................ 9 3.1. Self-employed ............................................................................................................. .9  
3.2. Assisting spouses ....................................................................................................... 15  
3.3. Likely development of the situation in th e absence of EU action (baseline scenario)17 
3.4. Does the EU have the right to act?............................................................................. 18 4. Objectives.................................................................................................................. . 20 
4.1. What are the general policy objectives? .................................................................... 20 4.2. What are the more specific objectives?...................................................................... 20 4.3. Consistency of the objectives with othe r EU policies and horizontal objectives ...... 20 
5. Policy options............................................................................................................. 2 1 
5.1. No new action at EU level ......................................................................................... 21 5.2. Non-binding measures ............................................................................................... 21 5.3. A directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC ............................................................ 21 
5.4. Preliminary screening of options ............................................................................... 21 5.4.1. Non-binding measures ............................................................................................... 21 5.4.2. A directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC ............................................................ 23 
6. Analysis of impacts.................................................................................................... 23 
 
EN 3   EN 6.1. No new action at EU level ......................................................................................... 24 
6.2. Non-binding measures ............................................................................................... 24 6.3. A directive amending Dire ctive 86/613/EEC: improving pr otection in the case of 
maternity .................................................................................................................... 25  
6.4. A directive amending Dire ctive 86/613/EEC: providing leave to care for family 
members ..................................................................................................................... 32 
6.5. A directive amending Direc tive 86/613/EEC: giving assistin g spouses a legal status 
and social protection in their own name .................................................................... 34 
6.6. A directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC to give competence to national equality 
bodies to deal with the self-e mployed and assisting spouses..................................... 39 
7. Comparison of options ............................................................................................... 39 8. Monitoring and evalua tion arrangements................................................................... 41 
8.1. Possible indicators...................................................................................................... 4 1 
8.2. Monitoring ................................................................................................................ . 42 
8.3. Transposition............................................................................................................. . 42 
Annex I: Statistical information ............................................................................................... 44 
Annex II: Consultation of Member States: summary of submissions...................................... 80 
Annex II: Consultation of the European social partners ........................................................ 112 
Annex III: Consultation of  other stakeholders ....................................................................... 118 
Annex IV: Consultation of the Advisory Co mmittee on Equal Opportunities for Women and 
Men............................................................................................................................ ............. 121 
Annex V: Legal context ......................................................................................................... 127 
 
EN 4   EN GENERAL INFORMATION  
Lead DG: Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Eq ual Opportunities (DG 
EMPL) 
WP Reference: 2008/EMPL/021 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  
The Union has set itself the strategic goal of pr omoting more and better jobs and so offering 
equal opportunities for all. In or der to reach this goal, the attr activeness of entrepreneurship 
needs to be increased.  
This is true for entrepreneurship in general, but even more so for women’s entrepreneurship. 
In Europe, there is a consider able gender gap in terms of women participating in self-
employed activities: according to the most recen t Eurostat figures, there are almost three 
times as many men as women self-employed with employees1. 
On the other hand, a significant number of women play an active part in  the activities of 
family businesses without appearing in statisti cs and without any legal status. These are the 
so-called ‘assisting spouses’. They participate actively in around 11% of  businesses, one third 
of them working more than 30 hours per week. Ne vertheless, they have no recognition in the 
social security systems in 19 Member States an d are at a high risk of poverty in the event of 
divorce, death of the self-employed partner, or bankruptcy. 
With Directive 86/613/EEC2, the EU extended the principle of equal treatment between 
women and men to the self-employed and assist ing spouses. Nevertheless, the implementation 
of the Directive in the Member States has ha d no significant impact, notably because of its 
imprecise formulation3. 
The present report looks at whether a review  of Directive 86/613/EEC would improve the 
application of the principle of equal treatment between wo men and men and increase the 
participation of women in self-employed activities. 
Three main policy options have been identifie d: no action at EU level, non-binding measures, 
and an amendment to Directive 86/613/EEC to make it a more e ffective instrument in meeting 
its aims. 
                                                 
1 Eurostat, The entrepreneurial gap between men and women, Statistics in focus 30/2007, available at: 
http://epp.eurostat.ec. europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-SF- 07-030/EN/KS-SF- 07-030-EN.PDF . 
2 Directive Council Directive 86/613/EEC of 11 Decembe r 1986 on the applicatio n of the principle of 
equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity, including agriculture, in a self-employed capacity, and on the protection of self-employed women during pregnancy and motherhood, 
OJ L 359, 19.12.1986, p. 56. 
3 See the report from the Commission on the implem entation of Council Direc tive of 11 December 1986 
on the application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity, 
including agriculture, in a self-employed capacity, and on the protection of self-employed women 
during pregnancy and motherhood, Document COM(94) 163 final. 
 
EN 5   EN The report looks at the impacts of each option. For this purpose, the option to amend the 
Directive is divided into a further four policy options: 
– improving protection in the event of maternity 
– providing leave to care for family members 
– recognising the contributi on of assisting spouses 
– giving National Equality Bodi es competence in the field. 
After analysing the impact of each option, the report concludes that not taking any new action 
at EU level will not achieve any of the objectives. 
As far as non-binding measures are concerned, the report concludes that those already in place 
seem adequate to deal with cer tain obstacles to women’s entrep reneurship, and will continue 
and be extended independently of  the current exercise. Nevertheless, such measures can only 
complement, but not replace, an amendment to Directive 86/613/EEC. 
The report comes to the conclusion that the optio n that best meets the objectives is a proposal 
for a Directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC to 
• include a period of maternity leave for self-employed women, 
• recognise the contribution of assisting spouses to the family business by providing them 
with social protection equivalent to that of their self-employed partners, 
• give national equality bodies comp etence in cases of discrimination. 
In order to take into account the specificiti es of self-employment and to avoid imposing 
additional costs to family businesses, the envi saged proposal could provi de that self-employed 
women and assisting spouses are gi ven the possibility to join th e social protection system at 
their own request. In that case, any addition al cost to family businesses would be a 
consequence of the choice made by the self -employed woman or the assisting spouse. 
 
EN 6   EN 1. B ACKGROUND AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT  
In its report4 on the implementation of Directive 86 /613/EEC, the Commission concluded that 
the practical result of the implementation of the Directive was ‘not enti rely satisfactory when 
measured against the prime objectives of the Di rective, which was a general improvement in 
the status of assisting spouses’.  The report also stressed the lack of an overall policy for 
dealing with the situation of assisting spouses  and pointed out that ‘with a view to the 
recognition of the work of the s pouse (...), the only way in which this objective is likely to be 
achieved is for spouses to be granted social security entit lements in their own right’. 
In its Roadmap5 for equality between women and me n, the Commission announced that in 
order to improve governance of gender equalit y, it would ‘review the existing EU gender 
equality legislation not included in the 2005 re cast exercise (...) with a view to updating, 
modernising and recasting where necessary’. Di rective 86/613/EEC was not included in the 
recasting exercise. 
In the Council conclusions ‘Balanced roles of  women and men for jobs , growth and social 
cohesion’6, the Council called on the Commission to ‘cons ider the need to revise, if necessary, 
Council Directive 86/613/EEC in  order to ensure the righ ts related to motherhood and 
fatherhood of self-employed workers and their helping spouses’. 
The European Parliament has consistently ca lled on the Commission to review the Directive7, 
in particular to improve the situation of assisting spouses in agriculture.  
The 2000 Lisbon European Council set a strategic goa l for the EU to transform itself into ‘the 
most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’. 
Following initially modest results, the Lis bon Strategy was simplifie d and re-launched in 
2005. 
To achieve this goal, the Union needs to incr ease entrepreneurship in general and women’s 
entrepreneurship in particular. 
2. P
ROCEDURAL ISSUES AND CONSULTATION OF INTERESTED PARTIES  
The review of Directive 86/613/EEC was announ ced in the Commission’s legislative work 
programme 2008 (forward programming 2008, item 2008/EMPL/021).  
                                                 
4 Report from the Commission on the implementation of Council Directiv e of 11 December 1986 on the 
application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity, 
including agriculture, in a self-employed capacity, and on the protection of self-employed women 
during pregnancy and motherhood (COM(94) 163 final). 
5 Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European 
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions A Roadmap for equality between 
women and men  (COM(2006) 92 final). 
6 4 December 2007 (Document SOC 385). 
7 See the report adopted by the European Parliament on 12 March 2008 on the situation of women in 
rural areas of the EU (2007/2117(INI), Rapporteur Christa Klass, A6-0031/2008. 
 
EN 7   EN An Inter-Service Group was set up to prepare the impact assessment and the following DGs 
and services were invited: SG, SJ, ENTR, MARKT, ECFIN, COMP, AGRI and MARE. SG, 
AGRI, ENTR and ECFIN designated representatives to participate. One meeting was held and 
bilateral meetings were organised with these and other DGs. 
2.1. Consultation of the stakeholders 
In preparing this initiative, EMPL sought the view s of stakeholders with a potential interest in 
this matter, i.e. those potentially affected by the initiative (representatives of the self-
employed and SMEs) and those who would be  involved in implementing the policy. 
The European social partners were consulted even though there was no obligation to do so 
(Article 138 EC is not applicable ) and this initiative does not fa ll within the competence of the 
social partners at national level. The documents  for the consultation of  the social partners 
have been published8. 
European social partners have divergent views on  the review of this Directive. Basically, trade 
unions and agriculture organisa tions are in favour of amending the Directive and improving 
gender equality for self-employed worker s and assisting spous es. The organisation 
representing agricultural orga nisations supports equal rights for equal commitment for all 
partners in farm businesses. On the other hand,  organisations represen ting SMEs and sectoral 
employers are mostly concerned about the potential costs of any changes and opposed to any changes that would increase so cial security contributions.  
The Commission also consulted the Member States , since Directive 86/ 613/EEC raises issues 
concerning the social protection of assisting sp ouses and the self-empl oyed, which essentially 
fall within the competence of Member States. As  expected, the position of the Member States 
is far from unanimous, some asking for impr ovement of the EU legal framework, but the 
majority stating that they do not see any need to review na tional legislation on the issues 
covered by the Directive. 
However, the Advisory Comm ittee on Equal Opportunities fo r Women and Men (composed 
of representatives of Member States, European  social partners and NGOs) is of the opinion 
that the Directive should be amended in order to give assisting spouses a clear professional 
status, with coverage by social protection schemes, and to provide  for paid maternity/paternity 
leave for self-employed workers and assisting spouses. 
A list of civil society organisati ons to be consulted was drawn up with the assistance of the 
members of the Inter-Service Group. These organisa tions have been consulted in writing. The 
European Women’s Lobby supports the opini on of the Advisory Committee on Equal 
Opportunities. The Confederation of Family Or ganisations in the European Union (COFACE) 
strongly advocates revision of Directive 86/613/ EEC to give self-employed women maternity 
leave of a long enough duration to  ensure the proper course of a normal pregnancy and 
physical recovery of the mother after a normal  childbirth and to oblig e Member States to 
recognise the contribution of assisting spouses in family businesses and ensure that they 
benefit from the same level of social  protection as self-employed workers. 
                                                
 
8 See http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/social_dialogue/consultations_en.htm . 
 
EN 8   EN In view of the very specific nature of this in itiative, a public consulta tion was not considered 
necessary. 
The minimum standards set out in the Co mmission’s 2002 Communication on consultation 
and dialogue9 have been met. 
Annexes I to IV give detailed information on the consultations and contributions received. 
2.2. External expertise and information gathering 
Women’s entrepreneurship has been the subject of much analysis and many studies, to which 
this report refers as and when relevant. 
For an analysis of the need to review Directive 86/613/EEC, the Commission asked the 
Network of Independent Legal Experts on th e application of Community law on equal 
treatment between men and women to produ ce a report on the implementation of the 
Directive and on loopholes, weaknesses a nd ways to improve the Directive10. This study is 
cited in this report as the ‘Legal Network study’. 
DG EMPL also commissioned a study to provide an overview of the situation in Member 
States and assess the costs and benefits of different policy op tions. This study was carried out 
by the European Policy Evaluation Consortium (E PEC) and is cited in this report as the 
‘EPEC study’.  
In addition, a study commissi oned by DG ENTR was extensively used in the preparation of 
this report. This study, entitled ‘Good practices on social protect ion of new entrepreneurs and 
assisting partners and th e impact on business crea tion’ was conducted by EIM11. It is cited in 
this report as the ‘EIM study’. 
2.3. Consultation of the Impact Assessment Board 
A first draft of the impact assessment report was submitted to the Impact Assessment Board 
(IAB) and was analysed at the Board meeting of 9 July 2008. 
The IAB produced an opinion on 18 July 2008. Given the nature of its recommendations, the 
IAB asked to examine and issue an opini on on a revised impact assessment report. 
A second draft of the impact assessment repor t was resubmitted to the Board on 30 July 2008.  
In its second opinion of 26 August 2008, the IAB st ates that the impact assessment is based 
on a detailed stocktaking of th e situation of self-employed and assisting spouses in the 
Member States. It recognizes that the resubm itted version takes account of the Board's first 
                                                 
9 Communication from the Commission Towards a reinforced culture of consultation and dialogue: 
General principles and minimum standards for consultation of interested parties by the Commission  
(COM(2002) 704 final). 
10 The study is available at:  
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/gender_equality/legislation/report_draft2.pdf . 
11 This study is available at:  
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/e ntrepreneurship/craft/craft-
studies/documents/social_protection_final_report_en.pdf . 
 
EN 9   EN opinion by improved presentation of cost estimat es and problem definition and by providing 
details about the transposition and compliance issues. 
Nevertheless, the Board makes some recommenda tions for improvements. The Board calls the 
final version of the impact assessment report to: 
• further improve the problem definition by bette r clarifying which of the reasons behind it 
could be addressed by the proposed initiative; 
• assess more thoroughly the necessity and added value of EU action; 
• improve the evaluation of cost and benefits  by including the analysis underpinning the 
assessment of cost effectiveness and substantiate the statements on the administrative 
burdens. 
• explain why the time-limit for transposition has been changed. 
The present version of the impact assessment report takes full account of the 
recommendations of the second opinion of the IAB. 
The problem definition was complemented with information on the obstacles to women's self-
employment that the proposal could help removing and expl aining why the intervention on 
reconciliation issues for employees has successful. 
The paragraphs on the necessity of an EU acti on and on subsidiarity a nd proportionality were 
reinforced in order to make clearer the need and the legitimacy of the proposal. 
As the IAB notes in its second  opinion, the presentation of th e costs estimates has already 
been improved. This version has been compleme nted to better underpinning the analysis of 
cost-effectiveness and administrative burdens. 
3. P ROBLEM DEFINITION  
Directive 86/613/EEC covers two di stinct categories of persons,  with differing characteristics 
and needs, namely the ‘self-employed’ and ‘assisting spouses’. This section will address these two categories in turn. 
3.1. Self-employed 
The current EU legal framework prohibits disc rimination based on sex in the following areas: 
• social security and other elements of social protec tion (Directive 79/7/EEC); 
• occupational schemes (Directive 86/378/EEC); 
• conditions for access to self-employmen t (Directives 2002/73/EC and 2006/54/EC); 
• access to and supply of goods and services (Directive 2004/113/EC). 
Directive 86/613/EEC is the onl y text dealing specifically w ith self-employed workers (and 
assisting spouses). The main provisions  of the Directive are as follows. 
 
EN 10   EN • Personal scope : it applies to self-employed worker s and their spouses  who perform the 
same tasks or ancillary tasks; 
• Principle of equal treatment : this implies the absence of a ll discrimination on grounds of 
sex, either directly or indirectly, by reference in particular to marital or family status. Member States must eliminate all provisions that are contrary to the principle of equal treatment, especially in respect of the establ ishment, equipment or extension of a business 
or the launching or extension of any othe r form of self-employed activity, including 
financial facilities. 
• Creation of a business : the conditions for the creation of a company between spouses 
should not be more restrictive than the condi tions for the formation of a company between 
unmarried persons. 
• Assisting spouses : such persons should be able to jo in a contributory social security 
scheme voluntarily, if one exists, and Member  States should examine how to encourage 
recognition of their work. 
• Protection of maternity and motherhood : Member States should examine whether, and 
under what conditions, female self-employed workers and the wives of self-employed 
workers may, during interruptions in their occupational activity owing to pregnancy or motherhood, have access to services supplying temporary replacements or existing national 
social services, or be entitled to cash benefits  under a social security scheme or under any 
other public social protection system. 
Directive 86/613/EEC defines the self-employed as ‘all persons pursuing a gainful activity for 
their own account, under the c onditions laid down by nationa l law, including farmers and 
members of the liberal professions’.  
Self-employment is a significant — albeit minor ity — form of employment in Europe: in 
2005, the self-employed represented 16% of the active population in the EU25. 
In 2005, according to Eurostat
12, self-employed women in industry  and market services in the 
EU as a whole accounted for 12%  of the total number of wome n working in these sectors, 
which is considerably lower than th e percentage of self-employed men ( 19% ).  
                                                 
12 See ‘The life of women and men in Europe, A statistical portrait’, 2008, available at: 
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa .eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-80-0 7-135/EN/KS-80-07-135-EN.PDF . 
 
EN 11   EN 
 
Moreover only one-third of entrepreneurs are female. Being self-employed can be different 
from being an entrepreneur. The figures above include both the self-employed with 
employees and those without. Many of the last group are professionals or do much the same 
job as employees do, but their status or terms of employment  are different. The category of 
the self-employed without employees also incl udes ‘bogus self-employed’ and economically 
dependent or ‘parasubordinate’ workers13. Entrepreneurs are essentia lly (but not exclusively) 
those with employees, though many entrepreneur s managing businesses, even their own, are 
classified as employees, since they are empl oyed by the company and receive a salary for 
their work. Nevertheless, this report uses th e terms ‘self-employed’ and ‘entrepreneurs’ as 
synonymous, as the statistical data do not usually distinguish between them. 
Only 3.5%  of women working in industry and market  services in 2005 were self-employed 
with employees, whereas  the percentage for men wa s twice as high at around 7%. 
More significantly, this gende r gap in self-employed activit ies shows no sign of narrowing.  
As the next table shows, although the majority  of the jobs created in the period 2005-2006 
were taken by women, the majority of the se lf-employed jobs created were taken by men. 
Contribution of self-employment to em ployment creation in the EU 2005-2006, by 
gender 
New jobs created (%), 2005-2006  
Total  Men  Women 
Type of employment  Employee 88.5 41.9 46.5 
                                                 
13 On the concept of economically dependent workers, see Adalberto Perulli, ‘Economically dependent / 
quasi-subordinate (parasubordinate) employment: legal, social and economic aspects’, available at 
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/labour_law/docs/parasubordination_report_en.pdf . 
 
EN 12   EN Self-employed 11.5 6.1 5.4 
Source: EPEC study 
When a longer period (from 1995 to 2005) is cons idered, although the percentage of the self-
employed in the EU decreased constantly, th e gender gap remained basically unchanged. 
Level of self-employed in EU25, 1995-2005 
 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 
All 16.7 16.7 16.6 16.5 16.1 15.9 15.5 15.4 15.7 15.8 15.6
Male 19.4 19.3 19.2 19.2 18.9 18.7 18.4 18.4 18.9 18.0 18.7
Female 12.9 13.2 13.0 12.8 12.4 12.1 11.8 11.6 11.7 11.7 11.6
Source: Eurostat. 
In a Flash Eurobarometer survey published in April 200714, some questions were asked about 
people’s preferences in terms of employment status. The gap between men and women was significant: 50% of men declared  a preference for self-employm ent, compared with only 39% 
of women. 
When asked about their desire to become self -employed within the next five years, the 
disparity between men and wome n was the same: 33% of men declared it very or rather 
desirable, against 27% for wo men. On the other hand, 69% of women considered it rather 
undesirable or not desirable at all to become self-employed within the next five years, 
compared with 62% of men. 
The reasons given by men and women for taking  up self-employment also differ. According 
to a recent Eurostat survey
15, women are keener to accept self-employment to avoid 
unemployment or to better reconcile prof essional and family and private life. 
The table below presents the main motives for st arting entrepreneurial activ ities. It shows that 
‘better possibilities to combin e work and private life’ is a reason indicated by 26% of 
respondents (the fourth in the ranking of motives).  
Main motives Percentage 
Wish to be my own boss 48 
Possibility to earn more money than as an employee 36 
                                                 
14 Entrepreneurship Survey of the EU (25 Member States), United States, Iceland and Norway. Conducted 
by The Gallup Organisation Hungary/Europe at the request of the European Commission’s Directorate-
General for Enterprise and Industry E/1:Entrepreneurship, Flash EB Series #192, available at: 
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_192_sum_en.pdf . 
15 Key figures on European business with a special  feature on the factors of business success , Eurostat 
2008; available at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/I TY_OFFPUB/KS-ET-08-001/EN/KS-ET-08-
001-EN.PDF . 
 
EN 13   EN Challenge 34 
Better possibilities to combine work and private life 26 
Not satisfied with being an employee 25 
Perceiving a chance in the market 21 
Unemployed or not able to find a job as an employee 12 
Possibility to continue or to split o ff from the former employer’s business 5 
Continuation of the family business 4 
Other 2 
Do not know / No answer 2 
Source: EIM Survey Social Security Entrepreneurs 2006. 
If we look at gender, the impor tance of the different motives differs between men and women. 
The chart below confirms that many of the fact ors that influence a decision to take up self-
employment are gender related. Motives like ‘avoiding unemployment’, ‘combining work and 
private life’ and ‘children are big enough’ are substantially mo re important for women than 
for men. 
 
 
EN 14   EN Source: Eurostat16 
Since women are more likely to focus on rec onciliation between work and family life, 
including the protection granted in the even t of maternity, Directive 86/613/EEC does not 
respond to the new challenge of increasing wo men’s participation in self-employment. 
Currently, the provisions of Directive 86/613/EE C on maternity leave gi ve no entitlement to 
female self-employed workers. Therefore, a cha nge in the law as set out in the proposal could 
help more women take that step.  
It should be added that the data on intentions to become self-employed and on the reasons for 
doing so show that certa in women have no real  choice whether or not to take up self-
employment. Where the possibility to reconcile professional and private or family life is non-
existent or very difficult for self-employed women, women are not in  a position to become 
self-employed. 
Social security as a whole play s an important role in the deci sion to take up self-employment. 
According to the EIM study, ‘ Social security may have a nega tive and positive influence on 
entrepreneurship. (...) Social security may hav e a negative effect because of the relatively 
high opportunity costs of entrepreneurship ( ...) when the social security position of 
entrepreneurs is worse than the pos ition of alternative types of employment (...). On the other 
hand, social security may have a positive influence when the diff erence between the social 
security position of entrepreneurs and of alternat ive types of employment is very small. It may 
also have a positive influence when  e.g. a safety net is create d in case of business failure .’ 
Therefore a proposal that brings the positions of self-employed workers and employees more 
into line is also likely to have a positive impact on women in particular. 
In the field of gender equality, the EU has inte rvened successfully in the past for employees. 
The existing directives on equal treatment betw een women and men were at  the origin of most 
on national law on this field. A lthough it is difficult to prove the direct link between the 
corpus of Community law forbidding discri mination between women and men has improved 
the employment situation of women and the higher employment rates of women, some data 
show that the link exists. In ge neral terms, Member States w ith strong reconciliation policies 
have higher employment rates of women, esse ntially with children. The table below, for 
instance, shows that this is the case as far as the level of payment of family-related leave is concerned. 
                                                
 
16 Eurostat, Key figures on European business with a special feature on the f actors of business success, 
2008, ISSN 1830-9720. 
 
EN 15   EN Employment rates of women aged 25-49, depending on whether they have children 
(under 12) - 2007
79,6
67,0
0102030405060708090
BG PL CY EL ES NL MT IE UK RO AT BE CZ DE FR LU SK IT FI HU LT EE LV PT SIwithout children with children
Source  : Eurostat, European Labour Force Survey, annual averages.
Notes : No data avaialble for DK and SE. No payment for parental leave Lump sum payment for 
parental leaveLow 
earnings -
related 
paymentModerate earnings-
related 
paymentHigh earnings-related 
payment
 
In conclusion, increasing entrepreneurship in  Europe is essential to reach the Lisbon 
objectives for employment. 
There is a considerable gender gap in entrepre neurship: only one third of entrepreneurs are 
women. This gender gap has remained stable in the last few decades and surveys show that it is likely to remain so if no changes are made  to encourage more women to take up self-
employment. 
The surveys of motivations to become an entrep reneur show that women are more inclined to 
give as a reason the reconcili ation of working life and family and private life. Any 
improvement in the possibilities to pursue se lf-employment and meet family responsibilities 
at the same time will therefore impact on the choice made by women to take up self-
employment. 
Directive 86/613/EEC fails to tackle those i ssues by not giving enforceable rights to self-
employed women, in particular in the case of  maternity, thus reinforcing the gender gap. 
The envisaged initiative, by giving self-employed women an entitlement to a period of paid 
maternity leave will tackle two of the obst acles identified to women's access to self-
employment: on one hand, it will contribute to increase the possibilities of combining self-
employed activities and family responsibilities and, on the other hand, it will approximate the 
social protection in case of maternity, therefor e facilitating the choice of self-employed 
activities. 
3.2. Assisting spouses 
At EU level, Directive 86/613/EEC  is the only text that covers ‘assisting spouses’, defined as 
the spouses of self-employed workers ‘not being employees or partners, where they 
 
EN 16   EN habitually, under the conditions la id down by national law, partici pate in the activities of the 
self-employed worker and perform the same tasks or ancillary tasks’ . 
In accordance with that definition, spouses who pa rticipate in the activities of the family 
business without having th e status of employee or self-empl oyed person therefore fall within 
the scope of the Directive (in particular its Arti cle 2(b)). For the purpose s of this report, such 
spouses are referred to as  ‘assisting spouses’.  
Conversely, spouses who have the status of self-employed workers or employees and the 
spouses of self-employed persons who do not pa rticipate in the activities of the family 
business do not fall within the scope of the Dir ective, are not assisting spouses, and will not 
be considered in this report. 
Although Directive 86/613/EEC defines assisting spouses, it does not provide a legal status 
for them, in terms of employment protection or social security. The Directive was based upon 
Articles 100 and 235 of the EEC (now Article s 95 and 308). Article 100 which allowed the 
Council to adopt directives on the establishment or  functioning of the common market and 
Article 235 was the residual legal base that co uld be used when actio n by the Community is 
necessary to attain one of the objectives of the Community but there is no other more specific 
legal base in the Treaty. 
With such a legal base, Directive 86/613/EEC c ould not set out a legal status for assisting 
spouses, in order to give them clear rights to  social protection meas ures such as minimum 
periods of maternity leave or social security enti tlements. As a result, this status is determined 
(or not) under national law, and there is no mi nimum level of equal treatment guaranteed to 
assisting spouses. 
There are no reliable statistics on the number of  assisting spouses in Eu rope. Because they do 
not have a recognised status (if the spouses of self-employed persons are employees or 
business partners, they cannot be ‘assisting spou ses’), their number is difficult to establish. 
Assisting spouses are therefore not included in existing st atistics. Where statistics are 
available, they frequently  do not distinguish between family members and spouses. 
The EPEC study (see Table A in Annex 1) esti mates that there around 3.75 million assisting 
spouses/contributing family workers in the 27 Member States, corre sponding to around 11.5% 
of all self-employed people within the EU (32.5 million).  
The estimate in the EPEC study is consistent with the findings of th e EIM study (see Graph 2 
in Annex 1). According to the latter, a surv ey of entrepreneurs found that 11% had an 
assisting spouse, while 16% decl ared that their spouses were co-entrepreneurs and 22% that 
they were employees. For the purposes of the survey, the definition of ‘assisting spouses’ 
excluded business partners and employees and was therefore close to that used in the 
Directive and in this report. According to the survey, two thirds of assisting spouses were 
female. 
Hours worked by assisting spouses may be significant. According to the EIM study’s survey, 
more than 30% of entrepreneurs declared that their assisting spouses worked more than 25 
hours a week. 
In 19 Member States the contribution of assi sting spouses to the family business is not 
recognised in the social security system (for details see Table 6 in A nnex 1). Even though the 
 
EN 17   EN possibility does exist for an a ssisting spouse to join a voluntar y social security scheme and 
hence be entitled to certain be nefits, such provisions for jo ining voluntary schemes do not 
ensure the universal coverage of assisting spouses. 
Two consequences need to be emphasised: 
• Family businesses where the regular work of assisting spouses is not recognised have de 
facto  an unfair competitive advantage over the same kind of businesses where both the 
self-employed worker and the assisting spou ses are registered and covered by social 
security schemes. 
• Assisting spouses do not generally receive any financial compensation for their work. 
Their participation in the activ ities of the self-employed worker is often considered as a 
continuation of their household and family care tasks. As a consequence, most assisting 
spouses would be unable to con tinue the business or to remain in control in the event of 
divorce or death of the self-e mployed partner, or to resu me activity in the event of 
bankruptcy. In such cases, assisting s pouses are at a high risk of poverty. 
Around 11% of the self-employed rely on the assist ance of their spouses to  manage the family 
business. The numbers of hours worked can be si gnificant, with one third of assisting spouses 
working more than 25 hours per week. 
Nevertheless, in most Member States, their contribution to the family business is not 
recognised, as they are not covere d by social security systems. 
In consequence, assisting spous es are totally dependent on thei r self-employed partner and at 
a high risk of poverty in the event of divor ce, death of the partner or bankruptcy. 
By not providing a legal status for assisting spouses or for soci al security protection in their 
own name, Directive 86/613/EEC fa ils to tackle this problem. 
3.3. Likely development of the situation in  the absence of EU action (baseline 
scenario) 
If no new EU action is taken, the current le gal framework will continue to apply. Some 
Member States could take measures in order to  improve the social prot ection of self-employed 
workers (in particular as regards maternity) and assisting spouses, but  others would not. The 
previously identified gaps in the Commun ity legal framework would not be tackled. 
The task of the Community, as set out in Article 2 of the EC  Treaty, of promoting equality 
between women and men, will not be achieved as regards assisting spouses. The actions 
provided for in the European agenda for entrepreneurship17, and more recently the 
Communication ‘Think Small First — A Small Business Act’ for Europe18, would continue to 
encourage women’s entrepreneurship by, for ex ample, encouraging more people to become 
                                                 
17 Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European 
Economic and Social Committee a nd the Committee of the Regions Action Plan: The European agenda 
for Entrepreneurship  (COM(2004) 70 final). 
18 Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European 
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - ‘Think Small First’ — A ‘Small 
Business Act’ for Europe, Document COM/2008/0394 final. 
 
EN 18   EN entrepreneurs, improving access to finance, and creating a more SME-friendly regulatory and 
administrative framework. 
Given that family responsibil ities are still borne primarily  by women, no improvement in 
social protection, particularly in the event of ma ternity, and in the possibi lities for reconciling 
self-employment and family responsibilities will mean that a number of women will be 
discouraged from becoming entrepreneurs. 
The 2002 Barcelona European Council urged the Me mber States to remove disincentives to 
female labour-force participation by aiming to provide childcare by 2010 to at least 90% of 
children between three years a nd the mandatory school age and at least 33% of children under 
three years. 
Although most Member States are not on course to meet the targ ets, especially for children 
under three, and existing facili ties are often costly or the op ening hours are not compatible 
with atypical hours, common in self-employed activi ties, the effort of Member States to reach 
the Barcelona targets will improve the possib ilities of women with children to pursue or 
engage in self-employed activities. 
In most Member States, the contribution of women to the family business will continue to be 
unrecognised and unpaid, and assisting spouses will be at a higher risk of poverty in the event of divorce or the death of th eir self-employed partners. 
3.4. Does the EU have the right to act? 
Right to act 
Article 2 of the EC Treaty provides that prom oting equality between men and women is part 
of the tasks of the European Community. 
Furthermore, it should be not ed that, following the changes introduced by the Amsterdam 
Treaty, the EU now has an approp riate legal basis for action (Art icle 141(3) EC). Previously, 
as Annex V explains in detail , the Community legislator adop ted Directive 86/613/EEC using 
a residual legal basis. 
Necessity to act 
As far as access to employment is concerned, it has been recognised that improving the 
possibilities to reconcile work and family or private life is essential to increase the participation of women in th e labour market and to give  women equal opportunities in 
employment. Although reconciliation issues and fa mily responsibilities in general should not 
be seen as mainly the concer n of women, it is uncontested that  domestic work is not shared 
equally between women and men: women spe nd twice as long as men on unpaid work. 
The planned proposal touches upon th e area of social security, whic h falls in principle within 
the competence of Member States. This initiative  should not interfere with the organisation of 
Member States’ schemes or their financing, an d should be limited to what is necessary to 
ensure application of the principle of  equal treatment between women and men. 
Nevertheless, this is also an area where, mainly  for employees but also in some cases for the 
self-employed, the EU has interv ened in the past, th rough a series of Directives (92/85/EC, 
 
EN 19   EN 96/34/EC, 79/7/EEC, 86/367/EEC19) with the aim of ensuring th e application of the principle 
of equal treatment between women and men. 
The low participation of women in self-employment is a matter of gender inequality: women 
are not equal where family responsibilities are concerned and gender stereotypes are also an 
obstacle with a negative impact on wome n’s participation in entrepreneurship. 
The EU should intervene for the self-employed as it has done successfully for employees in 
the past. The existing directives  have set out clearly that th ere must be no discrimination 
between women and men employees in terms of pay and other conditions of work. They have 
improved the employment rights and health an d safety of working pregnant women. Most 
importantly perhaps, people who are subject to  discrimination have a clear legal right of 
complaint, as well as the right to be help ed by the so-called "Equality Bodies" in each 
Member State. Although difficult to prove empirically, the corpus of Community law 
forbidding discrimination betw een women and men has improve d the employment situation 
of women, raised awareness that discrimina tion is unacceptable and unlawful, and given 
women a proper remedy when they have been discriminated against. 
As far as assisting spouses are concerned, the lack of coverage by social security and the non-
recognition of their co ntribution to the family business give some businesses an unfair 
competitive advantage, so this initiative would ensure a level playing field throughout Europe. 
Proportionality and subsidiarity 
The EU has already in place a Directive cove ring the matters touched upon by the envisaged 
proposal. The assessment shows that this Dir ective has been ineffective in meeting its 
objectives. An EU legal instrument  is the only way to ensure a level playing field in Europe. 
Strongly divergent national legislations, in pa rticular concerning the status of assisting 
spouses, could lead to an unfair competitive advantage of businesses where the level of 
protection is lower or inexistent. 
The envisaged proposal goes no further than necessa ry to ensure that th e aim of the initiative 
is met. As far as self-employed female worker s are concerned and female assisting spouses, a 
period of 14 weeks of maternity  leave is envisaged, at thei r request, but the period of 
compulsory maternity leave would be 2 weeks, in  line with the existing Directive on pregnant 
workers. The proposal will establish the prin ciple of a payment during maternity leave, 
without fixing any amount of the allowance,  provided it guarantees adequate revenue. 
As for assisting spouses, the proposal should gi ve assisting spouses, at their request, the 
possibility to benefit from at least an equal level of protection as self-employed workers, 
under the same conditions, without imposing a sp ecific scheme for self-employed workers. 
The envisaged directive would be a minimum st andards instrument an d would set out basic 
minimum standards whilst allowing those Memb er States which wished to go further. 
Member States which already have detailed  protection for assisting spouses and self-
employed female workers would not need to make major changes to their legislation. 
                                                 
19 See Annex V for more details. 
 
EN 20   EN The envisaged proposal therefore respects the principles of subs idiarity and pr oportionality, as 
it is taken at the appropriate level and does not go beyond what is absolutely necessary at EU 
level in order to achieve the objectives set for the initiative. 
4. O BJECTIVES  
4.1. What are the general policy objectives? 
Any policy intervention should meet the following general objectives: 
1. To improve gender equality for self-employed workers 2. To improve gender equality for assisting spouses. The main policy objective of such action is to improve the way the principle of equal 
treatment applies to the two categories of persons covered by Directive 86/613/EEC. It is 
widely accepted that most European legisla tion on equality between women and men covers 
employees only. Although there is historical just ification for this (the  limitations of the 
primary legal basis), this situation is no longe r acceptable given the development of Europe’s 
societies. 
It should be stressed that the ai m is not to equalise the situa tions of employees and the self-
employed or bring them more into line, but only to make sure that gender equality is applied 
in practice for self-employed workers and assisting spouses. 
4.2. What are the more specific objectives? 
Achieving the general objectives set out above  entails the following specific objectives: 
1. To increase the number of women in self-employment 3. To give assisting spouses a legal status 4. To increase the number of assisting spouses  covered by social se curity in their own 
name 
5. To give the self-employed and assist ing spouses effective legal remedies 
4.3. Consistency of the objectives with oth er EU policies and horizontal objectives 
As pointed out above, the objectives are totally c onsistent with EU policies and in particular 
the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs. 
According to the Treaty, the Community’s aims , among others, are to eliminate inequalities 
and promote equality between men and women in a ll its activities. Gender equality lies at the 
heart of the Lisbon Strategy: si nce the gender gap in self-emplo yment is still wide, bridging 
the gender gap in the field of entrepreneurship is vital if the target of a 60% female 
employment rate is to be met. 
 
EN 21   EN 5. P OLICY OPTIONS  
5.1. No new action at EU level 
If no new action is taken at EU  level, the EU legal framewor k will remain unchanged. Other 
actions to meet the specific objective of enc ouraging female entrep reneurship could, of 
course, be taken by the EU  or by Member States. 
5.2. Non-binding measures 
In addition to the non-binding measures already in place, essentially entrepreneurship policy 
and SME policy (see point 3.3), some new legally  non-binding measures could be considered, 
either alone or in combination with legally binding measures. 
A Commission communication or re port could present findings on best practice with respect 
to self-employed women and assisting spous es. A Commission recommendation (a Council 
recommendation is excluded in areas where the EU has a legal basis to act) could encourage 
the adoption of national measures to improve the way the principle of  equal treatment is 
applied to self-employed persons and assi sting spouses. Such a recommendation could 
provide for Member States to report to th e Commission and for the Commission to report to 
the Council and Parliament.  
As to the open method of coordination, its effec tiveness depends to a large extent on jointly 
agreed and easily applicable indicators. Targets could be set for female participation in self-employment, for example, but it  is more difficult to envisage such indicators for assisting 
spouses. 
Exchanges of information and good practice be tween the Member States could also be 
envisaged through existing or new expert group s of high-level national civil servants.  
5.3. A directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC 
The legal situation concerning the self-employed and assisting spouses is explained in detail 
in Annex V. Although Directive 86/613/EEC is not  the only legal text dealing with the self-
employed, it is the only specific and general lega l text that applies the principle of equal 
treatment to the self-empl oyed and assisting spouses. 
Any change in the legal situation of one or bo th of these categories therefore requires an 
amendment to the Directive. 
5.4. Preliminary screening of options 
5.4.1. Non-binding measures 
In this field, non-binding measur es have already been  extensively used in order to promote 
entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship in particular. In a sense, some of the provisions 
of Directive 86/613/EEC could also be incl uded amongst the non-binding measures, since 
they are ‘recommendations’ to Member St ates, rather than legal obligations. 
In order to promote women’s entrepreneurship , the European Commission set up a European 
Network to Promote Women’s Entrepreneur ship (WES) in 2000. It is composed of 
government representatives responsible for the pr omotion of female entrepreneurship. It has 
 
EN 22   EN members from 30 European countries: th e EU27, Iceland, Norway and Turkey. WES 
members provide advice, support, information and contacts regarding existing measures to 
support female entrepreneurs. They also help in the iden tification of good practices. WES 
publishes an annual activity report that pres ents the activities und ertaken by national 
governments to promote women’s entrepreneurship. 
One of the findings of the Commission’s 2004 BEST project ‘Promoting Entrepreneurship 
amongst Women’ was that networking and acce ss to information for women entrepreneurs 
should be further promoted. As a follow up to  this project, DG EN TR set up a women’s 
entrepreneurship portal on Europa in March 200620. The Portal provides links to the websites 
of organisations representing wo men entrepreneurs and networks, projects and events relating 
to the promotion of female entrepreneurship. It  facilitates finding contacts for networking and 
mentoring. 
DG ENTR is also collaborating with a number of European-level business organisations 
concerned with women entrepreneurs. It holds  bilateral meetings to exchange views and 
explore future initiatives. The main busin ess partners are: FEM-UEAPME (‘Female 
Europeans of Small and Medium Enterprises ’), FCEM (‘The worldwide network of women 
business owners’), EWN (‘Eurochambres Wo men’s Network’) and EUWIIN (EU Women 
Inventors and Innovators Network).  
Moreover, in the Communication ‘Think Small First — A Small Business Act for Europe’21, 
adopted on 25 June 2008, the Commission proposes some further actions to promote female 
entrepreneurship: 
• establishing an EU network of fe male entrepreneur ambassadors,  
• promoting mentoring schemes to inspire women to set up their own businesses,  
• promoting entrepreneurship among women graduates. 
The General Block Exemption Regulation22 adopted by the Commission on 7 July 2008 also 
provides that aid schemes for ne w enterprises set up by female entrepreneurs are compatible 
with the common market provided the aid does not exceed EUR 1 million in each case. 
A further way of achieving the intended objectiv es could be better enforcement of the 
Directive. The Directive was adopted in 1986 a nd has been the subject of only one report, 
adopted in 1994, therefore c overing only 12 Member States. 
Monitoring of the Directive could be improve d, for instance through a reporting exercise, 
from Member States to the Commission and from the Commi ssion to the other institutions. 
It should be assessed whether the generally agreed23 low impact of the Directive on the 
application of the principle of  equal treatment for the self-employed and assisting spouses 
could be improved by better enforcement of th e Directive without s ubstantial changes. 
                                                 
20 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/women.htm . 
21 Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European 
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - ‘Think Small First’ — A ‘Small 
Business Act’ for Europe, Document COM/2008/0394 final. 
22 http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/state_aid/reform/gber_final_en.pdf. 
 
EN 23   EN A further analysis of the impact of non-binding measur es is therefore needed. 
5.4.2. A directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC 
Since a directive already exists, a proposal fo r a directive amending Di rective 86/613/EEC is 
the only appropriate legal instrument in this case. 
It is generally accepted that Directive 86/613/EEC has had limited impact on women’s 
participation in self-employment and the situa tion of assisting spouses . It does not set out a 
clear legal status for assisting spouses who th erefore remain in a pr ecarious situation should 
anything happen to their self-employed partner.  
It is also acknowledged that the ge nder gap in the field of entrep reneurship must be bridged if 
the EU is to meet the Lisbon targets for the employment rate of women. On the other hand, 
the contribution of assisting s pouses to the family business is far from being generally 
recognised and their status in terms of  social protection is unsatisfactory. 
A further analysis of the im pact of revising Directive 86/613/EEC is therefore needed. 
6. A NALYSIS OF IMPACTS  
After the preliminary screening of possible policy options, three have been retained for further 
analysis: no new action at EU level, non-bindi ng measures, and a pro posal for a directive 
amending Directive 86/613/EEC. 
Furthermore, to assess the imp act of the third, legislative option, it is divided into the 
following sub-options: 
– Improving protection in the even t of maternity (option 6.3) 
– Providing leave to care for family members (option 6.4) 
– Giving assisting spouses a legal status and soci al protection in their own name (option 6.5) 
– Giving national equality bodies comp etence in this field (option 6.6). 
In assessing the impact of the various options , each option’s financial costs are quantified as 
far as possible. The costs are expressed in abso lute terms, as a percen tage of overall social 
security expenditure, and, wher e possible, as the maximum pe rcentage increase in the 
contributions by self-employed workers to social security. 
However, quantifying the percentage of the additional costs to be paid by insured persons 
(self-employed and assisting spouses) is diffi cult and depends on the political choices at 
national level. 
                                                                                                                                                         
23 See, for exemple, the Commission’s report on the implementation of the Directive (document 
COM(94)163 final) and the report of the Network of Independent Legal Experts 
(http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/gender_equality/legislation/report_draft2.pdf).  
 
EN 24   EN 6.1. No new action at EU level 
This option means that the current situation w ould continue to apply. It therefore implies no 
new costs for the Member States or the EU, si nce the current situation would be maintained. 
The economic impact  of this option would be indirect. As there would be no improvement in 
the situation, there would be an opportunity cost  equal to the benefits of the other options. In 
other words, if another option involving, say, a legislative proposal would have had a positive 
impact in terms of increasing women’s participa tion in self-employment, the benefits forgone 
as a result of choosing this ‘no ac tion’ option are its opportunity cost. 
Some social impacts  can also be identified. Once again,  this option’s social impacts are 
directly connected with the positiv e impacts of the other options.  
This option would not contribut e to improving gender equality in self-employment or for 
assisting spouses.  
In addition, in certain Member States, assi sting spouses would be left with no social 
protection in the event of divorce or the death or  bankruptcy of the self-employed partner. As 
the Advisory Committee argues in its opinion (see Annex IV), ‘[m]any women that are not 
covered by social protection sy stems while engaged alongside their male partner in self-
employed activities, including agriculture, often re quire financial assistance in the form of 
payments provided by collective solidarity funds la ter in their lives due to the fact that they 
have no contributions to soci al security systems and are therefore excluded from state 
pensions and other complementary forms of pension schemes.’ 
No environmental impacts  have been identified. 
6.2. Non-binding measures 
A large number of non-binding initiatives have b een developed at different levels, as shown 
previously, while others coul d be in the next future. 
These measures have certainly yielded positive impacts. In future, permission to grant State 
aid to businesses set up by women could have a r eal impact, since access to finance has been 
identified as one of the obstacl es to women’s entrepreneurship. 
As mentioned previously, the gender gap in en trepreneurship has no single cause. It is the 
consequence of a number of inequalities and ster eotypes. The initiatives  noted above can deal 
with some of the obstacles: difficulty in access to  finance, lack of social networks, etc.  
 
The Impact Assessment supporting the Com mission Communication ‘Think Small First’, 
referred to above, assesses the impact of th e measures planned to promote women’s 
entrepreneurship by establishi ng an EU network of female entrepreneur ambassadors and by 
promoting mentoring schemes to inspire women to set up their own businesses and promote 
entrepreneurship among women graduates.  It indicates that these measures 
‘would have a positive effect  on female entrepreneurs but also bring additional 
opportunities for economic growth and ther efore employment. Increased women 
entrepreneurship could contribute to hi gher economic growth and at the same time 
favour the inclusion of women in the labour market.’24 
                                                 
24 SEC(2008) 2101 http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/docs/ia_2008/sec_2008_2101_en.pdf. 
 
EN 25   EN Nevertheless, the Communication does not address two of the main reasons that could explain 
the gender gap in entrepreneurship: the difficult y to combine family and private life with 
entrepreneurial activities and the lower level of social protection compared with employees, in 
particular as regards maternity. Indeed, the Impact Assessment for the ‘Think Small First’ 
initiative notes that: 
‘Today female entrepreneurs constitute onl y 34.4% of self-employed people in the 
EU25. Their share in start ups is around 30% . In terms of preferences, only 39.4% of 
women would choose to be self-employed compared to 50.2% of men, which shows that women are more reluctant than men to become entrepreneurs. In addition to economic and sociological elements comm on to both genders, the lack of social 
protection or the reduced level of prot ection available to self-employed women, 
notably in the case of maternity protecti on, constitutes an additional obstacle to the 
participation of women in self-employed activities’  [emphasis added].  
As far as the monitoring and enforcement of Di rective 86/613/EEC are c oncerned, most of the 
Directive’s provisions are drafted in such a way that Member States are obliged only to 
‘undertake to examine’ whether a certain action c ould be taken. This is notably the case with 
Article 7 on the recognition of the work of assisting spouses and Article 8 on protection in the 
case of pregnancy and motherhood. 
Therefore, the problems identified cannot be s een as having its source in an incorrect or 
incomplete implementation of the Directive, si nce the Directive requires no obligatory result. 
In conclusion, non-binding measur es are already in force and can be extended independently 
of the current exercise. They cannot, however , provide an alternative to amending the 
Directive if improving the legal situation of the self-employed and assisting spouses at EU 
level is considered necessary. 
Better enforcement of the provisions of the Dir ective would be ineffective in view of their 
largely non-binding nature. 
6.3. A directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC: improving protection in the case of 
maternity 
The assessment of the costs of this option is based on the period of maternity leave provided 
for in Directive 92/85/EEC25, i.e. 14 weeks.  
Economic impacts 
Paid maternity leave 
As far as the duration of maternity leave is concerned, in five Member States (Austria, 
Belgium, Greece, Lithuania and France), maternity  leave for the self-e mployed is currently 
less than 14 weeks. This means that those Member States would have to amend their 
provisions to bring the duration of  maternity leave up to 14 weeks. The cost implications of 
                                                 
25 Council Directive 92/85/EEC of 19 October 1992 on the introduction of measures to encourage 
improvements in the safety and h ealth at work of pregnant work ers and workers who have recently 
given birth or are breastfeeding (tenth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of 
Directive 89/391/EEC), OJ L 348, 28.11.1992, p. 1. 
 
EN 26   EN providing 14 weeks maternity leav e for those countries are set out in the table below. In terms 
of the percentage of overall social security expenditure, the costs would be marginal 
(0.00363% for Austria, 0.03721% for Belgium, 0.073798% for Greece, 0.04691% for Lithuania and 0.0251877% for France). 
Cost implications of changes in the duration and payment for maternity leave in 
Austria, Belgium, Greece, Lithuania and France 
 Proposed 
change, 
duration in 
weeks Increase 
required 
(weeks) Weekly 
maternity 
leave 
benefit, € Numbers 
of self-
employed 
who 
become 
mothers Costs of 
change, p.a., 
€ Overall social 
security 
expenditure,26 € 
 Costs of change as % 
of overall social 
security expenditure 
 b c d e c x d x e   
Austria 14 6 173.46 2 461 2 561 310 70 612 400 000 0.00363% 
Belgium 14 6 354 15704 33 355 296 89 652 300 000 0.03721% 
Greece 14 14 12 340 7 227 35 412 300 47 985 500,00 0.073798% 
Lithuania 14 14 2 720 1 754 1 284 657 2 738 800 000 0.04691% 
       
14 14 0.00 19 29627 113 460 480 France 
Farmers 
Others  14 5.5 420.00 9 916 22 905 960 541 594 000 000 0.0251877% 
Source: EPEC study 
In a number of Member States, participation in  social insurance sche mes covering maternity 
leave is voluntary for the self-employed (although  the duration of matern ity leave is above the 
proposed minimum in all of these cases).  The Member States concerned are: 
• Bulgaria, where insurance for maternity leave is voluntary for the self-employed. Of the 
total number of 246 000 self-employed ( 2006 data), only 91 481 (around 37%) self-
employed were insured against a ll risks, including maternity. 
• The Czech Republic, where insurance for maternity leave is voluntary for the self-
employed. Of the total 746 500 self-employed (2006 data), only 230 343 (or around 30%) 
were voluntarily insured for sickness insuranc e, which includes maternity leave benefits. 
• Romania, where social security insurance for self-employed farmers is voluntary. The data 
available indicate that the number of self-emp loyed farmers taking out such insurance is 
very small.  
                                                 
26 Social protection data are taken from Eurostat. 
27 The number of self-employed farmers who benefit from allowances for birth or adoption, mainly in the 
form of an allowance for tempor ary replacement services. Self-employed farmers are not entitled to 
daily benefits for maternity leave. 
 
EN 27   EN The next table sets out the cost implications of compulsory social insurance coverage for 
maternity leave for the self-employed in these Member States. 
 
EN 28   EN  
Cost implications of providing compulsory social insurance in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania 
  Number of 
self-employed 
women Estimated numbers of 
self-employed who 
become mothers in a 
year28 Current maternity 
leave provision 
with voluntary 
insurance Average 
annual 
income, € Cost of 
change to 
provide 
maternity 
leave for all 
self-employed 
women at the 
current leave 
level, € % of overall 
social security 
expenditure  Cost of change 
to provide 
maternity for all 
self-employed 
women for 14 
weeks leave, € % of overall 
social 
security 
expenditure  Overall social 
security 
expenditure, € 
 
Bulgaria 87 600 8 400 45 weeks at 90% of 
average declared 
income 1 920 12 561 231 0.35760% 3 907 938 0.111255% 3 512 600 000 
Czech Republic 200 100 10 200 28 weeks at 69% of 
declared income of 
self-employed 5 572 21 116 166 0.11003% 10 558 083 0.055016% 19 190 800 00
0 
Romania — farmers only 229 220 9 054 18 weeks at 85% of 
average monthly 
income 521 1 387 955 0.01232% 1 079 521 0.009584% 11 264 200 00
0 
Source: EPEC study
                                                 
28 Based on the birth rate of the general population. 
 
EN 29   EN  
As a percentage of the country’s overall soci al security expenditure, the costs would amount 
to 0.111255% in Bulgaria, 0.11003% in the Czech  Republic and 0.01232% in Romania (for 
farmers only).  
The absolute and relative costs for the Member States where changes are necessary are 
summarised in the table below. 
If such an option is retained, it is difficult to assess exactly what the costs would be for each 
self-employed worker. The costs of extending maternity protection to self-employed women 
cannot be borne by self-employed women only, or only by women of a certain age, for 
instance. In social security, the principle of  equal treatment between  women and men would 
rule out such a solution. Therefor e, we could divide the annual costs of the option by the total 
number of self-employed and assume this woul d be the additional amount to be paid by all 
self-employed workers if this option were implemented. Nevertheless, this would be also misleading, since contributions by the self-emp loyed are not the only source of financing. 
According to Eurostat
29, at EU27 level, payments by the self-employed constitute around 60% 
of all social protection recei pts (with the remaining 40% co ming from general taxation). 
In order to assess the potential costs for self-emp loyed workers, the fourth  column of the table 
below shows the increase in the contributions  by self-employed worker s to social security  
assuming that the costs would be bo rne entirely by the self-employed , although this is not 
the case in practice. These are therefore the  maximum  costs for self-employed workers, since 
part of the financing comes from other sources.  The real costs would be lower in practice. 
It should be noted that the costs for the Member  State of the implemen tation of the Directive 
(second column of the table below) could be neutral if the Member State decides to pass 
entirely the costs to self-emp loyed workers. The second and the fourth columns show the 
maximum costs of two extreme decisions: to suppor t the costs entirely by the social security 
system or entirely by the self-e mployed workers themselves.  
In any case, the proposal could leave self-employed women a choi ce whether or not to benefit 
of maternity leave. The costs for the social s ecurity system and to th e self-employed workers 
would therefore depend on the individual decisi on of self-employed wo rkers and there would 
be no imposed  additional costs to businesses. The co sts for Member States would also be 
lower since it is not likely that all self-empl oyed women will decide to benefit from maternity 
leave and pay the relevant contributions. 
Costs of the option: absolute , percentage of social secu rity expenditure, and maximum 
percentage increase in contributions 
Member State Absolute costs Percentage of overall 
social security 
expenditure Maximum 
percentage 
increase in 
contributions 
                                                 
29 Social protection in the European Union, Statistics in focus, Population and social conditions, 46/2008, 
Table 5. 
 
EN 30   EN Austria 2 561 310 0.00363% 0.10% 
Belgium 33 355 296 0.03721% 1.27% 
Greece 35 412 300 0.073798% 0.72% 
Lithuania 1 284 657 0.04691% 0.05% 
France 136 366 440 0.0251877% 0.97% 
Bulgaria 12 561 231 0.35760% 1.75% 
Czech Republic 21 116 166 0.055016% 0.75% 
Romania (farmers 
only) 1 387 955 0.01232% 0.26% 
Source: EPEC study 
In 24 Member States, maternity benefit is alr eady equivalent to or higher than sickness 
benefit. In two countries (Austria  and Germany) the situation is di fficult to assess: in Austria, 
a relatively moderate maternity  allowance is paid under the compulsory insurance scheme 
whereas sick leave benefit is paid at a pot entially higher rate under voluntary insurance 
schemes. In Germany, both maternity and sic kness benefit are paid under voluntary insurance 
arrangements open to the self-employed, which means that the range of both maternity and 
sickness benefits is open-ended.  
Consequently, any change to al ign maternity benefit or allowance to sickness benefit would 
not entail any changes in the rate of maternity payments, as  maternity benefit is already 
similar to or higher than sickness benefit in most Member States. 
The provision of a temporary replacem ent (as an alternative to payment) 
Most Member States do not provide such a service to self-empl oyed people on maternity 
leave. Exceptions are:  
• Austria, where self-employed workers can to ask for business assistance for the 8 weeks 
before and after the calculated due date. There are few data available on the rate and costs 
of using this service. The only figures that  exist indicate that €2.5 million was spent in 
2007 on business assistance in all cases, including maternity.  
• Finland, where such a service is  available to self-employed farmers and assisting spouses 
when they receive a sa lary for their work.  
• France, where such service is provided to se lf-employed farmers and assisting spouses of 
all the self-employed, but not to self-e mployed workers other than farmers.  
• Germany, where members of the agricultural he alth insurance scheme can receive home 
help or farming help.  
 
EN 31   EN In the 4 Member States where a temporary replacement service is provided, it is not an 
alternative to maternity leave payment, but a supplementary service for the self-employed.  
Some Member States have other measures to encourage temporary replacement, without 
providing a formal replacement service:  
• Slovenia, where if the self-employed empl oy a registered unemployed person as a 
temporary replacement during maternity leav e, the state covers social security 
contributions for the replacement worker for up to 15 months.  
• Spain, which has some measures to encourag e the hiring of temporary replacements, but 
does not formally provide this service to self-employed women.  
Consequently, the provision of a temporary re placement service for 14 weeks would require 
significant changes in the Member States.  
The costs of this option are calculated assu ming different percentages of self-employed 
mothers wanting to use such a service (20%, 40 %, 60%) and different rates of payment for the 
replacement service as a proportion of average self-employed income (50%, 70%, 100%). The 
calculation assumes a replacement for 14 weeks, even though the length of maternity leave 
could be less. 
The estimated number of self-employed wome n who become mothers per year in the 23 
Member States with no temporary replacement service is around 200 000. At the high end of 
the range considered, if 60% of such women were to take advant age of the temporary 
replacement service at 100% payment, i.e. fu lly paid by the state, the costs would be 
substantial — €418 million per year. However, such a scenario is not very likely. It can be 
anticipated that a lower proportion of se lf-employed women woul d use the temporary 
replacement service. If 20% of  self-employed women used the service at 50% payment, the 
total cost would be significantly lower, at €69 million per year. The cost would be even lower 
if the replacement period is less than 14 weeks. 
Table 3 in Annex 1 provides a detailed assessment of the costs by Member State.  As regards administrative costs , in particular the administ rative burden on businesses, no 
specific negative impacts have been identifie d, as this option would only apply to limited 
category of self-employed workers (pregnant  self-employed workers and self-employed 
workers who have recently given birth). The pr oposal would, in any case, give self-employed 
women the choice to bene fit (or not) from maternity leave.  The impact would be limited to 
those having opted-in. In any case,  the fact that self-employed workers are given the choice to 
join would mean that there would be no imposed  additional costs on businesses. 
Social impacts 
Taking into account that the average age for st arting a business (35 years) is close to the 
average age of women at the birth of the firs t child (29 years), this option would undoubtedly 
allow women to remain at work during pre gnancy and motherhood and could encourage more 
women to take up self-employment. 
Environmental impacts 
 
EN 32   EN No environmental impacts have been identified. 
6.4. A directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC: providing leave to care for family 
members 
Economic impacts 
In 15 Member States, the self-employed are entitl ed to paid leave in order to care for family 
members, as part of either mandatory or volunt ary social insurance. In most Member States, 
however, data on the numbers of self-employed making use of this benefit are not collected 
on a routine basis (Table 4 in Annex 1 provide s summary information on the situation in the 
Member States). 
Member States where such a benefit is not available for the self-employed are Austria, 
Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Irela nd, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, 
Spain and UK.  
The table below illustrates some potential cost implications if leave to care for family 
members is introduced for the self-employed in these Member States. In the absence of actual 
data, some assumptions are made about the numbe rs of self-employed who would take up this 
benefit (2%, 4%, and 6%), the rates of paymen t (80%, 100%), and the total number of days of 
leave per year (5).  
The table indicates that the 12 Member States providing no leave to care for family members 
have around 18 million self-employed people. At the high end of the range, if 6% of these 
people were to make use of such  leave for 5 days a year at 100% payment, this would cost 
around €340 million p.a. In contrast, a lower take- up (2%) and payment (80%) would result in 
significantly lower costs: €90 million. 
 
EN 33   EN Costs of the option to provide leave to care for family members in countries that currently do not have such provision for the self-employed  
Source: EPEC study 
 
   Costs of change, different scenarios for take-up,  size of benefit and average duration, €, p.a. 
 Number of 
self-
employed, 
2006 Average annual 
income, 2006, € 2% of self-
employed at 80% 
payment for total 
of 5 days p.a. 2% of self-employed 
at 100% payment 
for total of 5 days 
p.a. 4% of self-
employed at 
80% payment 
for total of 5 
days p.a. 4% of self-
employed at 100% 
payment for total of 
5 days p.a. 6% of self-
employed at 80% 
payment for total 
of 5 days p.a. 6% of self-
employed at 100% 
payment for total 
of 5 days p.a. 
Austria 473.300 24.911 2.584.192 3.230.240  5.168.384 6.460.480  7.752.576  9.690.720  
Belgium 577.200 20.694.90 2.618.103 3.272. 629 5.236.207 6.545.258  7.854.310  9.817.887  
Cyprus 69.000 Data on the average annual income of the self-employe d are not available, so no co sts can be calculated   
Czech Republic 746.700 5.572 911.915 1.139.894 1.823.830 2. 279.788  2.735.745  3.419.681  
Greece 1.329.000 12.205.05 3.555.181 4. 443.976 7.110.361 8.887.951  10.665.542 13.331.927  
Ireland 322.300 28.000 1.977.951 2.472. 438 3.955.901 4.944.877 5.933.852  7.417.315  
Italy 5.648.600 33.200 41.103.237 51.379. 047 82.206.475 102.758.093 123.309.712  154.137.140  
Lithuania 199.800 2720.4  119.131  148.914 238.262  297.828 357.393 446.742  
Netherlands 1.008.500 21.900 4.840.800 6. 051.000 9.681.600 12.102.000  14.522.400 18.153.000  
Portugal  1.119.300 Data on the average annual income of the self-emp loyed are not available, so no costs can be calculated 
Spain 3.257.300 9.324 6.656.672 8. 320.840 13.313.344 16.641.680  19.970.015 24.962.519  
UK 3.673.300 32.346 26.041.986 32. 552.483 52.083.972 65.104.965  78.125.958 97.657.448  
Total  18.424.300  90.409.168     339.034.380 
 
EN 34   EN As regards administrative costs , in particular the administ rative burden on businesses, no 
specific negative impacts have been identified, since the option would only open an additional 
entitlement to the limited number of persons concerned. 
Social impacts 
One of the dominant features of  demographic change over the coming decades in Europe will 
be the rising share of people aged 80 years and over. A common feature across Europe is also that the burden of caring for re latives falls mainly on women.  
Providing for a period of leave would allow so me self-employed women to stay in work 
despite the need to care for family members. Gi ven that reconciling work and family life is 
one of the main factors behind decisions by wo men to take up or reject self-employment, 
provision for care leave could have a positive impact. 
Environmental impacts 
No environmental impacts have been identified. 
6.5. A directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC : giving assisting spouses a legal 
status and social protec tion in their own name 
Economic impacts 
Table 6 in Annex 1 presents information on recognition of the cont ribution of assisting 
spouses and their subsequent coverage in soci al security schemes (including maternity leave 
payment). 
This shows that 8 Member States recognise th e contribution of assisting spouses: they are 
insured in social security schemes as are thei r self-employed partners and receive the same 
level of social protection, not ably maternity leave benefits. 
In 19 Member States, the contribution of assi sting spouses to the family business is not 
recognised. In some, however, an assisting spouse  can join a voluntary so cial security scheme 
and hence be entitled to ce rtain benefits. However, such  provision for joining voluntary 
schemes does not ensure universal coverage of assisting spouses. 
The costs of this policy option to Member Stat es, estimated to be around €2.9 billion p.a. in 
19 Member States, represent around 0.113% of curre nt social security expenditure in these 
Member States (around €2.5 tr illion in 2005, Eurostat). 
Under this option, the contribution to the fam ily business would be r ecognised and assisting 
spouses would join social security schemes on  the basis of the contribution rates currently 
paid by the self-employed in the Member States concerned. 
As mentioned above, many Member States do not collect data on assisting spouses. Often, the 
broader category of ‘contributing family members’, ‘unpaid family  workers’, or ‘relatives’ is 
used. These definitions encompass not only assisting spouses, but also other members of the family, such as parents, children, brothers or  sisters. Therefore, the number of assisting 
spouses considered here for the calculations is estimated at 80% of the broader category 
 
EN 35   EN ‘contributing family workers’, which correspon ds to around 2.9 million assisting spouses in 
the 19 Member States that do not  recognise their contribution. 
Recognition of the work of assisting spouses should mean that they are granted the same 
protection and benefits for maternity a nd motherhood as self-employed workers. 
Eight Member States provide maternity leave payment to assisting spouses at a level similar 
to that for the self-employed. These Member States are Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, 
Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Sweden.  
If such an option is retained, it is difficult to assess exactly what the costs would be for each 
self-employed worker, for assisting spouses or for the family business as a whole. According 
to Eurostat30, at EU27 level, payments by the self -employed constitute around 60% of all 
social protection receipts (with the remaining 40% coming from general taxation). This being 
an average, it is not possible to quantify exact ly the contribution requir ed from self-employed 
workers, assisting spouses or family businesse s as this would in any case depend on political 
decisions taken by the Member States concerned. 
The costs for the social security scheme a nd for self-employed workers depend on how the 
proposal is implemented in each Member State. 
The experience in at least one Member State sh ows that assisting spouses can be covered by a 
social security scheme without  increasing the level of contri butions to social security, by 
providing for a distribution of benefits and contributions between both members of the 
couple. In that case, the contributions and th e benefits remain only dependent on the revenue 
of the family business. 
In any case, in order to assess the maximum potential costs for self-employed workers, the 
fourth column of the table below shows the in crease in the contributions of self-employed 
workers to social security assuming that the costs would be borne entirely by self-
employed workers in addition to  the contributions currently paid, although this is not 
the case in practice since part of the financing of social  security comes from other sources. 
The real costs would therefore be lower in practice . 
It should be noted that the costs for the Member  State of the implemen tation of the Directive 
(second column of the table below) could be neutral if the Member State decides to pass 
entirely the costs to self-employed workers or to provide for a distribution of benefits and 
contributions between both members of the couple.  
The second and the fourth columns show the ma ximum costs of the two extreme decisions: to 
support the costs entirely by the social secur ity system or entirely by the self-employed 
workers themselves. 
It has to be noted that the e nvisaged proposal could give assi sting spouses the choice whether 
or not to join the same social security system  applicable to self-employed workers, under the 
same conditions applicable to th em (notably on contributions). In  that case, there would be no 
imposed additional costs for assisting spouses or for the family business. 
                                                 
30 Social protection in the European Union, Statistics in focus, Population and social conditions, 46/2008, 
Table 5. 
 
EN 36   EN Costs of the option to provide social securi ty coverage for assisting spouses: absolute, 
percentage of social security expendit ure and maximum percentage increase in 
contributions 
Member State Absolute costs Percentage of overall 
social security 
expenditure Maximum 
percentage 
increase in 
contributions 
Austria 98 098 627  0.138925% 1.4%  
Bulgaria 5 230 285  0.148901% 0.3%  
Czech Republic 14 186 480  0.073923% 0.3%  
Estonia 163 543  0.011648% 0.1%  
France 163 354 610  0.030162% 1.2%  
Germany 583 506 135  0.088428% 1.9%  
Greece 248 256 554  0.517357% 5.5%  
Ireland 10 511 179  0.035679% 0.4%  
Italy 954 518 700  0.253841% 2.3%  
Latvia 7 129 385  0.442489% 0.9%  
Lithuania 6 856 055  0.250331% 1.8%  
Malta n/a n/a n/a 
Poland 404 147 461  0.842119% 2.6%  
Portugal n/a n/a n/a 
Romania 74 614 680  0.662405% 0.7%  
Slovakia 858 511  0.013339% 0.1%  
Slovenia n/a n/a n/a 
Spain* 189 306 420  0.099997% 3.8%  
United Kingdom 216 596 212  0.044711% 0.3%  
 
EN 37   EN * In Spain, Law 20/2007 of 11 Ju ly 2007 gives assisting spouses the same level of protection 
as self-employed workers. This option would ther efore have no impact in  view of the change 
in national law. 
Source: EPEC study The table above shows the costs for Member St ate and/or self-employed workers in case 
assisting spouses are obliged to join the same  social protection schemes as self-employed 
workers. In order to adapt the potential costs to the needs and resources of the family business, assisting spouses could be given th e possibility to volunta ry join the social 
protection scheme, without making it mandatory. In  that case, the cost s would be dependant 
on the percentage of assisting spouses who decide to join such a scheme. 
What has happened in MS where assisting spou ses receive social protection in their own 
name? 
In order to assess the im pact of this option on so cial security contributio ns, it is useful to look 
at the experience of Member States where this option has already been implemented. 
Belgium
 
Before 2003, assisting spouses were not obliged to take up any form of social security 
insurance. From January 2003 however, it became obligatory for assisting spouses to take up 
insurance with limited protecti on, called the ‘mini-status’. 
Since July 2005, assisting spouses have been obliged  to register for the so-called ‘maxi-status’ 
covering sick leave, i nvalidity and maternity. 
 
EN 38   EN Contributions and entitlements of th e self-employed and assisting spouses  
Self-employed Assisting spouses with ‘maxi-status’ 
Contribution is not fixed 
Depends on income of year t-3:   
— 22% of part of inflation-adjusted 
professional income for the reference year up to €49 315.46    — 14.16% of part of income between €49 315.46 and €72 675.38.   Minimum contribution = €585.30  Maximum contribution = €3 539.29  Contribution is not fixed 
Depends on income of the self-employed 
husband/wife:   — 22% of part of inflation-adjusted professional income for the reference year up to €49 315    — 14.16% of part of  income between 
€49 315.46  and €72 675.38.  Minimum contribution = €257.12  Max contribution = €3 539.29  
The new legislation has had an im pact on the participation of assisting spouses in a social 
security scheme. The number of assisting spouses registered in 2003, when participation became obligatory, increased significantl y, rising from 5 287 in 2002 to 64 424 in 2003. 
Luxembourg
 
In Luxembourg, assisting spouses are covered by the same social protection scheme as for 
self-employed workers. 
Nevertheless, the level of contributions ha s remained unchanged, since the professional 
revenue of the family business is divided, wher e applicable, between the main insured person 
(the self-employed worker) and the persons as sisting the family business (spouse or other 
relatives). The revenue attributed to the assis ting spouse or relative is limited to a certain 
amount (twice the minimum wage), with the remain ing part of revenue always attributed to 
the self-employed worker. 
In any event, the system in Luxembourg shows that assisting spouses can be compulsorily 
covered by a social security scheme in th eir own name without increasing the level of 
contributions to social security . 
As regards administrative costs , in particular the administ rative burden on businesses, no 
specific negative impacts have been identifi ed. Although the implementation of the option 
would require some administrativ e steps to be taken, the costs would be limited and would be 
exceeded by far by the advantages to the family  business of the implementation of the option. 
In case assisting spouses are give n the choice to join (or not) th e social security scheme, the 
impact would be limited to the family businesse s having opted-in. In any case, the fact that 
assisting spouses are given the choice to join would mean that there would be no imposed  
additional costs for assisting spouses or businesses. 
Social impacts 
The recognition of the work of  assisting spouses would greatly improve the situation of 
women, especially in rural areas, wher e assisting spouses are more numerous. 
 
EN 39   EN Having social rights in their own name would make assisting spouses less vulnerable in the 
event of divorce, death of the se lf-employed partner or bankruptcy. 
Environmental impacts 
No environmental impacts have been identified. 
6.6. A directive amending Direc tive 86/613/EEC to give co mpetence to national 
equality bodies to deal with the self-employed and assisting spouses 
In all Member States, one or more bodies ha ve been set up in accordance with Directives 
2000/43/EC, 2002/73/EC and 2004/113/EC. Such national bodies are responsible for 
providing independent assistance to victims of discrimination in pressing their complaints, 
conducting independent surveys, publis hing independent reports and making 
recommendations on issues related to discrimination. 
As explained in Annex V, the legal situation of the self-employed is complex. Nevertheless, 
they are already covered by Di rective 2002/73/EC, as far as conditions of access to self-
employment are concerned, and by Directive 2004/113/EC as provi ders or users of goods and 
services. Both Directives provide for th e establishment of an ‘equality body’. 
Giving the national equality bodies competence to deal with both the self-employed and 
assisting spouses would not impos e any significant administrati ve burden on Member States. 
First, these bodies already pa rtly cover these groups (the self-employed), and second, the 
limited numbers of assisting spouses compared w ith the total number of persons that national 
equality bodies may have to handle (all potentia l victims of discrimination based on race, all 
employees, all vocational trainees , all providers of goods and se rvices, and all users of goods 
and services). 
Furthermore, the possibility to  lodge complaints with nationa l equality bodies and benefit 
from their assistance could very like reduce substantially the cases of litigation coming before the national courts. 
Since national equality bodies are already in place  in all Member States, the extension of their 
competences to the persons and matters covere d by the envisage initiative would not entail 
high additional costs. The cost effectiveness of  this option appears therefore very positive. 
7. C
OMPARISON OF OPTIONS  
Overview table 
Options 
 
 
 
 
 
Objectives 6.1:  
No new 
action 6.2: 
Non-
binding 
measures 6.3:  
Maternity 
(self-
employed 
workers) 6.4:  
Care leave 
(self-
employed 
workers) 6.5:  
Social 
security 
protection 
for 
assisting 
spouses 6.6: 
Equality 
Bodies 
 
EN 40   EN Increase the 
number of 
women in 
self-
employment Neutral 
0 Positive 
++ Positive 
+++ Positive 
+ Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 
Give 
assisting 
spouses a 
legal status Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 Positive 
+++ Neutral 
0 
Increase the 
number of 
assisting 
spouses 
covered by 
social 
security in 
their own 
name Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 Positive 
+++ Neutral 
0 
Give the 
self-
employed 
and 
assisting 
spouses 
effective 
legal 
remedies Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 Positive 
+ Positive 
+ Positive 
+ Positive 
+++ 
Consistency 
with the 
EU’s 
general 
objectives Neutral 
0 Positive 
+ Positive 
+++ Positive 
++ Positive 
+++ Positive 
+ 
Cost 
effectiveness Neutral 
0 Neutral 
0 Positive 
+++ Positive 
+ Positive 
+++ Positive 
+++ 
None of the objectives would be achieved by the option of taking no new action. This would 
impose no costs on the Member States or indivi duals, but would not have any positive impact. 
Non-binding measures should be pursued, but, in view of the initiatives  already in place or 
recently announced, new non-binding measures do not seem necessary. In any case, non-binding measures can address only some of the difficulties faced by women wishing to start a 
business (access to finance, social networks, training and support), but will have no impact on other issues underlying the gender gap in entr epreneurship such as reconciliation between 
 
EN 41   EN work and family life and social protection. They would also be irrelevant as far as assisting 
spouses are concerned. 
The option of amending the Directive is th erefore the only one capable of achieving the 
objectives. 
As the Directive covers two different categorie s of persons (the self-employed and assisting 
spouses), it is hardly surpri sing that no single option for am ending the Directive can achieve 
all the objectives. The table abov e shows clearly that measures have to be ta ken for both the 
self-employed and assisting spouses if the objectives are to be met. 
The cost of the option to provide for leave to  care for family members has proved to be 
difficult to assess. The figures advanced by the EPEC study are based on assumptions impossible to validate (percentage  of persons wishing to benefit,  length of leave). Also in 
view of its less evident impact on filling the gender gap in entrepreneurship, the option of providing leave for the self-employed to take  care of dependent relatives should not be 
selected: its impact on the decision to become self-employed is not evident and the cost/benefit ratio seems negative. 
In conclusion, in order to meet  the objectives as far as possi ble, and taking into account the 
cost-effectiveness of the options , the preferred option is a comb ination of options 6.1, 6.3, 6.5, 
and 6.6, i.e. continuation of the non-binding measures that are in place or envisaged, 
combined with a proposal for a directive am ending Directive 86/613/EEC to provide for 
maternity leave for self-employed women, to give  assisting spouses soci al security coverage 
comparable that that enjoyed by the self-empl oyed and to give competence to the national 
Equality Bodies in the matters covered by the Directive. 
In addition to the non-binding measures, the pref erred option therefore c onsists of a proposal 
for a directive amending Directive 86/613/EEC  and containing the following elements: 
• the right for self-employed women to benefit from maternity leave, the length of which 
would be 14 weeks maximum, with 2 weeks mandatory leave; 
• the right of assisting spouses  to be covered by the same social security provisions 
applicable to self-employed workers; 
• the competence of national equality bodies in the area covered by the Directive. 
In order to take into account the specificiti es of self-employment and to avoid imposing 
additional costs to family businesses, the envi saged proposal could provi de that self-employed 
women and assisting spouses are gi ven the possibility to join th e social protection system at 
their own request. In that case, any addition al cost to family businesses would be a 
consequence of the choice made by the self -employed woman or the assisting spouse. 
8. M ONITORING AND EVALUATION ARRANGEMENTS  
8.1. Possible indicators 
An indicator to measure progress in female en trepreneurship already exists, since Eurostat 
regularly collects and publishes data on the s ubject. Nevertheless, assessing the extent to 
which any change in the level of female entrep reneurship can be attributed to an amendment 
 
EN 42   EN to Directive 86/613/EEC will be difficult, since there are many reasons why people decide to 
become self-employed, or not as the case may be, and only a few will be influenced by the legal situation in the areas covered by Directive 86/613/EEC. 
No indicator is currently available for assisti ng spouses. The registratio n of assisting spouses 
in social security schemes, if this option is re tained, could serve as a di rect indicator. In any 
case, certain indirect indicators could be used, such as the number of  new registrations in 
social security schemes, the number of self -employed persons declaring their spouses as 
partners or employees, etc. 
The proposal should include an obligation, to apply three year s following transposition, for 
reporting by the Member States to the Commi ssion and by the Commission to Parliament and 
the Council. Such reports should analyse the way the Directive has been transposed and 
consider its impact in practice. 
8.2. Monitoring 
Like the recent Directives on gender equality , once adopted the proposed directive will be 
monitored with the aid of the Progress Programme (2007-2013)
31. Under the latter the EU has 
set up a European network of legal experts in  gender equality to support the Commission’s 
work by providing independent information and a dvice on legal developments in this area in 
the Member States. 
In accordance with the Communication A Europe of results: Applying Community law32, the 
Commission will also set up an  expert group, comprising repr esentatives of the Member 
States and the Commission, to discuss issues concerning the directive’s transposition into 
national legislation. 
8.3. Transposition 
The time limit for transposition will be two year s after adoption. Two years appears to be an 
adequate period for transposition of the Directive into national law since an a dditional period 
will be granted for the most complex issue (assisting spouses). 
Indeed, in order to allow time to comply with the provisions for assisting spouses (recognition 
and coverage by social security schemes), an additional period would be granted to Member 
States. 
Six years after the adoption of the directive, the Governments of the Member States and the 
national Equality Bodies are to send the Comm ission information for a report to Parliament 
and the Council on the application of the Directive. 
When drafting this report, the Commission will also take due account of the opinions of and 
information provided by relevant stakeholde rs (including businesse s, European NGOs, and 
social partners). 
                                                 
31 Decision No 1672/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 2006 
establishing a Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity — Progress, OJ L 315/1 
of 15.11.2006. 
32 Document COM(2007) 502 final. 
 
EN 43   EN The report could be accompanied, if needed, by any proposals to update the Directive in the 
light of its impact. 
In order to prevent difficulties in the transpos ition of the Directive and reduce the number of 
infringement proceedings, the Commission will se t up an ad-hoc group of  national experts in 
order to prepare the trans position by Member States. 
 
EN 44   EN Annex I: Statistical information  
Table A: Numbers of assisting spouse s (contributing family workers), EU27  
  Total Male Female Year Comments 
Austria 58 200 21 500 36 700 2006 Assisting family members 
Belgium 49 000 4 200 44 800 2006   
Bulgaria 39 800 13 200 26 600 2006 Contributing family members 
Cyprus 7 786 2201 5585 2006 Unpaid family workers 
Czech Republic 29 800 7100 22700 2006   
Denmark 7 810 744 7066 2006 Differing definitions of assisting spouse 
Estonia 1 500 800 700 2005 Unpaid family workers 
Finland 13 000 8 000 6 000 2006   
France 101 033 n/a n/a 2006 Numbers registered in social security schemes 
Germany 382 000 89 000 293 000 2006 Assisting family members 
Greece 293 700 104 900 188 800 2006 Family workers 
Hungary 13 682 2 306 11 376 2006 Family helpers 
Ireland 5 517 n/a n/a   Assisting relatives 
Italy 422 000 181 000 241 000   All unpaid family workers, not just spouses 
Latvia 16 300 8 700 7 600 2006 Unpaid family workers 
Lithuania 35 500 n/a n/a 2006 Contributing family members 
Luxembourg 1 300 n/a n/a 1998   
Malta n/a n/a n/a     
Netherlands n/a n/a n/a     
Poland 670 000 263 000 407 000 2007 Contributing family members 
Portugal 36 000 12 000 24000 2001   
Romania 1 190 000 300 000 800 000   Contributing family members in agriculture 
Slovakia 2 300 900 1 400 2006 Contributing family members 
Slovenia 41 000 17 000 24 000 2007 Unpaid family workers 
Spain 222 793 88680 134 113 2007 Assisting relatives 
Sweden 12 200 7400 4800 2006   
United Kingdom 99 119 39 945 59 174 2007 Unpaid family workers 
Source:  EPEC study.  
 
EN 45   EN Table B: Numbers of self-employed 2006 
Source: Eurostat, LFS, 2006.   Country Total Total (’000s) Agriculture Industry Services 
1 → 2 → Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female 
Austria 473.3 308 165.3 75.4 59 57.7 9.8 174.9 96.6 
Belgium 577.2 411.3 165.9 42.2 7.8 98.4 11.1 270.7 146.9 
Bulgaria 368.7 248.9 119.9 78.6 42.3 39.3 ... 130.9 72.2 
Cyprus 69 51.3 17.7 5.7 0.9 16.2 1.1 29.4 15.7 
Czech 
Republic 746.7 546.6 200.1 27.5 4.9 240 20.8 279 174.3 
Denmark 234.7 174.5 60.1 31.5 ... 47.5 4.8 95.3 52.7 
Estonia 50.6 35.9 14.7 ... ... 12.5 ... 17.3 11.1 
Finland 301.2 207.4 93.8 51.3 19.7 56.1 8.8 99.4 65 
France 2589 1858.6 730.5 416.4 133.5 482.8 49.8 958.9 546.9 
Germany 4134.7 2868.6 1266.1 237.2 34.3 727.1 100.4 1904.3 1131.3 
Greece 1329 965.8 363.2 238.9 123.1 213.9 23.4 513 216.7 
Hungary 476.6 330.5 148.1 47.7 12.5 105.5 15.6 177.3 120.1 
Ireland 322.3 271.6 50.7 82.5 4.3 84.7 4.1 104.2 42.3 
Italy 5648.6 4046 1602.6 331.1 97.3 1226.3 159.2 2488.6 1346.2 
Latvia 109.4 65.5 43.9 27.4 21.5 13.8 ... 24.1 19.5 
Lithuania 199.8 123.1 76.6 58.6 36.9 23.6 ... 41 36.3 
Luxembourg 14.9 9.9 5.1 1.9 0.8 1 ... 6.9 4.2 
Malta 20.8 18 2.8 ... ... 5.5 ... 11.1 2.6 
Netherlands 1008.5 677.7 330.9 87.4 26.3 136.7 19.7 395.4 231.5 
Poland 2903.3 1892.7 1010.6 939 572.4 340.3 52.8 612.6 385.4 
Portugal 1199.3 696.4 503 231 244.9 195 38.4 270.1 219.7 
Romania 1924 1372.2 551.8 1020.4 449.9 154.7 10.8 197.1 91.2 
Slovakia 288.6 215.2 73.4 14.6 ... 102.6 6.5 97.9 65.9 
Slovenia 108.8 81.7 27.1 29.2 7.8 23.5 3 28.6 16.4 
Spain 3257.6 2309.5 948.1 288.5 96.9 766.8 97.9 1254.2 753.3 
Sweden 461.8 345.8 115.9 46 9 88.2 10.4 210 96.2 
United 
Kingdom 3673.7 2654.5 1019.2 150.7 35 998.9 87.3 1501.4 894.7 
EU-27 32492.1 22787.2 9707.1 4560.7 2041 6258.8 735.7 11893.6 6854.9 
 
EN 46   EN Table C — Comparison of maternity leave provisions for employees and the self-
employed, EU27 
3 → Maternity leave provisions for employees Maternity leave provisions for 
the self-employed   
Country Duration (weeks) Payment Duration 
(weeks) Payment Is 
maternity 
leave 
duration / 
payment 
equal or 
lower for 
the self-
employed? 
Austria 8 Maternity allowance is 
dependent on previous 
income. 8 €24.78 per day, 
€750 monthly. 
Average annual 
income is around 
€24 000 (€2 000 
monthly), so 
maternity benefit is 
around 37% of average self-
employed earnings equal 
Belgium 15 Private sector: 82% of 
full earnings during the 
1st month and 75% for 
the remaining weeks, 
with an upper limit of 
€109.56 per day. Public 
sector:  full salary 8 Monthly fixed 
amount €1 416.24. 
Average annual 
income of self-
employed is around 
€20 700 (around 
€1 720 monthly). 
So maternity 
benefit represents 
around 83% of 
average monthly wage lower 
Bulgaria 45 90% of average daily 
wage 45 90% of average 
declared insured 
income equal 
Cyprus 18 The amount of maternity 
allowance is determined 
on the basis of the 
weekly average of the 
insured woman’s paid 
and credited insurable 
earnings in the previous contribution year.  18 75% of weekly 
insurable earnings equal 
Czech Republic 28 69% of previous income 
over 12 months 28 69% of declared 
income  equal 
Denmark Flexible Maternity benefit is 
calculated on the basis of 
wage income. In 2008 
the maximum amount is 
€472 per week. 52 On the basis of 
income, subject to 
minimum and 
maximum levels  equal 
Estonia 20 100% of previous taxable 
income 20 100% of previous 
taxable income  equal 
Finland 17.5 Calculated on the basis 
of previous earnings. 17.5 Calculated on the 
basis of previous 
earnings equal 
 
EN 47   EN France 16 Daily allowances depend 
on the insurance 
contributions paid during 
the previous 10 months. 2 weeks 
for 
farmers, 
8.5 
weeks for 
other 
self-
employed None for farmers, 
€60 daily 
maximum for other 
self-employed lower 
Germany 14 70% of net income Range of 
choice in 
voluntary 
insurance 
schemes Range of choice in 
voluntary insurance 
schemes lower 
Greece 16 The amount is 30 times 
the daily wage of an 
unskilled worker, and is 
increased by 10% for each dependent family 
worker.  No leave 
provided one-off payments lower 
Hungary 24 70% of daily average 
gross earnings in the 
previous calendar year. 24 70% of average 
gross earnings equal 
Ireland 26 80% of the amount 
calculated by dividing 
gross income in the 
relevant tax year by the 
number of weeks actually 
worked in that year. 
Subject to a minimum 
payment of €221.80 and 
a maximum payment of €280.00 a week. 26 80% of income, 
subject to a 
minimum payment 
of €221.80 and a 
maximum €280 a 
week equal 
Italy 20 Throughout maternity or 
paternity leave, a daily 
allowance equal to 80% 
of most recent earnings is 
paid through the social 
security system [INPS], 
including any other 
sickness allowances due.  35 80% of minimum 
wage in the 
respective sector, 
for liberal 
professions: 80% 
of 5/12 of fiscal 
income in the 
preceding year lower 
Latvia 16 Maternity allowance is 
100% of the average social security tax 
contribution. 16 Maternity 
allowance is 100% of the average 
social security tax 
contribution. equal 
Lithuania 18 100% of average salary  Part of 
voluntary 
insurance Subject to 
minimum and 
maximum 
amounts, based on 
contributions lower 
Luxembourg 16 100% of income 16 100% of income equal 
Malta 14 100% of wages 14 50% of legal 
minimum wage lower 
Netherlands 16 100% of wages 16 maximum of the 
minimum wage  lower 
Poland 18 100% of base income 18 100% of base 
income equal 
 
EN 48   EN Portugal 17 or 21 17 weeks = 100% of 
wages; 21 weeks = 80% 
of wages 17 100% of reference 
earnings equal 
Romania 18 85% of average monthly 
income over 6 months 
out of the last 12 months 
of documented 
contribution period 18 85% of average 
monthly income 
for 6 months out of 
the last 12 months equal 
Slovakia 28 Monthly compensation: 
55% of monthly 
contribution 28 55% of monthly 
contribution  equal 
Slovenia 15 Maternity allowance is 
determined on the basis 
of the average pay 
received over the 
preceding 12 months.  15 100% of previous 
earnings equal 
Spain 16 100% of salary during 
maternity leave. 16 100% of the 
contribution basis  equal 
Sweden 68 80% of revenue  68 80% of revenue  equal 
United Kingdom Between 26 and 52 weeks Statutory Maternity Pay 
is taxable and available 
for up to 39 weeks. It is 
provided at 90% of the 
employee’s average 
weekly earnings, with no 
upper limit, for the first 6 
weeks and at the standard 
rate (£112.75) or at a rate 
equal to 90% of average 
weekly earnings 
(whichever rate is lower) 
for the remaining 33 
weeks. 39 90% of gross 
weekly earnings or 
£112.75, whichever 
is lower equal 
Source: EPEC study 
 
EN 49   EN Graph 1: Start-up motivations by gender 
 
Graph 2: Percentage of entrepreneurs with an assisting spouse 
 
 
EN 50   EN 
 
 
EN 51   EN Table 1: Cost implications of changes in th e duration and payment of maternity leave in 
Austria, Belgium, Greece, Lithuania and France  
 Proposed 
duration in 
weeks Increase 
required 
(weeks) Weekly 
maternity 
leave 
benefit, € Numbers 
of self-
employed 
who 
become 
mothers Costs of 
change, 
p.a., € Overall social 
security 
expenditure,33 
€ 
4 Costs of change as 
% of overall social 
security 
expenditure 
 b c d e c x d x e   
Austria 14 6 173.46 2 461 2 561 310 70 612 400 000 0.00363% 
Belgium 14 6 354 15704 33 355 296 89 652 300 000 0.03721% 
Greece 14 14 12 340 7 227 35 412 300 47 985 500,00 0.073798% 
Lithuania 14 14 2 720 1 754 1 284 657 2 738 800 000 0.04691% 
       
14 14 0.00 19 29634 113 460 480 France 
Farmers 
Others  14 5.5 420.00 9 916 22 905 960 541 594 000 000 0.0251877% 
                                                 
33 Social protection data taken from Eurostat. 
34 Number of self-employed farmers who receive birth or adoption benefits, mainly in the form of an 
allowance for temporary replacement services. Self-employed farmers are not entitled to daily benefits 
for maternity leave. 
 
EN 52   EN Table 2: Cost implications of providi ng compulsory social insurance in Bu lgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania  
  Number 
of self-
employed 
women Estimated 
numbers 
of self-
employed 
who 
become 
mothers 
in a year35 Current 
maternity 
leave 
provision in 
voluntary 
insurance Average 
annual 
income, € Cost of change to 
provide 
maternity leave 
for all self-
employed women, 
for current leave 
duration, € % of overall 
social security 
expenditure  Cost of change 
to provide 
maternity leave 
for all self-
employed 
women, for 14 
weeks leave, € % of overall social 
security expenditure  Overall social 
security expenditure, 
€ 
1 → 
Bulgaria 87 600 8 400 45 weeks at 
90% of 
average 
declared 
income 1 920 12 561 231 0.35760% 3 907 938 0.111255% 3 512 600 000 
Czech Republic 200 100 10 200 28 weeks at 
69% of declared self-
employed 
income  5 572 21 116 166 0.11003% 10 558 083 0.055016% 19 190 800 000 
Romania — farmers only 229 220 9 054 18 weeks at 
85% of 
average 
monthly 
income 521 1 387 955 0.01232% 1 079 521 0.009584% 11 264 200 000 
                                                 
35 Based on the birth rate of the general population. 
 
EN 53   EN Table 3: Temporary replacement 
Costs of Option 2c  Costs of change (providing a tempor ary replacement service for 14 we eks) –Option 2c, €, p.a.  
  Number 
of self-employed 
mothers Average 
annual income of 
self-
employed, €, p.a. 20% take-
up rate with 50% 
payment 20% take-up 
rate with 70% payment 20% take-up 
rate with 100% 
payment 40% take-up 
rate with 50% payment 40% take-up 
rate with 70% 
payment 40% take-up 
rate with 100% 
payment 60% take-up 
rate with 50% 
payment 60% take-
up rate with 70% 
payment 60% take-up 
rate with 100% 
payment 
Belgium 15 704 14 912.10 6 304 836 8 826 770 12 609 672 12 609 672 17 653 540 25 219 344 18 914 508 26 480 311 37 829 015 
Bulgaria 8400 1920 434 215 607 902 868 431 868 431 1 215 803 1 736 862 1 302 646 1 823 705 2 605 292 
Cyprus 201 Not available          
Czech Republic 10 200 5 572 1 530 157 2 142 220 3 060 314 3 060 314 4 284 439 6 120 628 4 590 471 6 426 659 9 180 942 
Denmark  2178 62 800 3 682 495 5 155 494 7 364 991 7 364 991 10 310 987 14 729 982 11 047 486 15 466 481 22 094 972 
Estonia  169 1 500 6 842 9 579 13 684 13 684 19 157 27 367 20 526 28 736 41 051 
Finland  
(all self-employed, not just farmers)  2 790 36 611 2 750 049 3 850 069 5 500 099 5 500 099 7 700 138 11 000 197 8 250 148 11 550 207 16 500 296 
France  
(all self-employed, not just farmers)  9 916 23 600 6 300 474 8 820 663 12 600 948 12 600 948 17 641 327 25 201 895 18 901 422 26 461 990 37 802 843 
Germany  
(all self-employed, not just farmers)  10 062 15708 4 255 395 5 957 553 8 510 791 8 510 791 11 915 107 17 021 581 12 766 186 17 872 660 25 532 372 
Greece 7 227 12 340.09 2 401 049 3 361 469 4 802 099 4 802 099 6 722 938 9 604 197 7 203 148 10 084 407 14 406 296 
Hungary  3 944 3 229 342 870 480 018 685 740 685 740 960 036 1 371 480 1 028 610 1 440 055 2 057 221 
Ireland 4 575 28 000 3 448 846 4 828 385 6 897 692 6 897 692 9 656 769 13 795 385 10 346 538 14 485 154 20 693 077 
Italy 15 226 22 000 9 018 656 12 626 119 18 037 312 18 037 312 25 252 237 36 074 625 27 055 968 37 878 356 54 111 937 
Latvia 427 6 415.42 73 786 103 300 147 571 147 571 206 600 295 143 221 357 309 900 442 714 
Lithuania 1754 2720.4 128 466 179 852 256 931 256 931 359 704 513 863 385 397 539 556 770 794 
Luxembourg 45 Data on the average annual income of the self-empl oyed are not available, so no costs can be calculated 
Malta 27 9 000 6 505 9 107 13 010 13 010 18 214 26 020 19 515 27 321 39 031  
 
EN 54   EN Netherlands 3 068 16 300 1 346 376 1 884 926 2 692 752 2 692 752 3 769 853 5 385 504 4 039 128 5 654 779 8 078 256  
Poland 29 500 8 808 6 995 585  9 793 818 13 991 169 13 991 169 19 587 637 27 982 338 20 986 754 29 381 455 41 973 508  
Portugal 3 829 Data on the average annual income of the self-empl oyed are not available, so no costs can be calculated 
Romania 897 916 22 112 30 957 44 224 44 224 61 914 88 448 66 336 92 870 132 672  
Slovakia 1 372 5 072 187 352 262 293 374 704 374 704 524 585 749 408 562 056 786 878 1 124 111  
Slovenia 274 Data on the average annual income of the self-empl oyed are not available, so no costs can be calculated 
Spain 61 879 9 324 15 533 533 21 746 946 31 067 066 31 067 066 43 493 892 62 134 132 46 600 599 65 240 838 93 201 198  
Sweden 3 500 17 095 1 610 875 2 255 225 3 221 750 3 221 750 4 510 450 6 443 500 4 832 625 6 765 675 9 665 250  
UK 3 858 32 346 3 359 754  4 703 656 6 719 508 6 719 508 9 407 312 13 439 017 10 079 262 14 110 967 20 158 525  
Total  201 022  69 740 229        418 441 372 
 
EN 55   ENTable 4: Overview of information on the option to provide leave for self-employed people to care for family members 
(entitlement and payment or temporary replacement )  
Overview of information on the option to pr ovide leave for self-employed workers to care for family members (entitlement and pa yment or temporary replacement)  
 
 
 Entitlement Payment Temporary replacement 
(alternative to payment) 
  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change 
(equivalent to sick 
leave)  Current 
situation Implications 
of proposed 
change (to 
provide 
temporary 
replacement) 
Austria Not part of mandatory insurance sche mes  Significant change Not part of 
mandatory 
insurance schemes Significant change Not part of 
mandatory 
insurance 
schemes Significant 
change  
Belgium  Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Bulgaria Same as benefits for temporary incapacity to work due to illness No change 80% of average 
daily gross pay  No change Not 
entitled  Significant 
change  
Cyprus  Not provided. Employees are entitled to unpaid leave to care for 
family members.  Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Czech Republic Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
 
EN 56   ENOverview of information on the option to pr ovide leave for self-employed workers to care for family members (entitlement and pa yment or temporary replacement)  
 
 
 Entitlement Payment Temporary replacement 
(alternative to payment) 
  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change 
(equivalent to sick 
leave)  Current 
situation Implications 
of proposed 
change (to 
provide 
temporary 
replacement) 
Denmark Benefit is available only for care of terminally ill family 
members  No change The minimum 
benefit is around 
€1 700 per month 
and cannot exceed 
1.5 times the 
amount that the 
person would 
receive if he/she 
were sick and 
cannot exceed the 
former income of 
the person No change Not 
provided Significant 
change  
Estonia Care allowance is paid to salaried employees and the self-
employed, but not assisting spouses  No change For caring for a 
child up to 12 
years: 80-100% of 
previous taxable 
income  No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Finland Special care allowance is paid irrespective of employment 
status to all parents who are prevented from working due to 
illness of children.  No change  Paid for up to 60 
working days per 
child per calendar 
year. The level 
depends on the 
contributions paid 
under the earnings-
related pension scheme.  No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
 
EN 57   ENOverview of information on the option to pr ovide leave for self-employed workers to care for family members (entitlement and pa yment or temporary replacement)  
 
 
 Entitlement Payment Temporary replacement 
(alternative to payment) 
  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change 
(equivalent to sick 
leave)  Current 
situation Implications 
of proposed 
change (to 
provide 
temporary 
replacement) 
The minimum daily 
amount is €15.20.  
France Both farmers and other self-employed (as well as employees) 
are entitled only to a ‘supplement for free choice of activity’ 
(complement de libre choix d’activite)  No change The benefit does 
not depend on 
professional status, 
but is paid in 
accordance with 
public family 
policy (CAF). The 
rate and duration of 
payments depends 
on many factors 
(number of 
children, choice of 
part-time job, wage 
ceilings) so is 
difficult to 
determine overall. No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Germany Only those self-employed who have access to public social 
insurance have access to this benefi t. Otherwise, it forms part of 
voluntary insurance schemes for the self-employed.  No change Only those self-
employed who 
have access to 
public social 
insurance have 
access to this 
benefit (provided for up to 25 days 
for parents in a No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
 
EN 58   ENOverview of information on the option to pr ovide leave for self-employed workers to care for family members (entitlement and pa yment or temporary replacement)  
 
 
 Entitlement Payment Temporary replacement 
(alternative to payment) 
  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change 
(equivalent to sick 
leave)  Current 
situation Implications 
of proposed 
change (to 
provide 
temporary 
replacement) 
partnership and 50 
days for single 
parents). 
Otherwise, it forms 
part of voluntary 
insurance schemes 
for the self-
employed. 
Greece Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Hungary The same care allowance is provided both to the self-employed 
and employees No change  Paid leave: 
childcare assistance 
is provided until 
the child reaches 
the age of ten if 
he/she is 
permanently ill or 
disabled. 
Sickness benefit is 
paid to an insured 
parent looking after 
a sick child below 
the age of 12. 
Amount of days 
paid: max. 84 days per year per child No change  Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
 
EN 59   ENOverview of information on the option to pr ovide leave for self-employed workers to care for family members (entitlement and pa yment or temporary replacement)  
 
 
 Entitlement Payment Temporary replacement 
(alternative to payment) 
  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change 
(equivalent to sick 
leave)  Current 
situation Implications 
of proposed 
change (to 
provide 
temporary 
replacement) 
for children aged 1-
3; 42 days for 
children aged 3-6; 
14 for children 
aged 6-12. (For 
single parents 84 
days for children 
aged 3-6 and 28 
days for children 
aged 6-12) 
Ireland Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Italy Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Latvia An insured person can receive sick leave allowance either if 
s/he is sick or has to take ca re of a child aged 14 or less.  No change  Sick leave 
allowance is 80% 
of the average 
social security tax 
basis. No change  Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Lithuania Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Luxembourg The same system as for employees:  
2 days/year for sick children less than 16 years of age.  No change The same system as 
for employees:  No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
 
EN 60   ENOverview of information on the option to pr ovide leave for self-employed workers to care for family members (entitlement and pa yment or temporary replacement)  
 
 
 Entitlement Payment Temporary replacement 
(alternative to payment) 
  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change 
(equivalent to sick 
leave)  Current 
situation Implications 
of proposed 
change (to 
provide 
temporary 
replacement) 
Parental leave of 6 months for all workers who leave their 
professional activity to take care  of a child less than 5 years of 
age. The amount of the allowa nce is €1 778.61 per month. 2 days/year for sick 
children less than 
16 years of age.  
Parental leave of 6 
months for all 
workers who leave 
their professional 
activity to take care 
of a child less than 
5 years of age. The 
amount of the 
allowance is 
€1 778.61 per 
month. 
Malta The self-employed and employees are entitled to leave to care 
for sick family members only if they satisfy a means test (i.e. 
fall under a non-contributory so cial insurance scheme)  No change Payments under the 
Carer’s Pension 
and Social 
Assistance Scheme 
range between 
€61.96 and €85.88 
per week, together 
with an additional 
bonus of €3.12 per 
week. A six-
monthly bonus of 
€135.10 is also paid No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
 
EN 61   ENOverview of information on the option to pr ovide leave for self-employed workers to care for family members (entitlement and pa yment or temporary replacement)  
 
 
 Entitlement Payment Temporary replacement 
(alternative to payment) 
  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change 
(equivalent to sick 
leave)  Current 
situation Implications 
of proposed 
change (to 
provide 
temporary 
replacement) 
(Ministry for the 
Family and Social 
Solidarity). 
Netherlands Not provided  Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided Significant 
change  
Poland The self-employed are entitled if covered by sickness insurance 
(which is voluntary).  
Farmers are not entitled to th is benefit under their social 
insurance system.  No change  80% of base 
amount, maximum 
duration depends 
on age of child  No change  Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Portugal Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Romania Provided  No change Up to 2 years (or 3 
years in case of 
disability), flat 
monthly rate of 
€216  No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Slovakia Entitled under sickness insurance No change 55% of daily 
contribution, paid 
for 10 days No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Slovenia Entitled  No change The state pays 
benefit only after 
first 30 days of 
leave, so the self-No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
 
EN 62   ENOverview of information on the option to pr ovide leave for self-employed workers to care for family members (entitlement and pa yment or temporary replacement)  
 
 
 Entitlement Payment Temporary replacement 
(alternative to payment) 
  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change 
(equivalent to sick 
leave)  Current 
situation Implications 
of proposed 
change (to 
provide 
temporary 
replacement) 
employed must 
cover the first 30 
days themselves  
Spain Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
Sweden Parents are entitled to temporary parental benefits if they have 
to stay at home from work in order to look after a sick child 
under the age of twelve. This al so applies if the person who 
normally looks after the child falls ill.  
 No change Parents together are 
eligible for 
temporary parental 
benefit for sixty 
days per child and 
year. It is also 
possible draw 
temporary parental 
benefit for visits to 
a doctor or child 
healthcare centre. 
 
The replacement 
rate is based on 
80% of previous 
annual net 
revenue/365.  No change Not 
provided  Significant 
change  
United 
Kingdom Not provided Significant change Not provided Significant change Not 
provided Significant 
change 
 
EN 63   EN 
 
EN 64   ENTable 5: Costs of the option to grant leave  to care for family members in countries th at do not currently provide such benefits  to 
the self-employed  
   Costs of change, different scenarios for take-up, amount of benefit and average duration, €, p.a. 
 Number of 
self-
employed, 
2006 Average annual 
income, 2006, € 2% of self-
employed with 
80% payment for 
total of 5 days p.a. 2% of self-
employed with 
100% payment for 
total of 5 days p.a. 4% of self-
employed with 
80% payment 
for total of 5 
days p.a. 4% of self-
employed with 
100% payment for 
total of 5 days p.a. 6% of self-
employed with 
80% payment for 
total of 5 days 
p.a. 6% of self-
employed with 
100% payment 
for total of 5 days 
p.a. 
Austria 473 300 24 911 2 584 192 3 230 240  5 168 384 6 460 480 7 752 576 9 690 720  
Belgium 577 200 20 694.90 2 618 103 3 272 629  5 236 207 6 545 258 7 854 310 9 817 887  
Cyprus 69 000 Data on the average annual income of the self-employed are not available, so it  is not possible to calculate the costs 
Czech Republic 746 700 5 572 911 915 1 139 894  1 823 830 2 279 788  2 735 745  3 419 681  
Greece 1 329 000 12 205.05 3 555 181 4 443 976  7 110 361 8 887 951 10 665 542 13 331 927  
Ireland 322 300 28 000 1 977 951 2 472 438  3 955 901  4 944 877  5 933 852  7 417 315  
Italy 5 648 600 33 200 41 103 237 51 379 047  82 206 475 102 758 093  123 309 712  154 137 140  
Lithuania 199 800 2720.4  119 131  148 914   238 262  297 828 357 393 446 742  
Netherlands 1 008 500 21 900 4 840 800 6 051 000  9 681 600  12 102 000 14 522 400 18 153 000  
Portugal  1 119 300 Data on the average annual income of the self-employed ar e not available, so it is not possible to calculate the cost s 
Spain 3 257 300 9 324  6 656 672  8 320 840   13 313 344  16 641 680  19 970 015  24 962 519  
UK 3 673 300 32 346  26 041 986  32 552 483   52 083 972  65 104 965 78 125 958 97 657 448  
Total  18 424 300  90 409 168     339 034 380 
 
EN 65   EN Table 6: Overview of information on the option to  ensure social protection for assisting spouses  
Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
Austria  Insurance is not mandatory 
for assisting spouses. If 
assisting spouses are 
insured, the level of social 
protection is the same as for 
the self-employed.   Bankruptcy: no special 
protection  
Divorce: possibility to remain in 
the same insurance scheme as 
before the divorce   Maternity allowance not 
provided Provision of 
mandatory maternity 
allowance for all 
assisting spouses  
Belgium  Since 2006 reform, assisting 
spouses are obliged to 
register for the ‘maxi-status’ 
and receive almost the same 
protection as the self-
employed   Assisting spouse has no 
insurance in the event of 
bankruptcy.  
In the event of divorce, the social 
status of ‘assisting spouse’ is 
lost, which can lead to problems 
with social security. Assuming 
that collaboration in the business 
also ceases, then assisting 
spouses, subject to the ‘maxi-
status’ as from 2006, can keep on paying contributions for 2 years 
and are thus still covered for the 
2 years following the divorce. If 
the ex-spouses continue working 
together then the assisting spouse 
becomes a helper, and no longer 
has the ‘maxi-status’ but the 
social status of a self-employed 
worker  Same entitlement as self-
employed (8 weeks at a 
weekly fixed amount of 
€354.06) No change  
Bulgaria  The status of assisting Would enta il No special protection   The status of assisting Provision of 
 
EN 66   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
spouses is not recognised in 
social insurance. They have 
to register as self-employed 
and join compulsory and/or 
voluntary insurance schemes 
to benefit from such 
schemes.  significant change  spouses is not recognised 
in social insurance. They 
have to register as self-
employed and join 
compulsory and/or 
voluntary insurance 
schemes to benefit from 
such schemes. mandatory maternity 
allowance for all 
assisting spouses 
Cyprus The contribution of assisting 
spouses is recognised, and 
they are insured as self-
employed in the single 
social insurance scheme. 
The social insurance law 
was amended in 2001 to 
cover assisting spouses in 
agriculture. The revision of the law boosted the number 
of registered assisting 
spouses in agriculture.  
 No change  In the ev ent of divorce, spouses 
receive no benefits.  
In the event of bankruptcy, self-
employed persons (and assisting 
spouses whose contribution is 
recognised) are still entitled to 
the benefits under the social 
insurance scheme, if they fulfil 
the contribution conditions.   The contribution of 
assisting spouses is 
recognised, and they are 
insured as self-employed 
in the single social 
insurance scheme. 
Maternity benefits are 
above the proposed 
minimum level.  No change  
Czech 
Republic Cooperating persons 
(national definition of 
assisting spouses) have the 
same protection as the self-
employed  No change  A cooperating person has the 
same protection as the self-
employed in the event of divorce 
or bankruptcy.   Cooperating persons 
have the same protection 
as the self-employed. 
Participation in the 
sickness insurance 
scheme, which covers 
maternity benefits, is 
voluntary for the self-
employed. Provision of 
maternity allowance 
for all assisting 
spouses (currently 
part of voluntary 
insurance)  
 
EN 67   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
Denmark The status of assisting 
spouses is the same as for 
the self-employed, if the 
spouse does not formally 
have wage-earner status.  No change  Due to the universal character of 
the welfare state model, assisting 
spouses will in ge neral have the 
same protection as other citizens.  The self-employed and 
their spouses have the 
same rights to maternity 
leave as wage earners.  No change  
Estonia The contribution of assisting 
spouses is not recognised, 
but they have the same 
social security rights as 
inactive persons. Their 
coverage in social security schemes is lower than for 
the self-employed, but they 
have rights to universal non-
contributory schemes, 
including family benefits   Bankruptcy does not affect the 
level of social protection 
provided to assisting spouses.  
In the event of divorce or 
bankruptcy, the protection of 
assisting spouses depends on the existence of a marital property 
contract defining rights and 
obligations. In certain cases, 
social protection for assisting 
spouses is reduced following 
divorce.   The coverage of 
assisting spouses in 
social security schemes 
is lower than for the self-
employed, but they have 
rights under universal non-contributory 
schemes, including 
family benefits. 
Assisting spouses have 
the same rights as 
inactive persons. There 
is no health insurance for 
inactive persons unless 
they themselves pay 
contributions. However, 
the state provides health 
insurance to all pregnant 
women and mothers of 
children under 3 years of 
age, even if they are 
inactive. All inactive 
persons are also entitled 
to a flat-rate parental Provide full 
maternity leave  
 
EN 68   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
benefit (i.e. EEK 3 600 
(€230) for 575 days after 
the birth of a child) from 
the state even if they did 
not pay any 
contributions. 
Finland Participation in the general 
social security scheme is 
automatic for every resident, 
including the self-employed 
and assisting spouses. The 
entitlement of assisting 
spouses to earnings-related 
social security benefits 
depends on the legal status 
of the self-employed partner.  If an unpaid assisting spouse of a 
sole trader decides to stay and 
work in the company without 
pay even after divorce, she/he 
would not be entitled to the 
statutory earnings-related 
benefits. If s/he started to work 
for a salary, s/he would have the 
status of a salaried employee and 
be entitled to social protection. 
If an assisting spouse is left 
unemployed after divorce, s/he 
will be recognised as an 
employee and therefore also be 
entitled to social protection.   All mothers (employed, 
self-employed, assisting 
spouses) receive a 
maternity grant and 
maternity allowance for 
17.5 weeks (six days a 
week). In addition they 
are also entitled to 
parental allowance for 
up to 158 days (26.3 
weeks, six days a week). The rate of maternity 
and parental allowance 
depends on the legal 
status of the assisting 
spouse and self-
employed partner and 
the contributions made 
to the earnings-related 
pension schemes.   No change 
France Since July 2007 the status of 
‘collaborator’ and hence 
social insurance coverage 
has been mandatory for 
assisting spouses.   In the event of divorce, the 
assisting spouse loses the status 
of ‘collaborator’: divorce is 
considered to be a cause for 
dismissal, but the assisting  Assisting spouses who 
are legally married are 
entitled to a flat-rate 
one-off contribution 
allowance for maternity Provision of daily 
maternity benefits for 
all assisting spouses  
 
EN 69   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
spouse is entitled to 
unemployment insurance 
benefits.  
Personal pension rights are 
considered to be personal, and 
therefore cannot be revoked in 
the event of divorce.  
In the event of bankruptcy, the 
law stipulates that if the business 
was set up after marriage, and 
therefore constitutes a common 
good, bankruptcy liability 
extends to all the household’s 
goods. leave: the amount 
corresponds to twice the 
monthly minimum wage 
(€2855, 1 July 2007). No 
daily benefits are paid  
Germany Assisting family members 
are seen as co-owners of the 
firm or farm. Assisting family members are 
therefore regarded as self-
employed persons, who are 
protected through the 
company they belong to 
rather than by public social 
insurance. The level of risk 
protection chosen is the 
decision of the family.  
This of course presumes that 
financial resources are 
available. Significant change  The protection received by 
assisting family members in the 
event of divorce depends on individual settlem ents between 
the partners. In general, the net 
increase in wealth achieved 
during the partnership is shared 
between the partners. 
Assisting family members are 
not covered by bankruptcy 
insurance as is the case for 
registered employees.  Assisting family 
members are seen as co-
owners of the firm or farm. Assisting family 
members are therefore 
seen as self-employed 
persons, who are 
protected through the 
company they belong to 
rather than by public 
social insurance. The 
level of risk protection 
chosen is the decision of 
the family.  
This of course presumes 
that financial resources Provision of 
maternity leave 
benefit for all assisting spouses  
 
EN 70   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
are available. 
Greece Assisting spouses are not 
recognised by the system as 
a distinct category and 
derive their rights as family 
members of self-employed 
workers. They are then co-
insured but are exempt from 
contributions.   Assisting spouses (as spouses in 
general) receive survivor’s 
pensions. In the event of divorce, 
assisting spouses (again as for all 
spouses) can claim survivor’s 
pension if their husband/wife 
dies.  
Generally such a pension is a 
fraction of the pension received 
by the deceased person and is 
provided indefinitely, but the 
exact amount varies (as do the 
conditions) depending on the 
fund paying the pension. 
Different funds have different 
rules.  
In the event of bankruptcy, 
assisting spouses bear no financial liability, except in cases 
where they owned (in whole or 
in part) the family enterprise.  Assisting spouses are co-
insured and entitled to 
maternity benefits as are 
their self-employed 
partners.  
For farmers and their 
spouses: a maternity 
allowance (€169) and a 
birth allowance 
(€338.57) (both one-off 
payments) 
The birth allowance for 
other self-employed 
workers is €735 (one-off 
payment). Provision of 
maternity leave 
benefit for 14 weeks  
Hungary Assisting spouses are 
covered in two ways. If their 
income is below 30% of the 
minimum wage, they can 
pay a flat health service fee, 
which does not give access 
to cash benefits. If their 
income is above 30% of the No change  The concept of bankruptcy is 
linked to the existence of a 
company as a legal entity. If 
there is such a company, it is 
protected by bankruptcy 
legislation (note however that the 
use of bankruptcy is extremely 
limited). There is no bankruptcy  Assisting spouses are 
covered in two ways. If 
their income is below 
30% of the minimum 
wage, they can pay a flat 
health service fee, which 
does not give access to 
cash benefits. If their No change  
 
EN 71   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
minimum wage, they have 
to pay full contributions and 
are covered for the same 
benefits as the self-
employed.  protection for individuals or 
companies with unlimited 
liability. Such businesses make 
up a large share of all enterprises. 
If only one of the spouses or 
partners is a member or owner of 
the business, the other spouse has 
the right to claim his or her share 
in the event of divorce. In such 
cases, the assets are split by 
agreement between the parties or 
by a court. income is above 30% of 
the minimum wage, they 
have to pay full 
contributions and are 
covered for the same 
benefits as the self-
employed (including 24 
weeks maternity leave). 
Ireland Family members who work 
together are generally not 
insurable. Spouses of self-
employed contributors are 
specifically exempted from pay-related social insurance 
contributions in respect of 
their working activity with 
their spouse. However, there 
is scope under social welfare 
legislation to enable spouses 
who are partners in an 
enterprise, or who work 
together in a legally 
incorporated business, to be 
insurable and to gain 
entitlement to certain 
benefits and pensions. 
Accordingly, where there is  No specific protection   Not provided  Provision of 
maternity leave 
benefit for all 
assisting spouses  
 
EN 72   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
evidence of a commercial 
partnership between the 
spouses or the incorporation 
of a family business as a 
limited company, assisting 
spouses are liable to pay 
contributions 
 
Assisting spouses can also 
make voluntary 
contributions to pay-related 
social insurance. 
Italy No specific social protection 
exists. Assisti ng spouses are 
included in the category of 
domestic workers. If they 
have a contract, they would have the level of social 
protection associated with 
the type of contract.   No special protection   No specific social 
protection exists, so no 
specific maternity leave 
benefit exists. Assisting 
spouses are included in the category of domestic 
workers. If they have a 
contract, they would 
have the level of social 
protection associated 
with the type of contract. Provision of 
maternity leave 
benefit for all 
assisting spouses  
Latvia Assisting spouses (according 
to the law — legally married 
spouses) can join the social 
security scheme voluntarily 
and choose their level of 
protection, if they have not 
reached retirement age.    Assisting spouses 
(according to the law — 
legally married spouses) 
can join the social 
security scheme 
voluntarily and choose 
their level of protection, Provision of 
mandatory maternity 
leave benefits for all 
assisting spouses  
 
EN 73   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
if they have not reached 
the retirement age. If 
they are covered by the 
insurance scheme, there 
is no difference between 
the self-employed and 
assisting spouses where 
maternity leave is 
concerned (16 weeks at 
100% of average 
declared income).  
Lithuania Self-employed workers 
assisting family members 
are not covered by social 
insurance on a mandatory 
basis (these persons may 
take out only voluntary social insurance for the basic 
and supplementary pension 
as well as for sickness and 
maternity allowance). The 
category of assisting family 
members (including 
assisting spouses) is not 
defined by law.  In the event of divorce or 
bankruptcy, self-employed 
workers assisting family 
members receive no social 
insurance benefits. They may 
only claim social benefits funded from the state budget, which are 
means-tested or granted to 
particular categories of the 
population without means-testing 
(there are no specific legal 
provisions covering family 
members assisting self-employed 
workers).  Self-employed workers 
assisting family 
members are not covered 
by social insurance on a 
mandatory basis (these 
persons may take out only voluntary social 
insurance for the basic 
and supplementary 
pension as well as for 
sickness and maternity 
allowance).  Provision of 
mandatory maternity 
leave benefits for all 
assisting spouses 
Luxembourg The registration of assisting 
spouses is mandatory, but 
the status of assisting spouse 
is not often chosen. If 
assisting spouses obtain an 
exemption from this status No change  No information available on any 
special protection in the event of 
divorce or bankruptcy   The registration of 
assisting spouses is 
mandatory, but the status 
of assisting spouse is not 
often chosen. If assisting 
spouses obtain an No change  
 
EN 74   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
(which is often the case), 
they are covered by the 
social insurance of their 
partner  exemption from this 
status (which is often the 
case), they are covered 
by the social insurance 
of their partner, and are 
hence entitled to 
corresponding maternity 
leave benefits. 
Malta As regards the contributory 
scheme, the assisting 
spouses of self-employed 
workers are not entitled to 
social security benefits as 
they do not pay social 
security contributions. 
Spouses are only covered by 
social security if they are registered as employees of 
the same business and thus 
pay social security 
contributions. In this case, 
they are entitled to the 
normal benefits of 
employees. On the other 
hand, non-contributory 
benefits granted to the ‘head 
of household’, provided 
certain criteria are met, take 
into consideration the 
spouse.  No laws specifically cover 
assisting spouses in the event of 
divorce or bankruptcy   As regards the 
contributory scheme, the 
assisting spouses of self-
employed workers are 
not entitled to social 
security benefits as they 
do not pay social 
security contributions. 
Spouses are only covered by the social 
security scheme if they 
are registered as 
employees of the same 
business and thus pay 
social security 
contributions. Provision of 
mandatory maternity 
leave for assisting 
spouses  
Netherlan Assisting spouses are  No protection in the event of  From July 2008, paid No change required  
 
EN 75   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
ds entitled to the new maternity 
benefit only  divorce or bankruptcy  maternity leave of at 
least 16 weeks will be 
provided to the self-
employed and assisting 
spouses.  
Poland The status of spouse is 
recognised. Generally 
speaking, spouses have the 
same social security 
protection as the self-
employed, if they 
voluntarily pay sickness and 
maternity insurance 
contributions. If they do not 
pay the voluntary 
contributions, they are not 
insured for maternity/ paternity leave or leave to 
care for a family member.  
As from 30 December 1999, 
self-employed farmers must 
also pay social insurance 
contributions for assisting 
persons (such as assisting 
family members), unless 
such persons are employed 
outside farming and are 
covered by social insurance 
outside farming. No change  In the ev ent of divorce, a spouse 
ceases to be an assisting person 
within the meaning of the law 
because the family relationship 
has ceased, so he or she is no 
longer covered by insurance. 
Such protection can only be 
maintained if the spouse enters 
into an employment relationship 
with the former partner.  
In the event of bankruptcy 
(according to bankruptcy law and rehabilitation proceedings) the 
assisting person is treated in the 
same way as the self-employed 
person, so he or she is no longer 
covered by social security. In 
such cases, the assisting person is 
not treated as an employee, 
which would give entitlement to 
benefits from the Guaranteed 
Social Benefits Fund.   Generally speaking, 
spouses have the same 
social security protection 
as the self-employed, if 
they voluntarily pay 
sickness and maternity 
insurance contributions. Provision of 
mandatory maternity 
leave for all assisting 
spouses  
Portugal Assisting spouses should 
pay contributions to social  In the event of divorce or 
bankruptcy, assisting spouses no  Regarding the level of 
protection, the benefits Provision of 
mandatory maternity 
 
EN 76   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
security. However, an 
assisting spouse is defined 
as someone that participates 
regularly and for 
considerable period of time 
in the activity pursued by 
the self-employed worker. 
This definition leaves room 
for subjective interpretation, 
so in reality only assisting 
spouses who act ually want 
to be recognised as such pay 
social security contributions. 
 longer have the possibility to pay 
social security contributions. are the same as for the 
self-employed partner if 
the assisting spouse is 
paying social security 
contributions. However, 
the assisting spouse can 
choose a different level 
of income to which the 
contribution rate applies. 
He or she can never 
choose a higher level of 
income than that 
declared by the self-
employed partner, but 
can opt for a lower level. leave benefits for all 
assisting spouses  
Romania The contribution of assisting 
spouses is recognised, and they benefit from social 
protection if their self-
employed spouse is insured 
(social insurance is 
mandatory for all self-
employed workers except 
farmers, who can opt for 
voluntary insurance) No change, except for 
assisting spouses of farmers  Not provided   The contribution of 
assisting spouses is recognised, and they 
benefit from social 
protection if their self-
employed spouse is 
insured (social insurance 
is mandatory for all self-
employed workers 
except farmers, who can 
opt for voluntary 
insurance). In such 
cases, the assisting 
spouse also receives 
maternity leave  No change, except 
for assisting spouses of farmers  
Slovakia Contributing family workers No change  There are no special provisions  Insuranc e for maternity Provision of 
 
EN 77   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
(including assisting spouses) 
are obliged to pay social 
contributions to pension and 
reserve funds. Assisting 
family workers may always 
increase their level of social 
protection by making 
voluntary payments to the 
sickness insurance and 
unemployment insurance 
funds. concerning these issues. 
Assisting spouses do not have 
the status of em ployee so cannot 
claim severance pay or similar 
compensation.  
In the event of divorce, all 
property acquired after marriage 
is considered as joint and is 
divided by half between the 
divorced couple.  
In the event of bankruptcy, all 
the property of the married 
couple may be used to cover the 
claims of creditors. leave benefit is available 
on a voluntary basis.  mandatory maternity 
leave benefits for 
assisting spouses  
Slovenia The contribution of assisting 
spouses is recognised, but 
social protection similar to that available to the self-
employed is provided only if 
assisting spouses are 
voluntarily insured.  Provision of mandatory 
insurance  No specific protection for 
assisting spouses   Social protection similar 
to that available to the 
self-employed is provided only if the 
assisting spouses are 
voluntarily insured. Provision of 
mandatory maternity 
leave benefits for all assisting spouses  
Spain The contribution of assisting 
spouses is not recognised  Provision of mandatory 
insurance No specific protection for 
assisting spouses in the event of 
divorce or bankruptcy. They are 
only entitled to the benefits 
available to all spouses in 
divorce cases, so there is no 
special treatment for assisting 
spouses.  Not provided at the 
moment  Provision of 
maternity leave 
benefits for all 
assisting spouses  
 
EN 78   EN Overview of information on the option to ensu re social protection for assisting spouses  
 
 
  Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
businesses  Protection in the event of divorce and bankruptcy  Maternity leave of  14 weeks for assisting spouses (as 
in policy option 1)  
  Current situation  Implications of proposed 
change  Current situation  Implications of 
proposed change Current situation Implications of 
proposed change 
Sweden The contribution of assisting 
spouses is recognised and 
the level of social protection 
is the same as for the self-
employed, provided there is 
a transfer of taxable net 
revenue from the self-
employed worker to the 
assisting spouse. Social 
security benefits for an 
assisting spouse depend on 
his/her record of previous 
income.   No special protection   The level of social 
protection is the same as 
for the self-employed, 
provided there is a 
transfer of taxable net 
revenue from the self-
employed worker to the 
assisting spouse. Social 
security benefits for an 
assisting spouse depend 
on his/her record of 
previous income.  
United 
Kingdom The contribution of assisting 
spouses is not recognised if 
they do not receive an 
income, and they do not receive the same level of 
social protection as the self-
employed   No special protection  The contribution of 
assisting spouses is not 
recognised if they do not 
receive an income, and they do not receive the 
same level of social 
protection as the self-
employed  
 
 
EN 79   EN Table 7: Costs of the option to provide social  security coverage fo r assisting spouses in 
countries where it does not currently exist  
 Country Number of 
assisting 
spouses 
(contributing 
family 
workers), 
estimated at 
80% of the 
number of 
contributing 
family workers  Average 
annual income 
of the self-
employed Notional economic value 
of the work of assisting 
spouses, estimated at 
60% of the average self-
employed income Amount of 
social security 
contributions to 
be paid by 
assisting spouses 
(1/3 of 20% of 
salary), €, p.a.  Amount of 
social security 
contributions 
to be paid by 
the state (2/3 of 
20% of salary), 
€, p.a.  
Austria 46 560 24 911 14 947 41 754 822 97 427 917 
Bulgaria 31 840 1920 1 152 2 200 781 5 135 155 
Czech 
Republic 29 800 5 572 3 343 5 977 642 13 947 830 
Estonia 1 200 51.7% of all 
self-employed 
earn €1 597 or 
less 958 68 947 160 877 
France 80 826 23 600 14 160 68 670 109 160 230 255 
Germany 305 600 22 428 13 457 246 743 885 575 735 731 
Greece 234 960 12 205.05 7 323 103 237 148 240 886 678 
Ireland 4 414 28 000 16 800 4 448 909 10 380 787 
Italy 337 600 33 200 19 920 403 499 520 941 498 880 
Latvia 13 040 6 415.42 3 849 3 011 655 7 027 194 
Lithuania 28 400 2720.4 1 632 2 781 337 6 489 786 
Malta n/a 48.5% of all 
self-employed 
declare they 
earned less than 
€9 784 n/a n/a n/a 
Poland 536 000 8 808 5 285 169 959 168 396 571 392 
Portugal 28 800 Not available n/a n/a n/a 
Romania 952 000 916 550 31 393 152 73 250 688 
Slovakia 1 840 5 072 3 043 335 969 783 928 
Slovenia 32 800 n/a n/a n/a n/a 
Spain 178 234 9 324 5 594 59 826 872 139 596 034 
United 
Kingdom 79 295 32 346 19 408 92 335 771 215 450 133 
Total 2 923 210   1 236 245 686 2 884 573 268 
Source: EPEC study 
 
EN 80   EN Annex II: Consultation of Member States: summary of submissions  
Overview of Member States’ rep lies to the consultation on the review of Directive 86/613/EEC 
 
Question 2.1: Is there a social protection sc heme for self-employed workers? Is it manda tory or optional? Does it cover all sec tors of activity? 
MS Reply 
AT The social protection scheme for self-employed workers is mandatory  and applies as a matter of prin ciple to all branches of the  economy. 
BE Tout travailleur indépendant est soumis au régime de la sécu rité sociale pour travailleurs indépendants, qui est d’ordre public  et donc obligatoire pour tous. 
BU Social insurance contributions for self-emp loyed persons are mandatory to cover the fo llowing insurable risks: disability stemm ing from unspecified 
disease, old age, death. Self-employed persons may additionally elect to cover themselves agai nst the following insurable risks : temporary incapacity and 
maternity. 
CY The social security scheme covers all workers in Cyprus, in all sectors of activity 
DE There is no uniform social protection scheme for all self-employe d workers in Germany. Under the statutory social security syst em (statutory insurance 
covering sickness, long-term care, pensions and occupational acci dents), there are special regula tions to cover certain groups of self-employed persons 
(including their assisting family members). In addition, there are other schemes for the members of those ‘liberal’ professions  that are organised in 
professional associations (in German: ‘Ka mmern’), the ‘professional pension’ organisations. Germany has its own separate social  protection scheme for 
farmers. 
EE Estonia’s social security scheme is universal and the right to social security is a person’s individual right. 
EL In Greece the social protection scheme for th e self-employed is mandatory. The self-emplo yed must be insured with the appropria te body for the activity 
they are engaged in. 
ES L’assujettissement au régime spécial de sécurité sociale pour les travailleurs indépendants est obligatore pour tous les travai lleurs indépendants. 
 
EN 81   EN FI Social protection for entrepreneurs broadly co rresponds to that for employed persons in Finland. The objective is to provide th e whole population with the 
same social security benefits and in par ticular to provide entrepreneur s and farmers with the same key welfare benefits as empl oyees. 
In Finland there are therefore no special schemes for entrepreneur s covering all branches of social security — as a general rul e they are insured under the 
same schemes as employees and the rest of the population. Entr epreneurs do have their own pension regulations within the earnin gs-related pension scheme 
but in terms of content they essentially correspond to the regulations for employees. 
The creation of uniform rights and obligations for all citizens, including entrepreneurs, corresponds to the Finnish perception  that all citizens must be 
treated equally and fairly irresp ective of their social status. 
Nevertheless, unlike employees, the entrepreneur can declare his/her own business income, based on which the level of earnings- related social security 
benefits and payments is set. The voluntary part of their social protection is greater than for employees. 
FR Les travailleurs indépendants sont couverts à titre obligatoire pa r des régimes de sécurité sociale distincts de celui applicab le aux travailleurs salariés. 
IT No reply. 
LT A mandatory social protec tion scheme for self-employed work ers has been in place in Lithuani a since 1 January 1995. Since 2002,  certain categories of 
self-employed workers whose yearly income exceeds the minimum wage for a 12-month period have been covered by mandatory social insurance for the 
basic pension and/or supplementary pension. The scheme is mandato ry for all working-age self-emplo yed workers, with some except ions. 
LU Les indépendants sont couverts par le régime général de sécurité sociale applicable à toutes les personnes poursuivant une acti vité économique 
professionnelle au Luxembourg. Ce régime est obligatoire et il couvre tous les secteurs d’activité et, sous réserve des conditi ons à remplir, tous les risques. 
Toutefois, sont dispensées de l’assuranc e les activités non salariées exercées à titre principal ou accessoire lorsque le reven u professionnel qui en est retiré 
ne dépasse pas un tiers du salaire social minimum par an (523,43 € par mois). 
LV Self-employed workers are subject to mandatory social insurance. 
MT In Malta, there is a mandatory social protection scheme for self-employed workers, which c overs all sectors of activity. 
NL Generally speaking, the Netherlands does not have a specific system of social protection for self-employed workers.  
Essentially, therefore, the Netherlands takes the view that a self-employed person bears full responsibility for his/her income  and supplementary pension 
and for providing against loss of income as a result of sick ness or disability. The Netherland s does, however, consider it a ta sk of the government to ensure 
that self-employed workers are in a position to assume certain risk s, i.e. that they can insure themselves privately at a reaso nable price. In cases where the 
private sector does not offer a satisfactory solution, it is appr opriate to examine whether and how government can play a part (where, for instance, there are 
 
EN 82   EN special social needs, or wh ere certain groups are in exceptional circumstances). 
In the Netherlands, self-employed workers are covered by the general rules governing social security and similar provisions. Se lf-employed workers have 
the same entitlements as employees (and other entitled persons) to  public provision such as family allowance, retirement pensio n (AOW), survivors’ 
pension (ANW) and reimbursement of health expenses (health insurance and exceptional medical expenses). They also qualify for c ontributions towards 
specific cost items such as child -care. The Work and Social Assistance Act (WWB ) makes provision for self-employed workers whos e income is below, or 
likely to fall below, the statutory minimum wage. 
PL In the Polish legal system there has been a social protection system for self-employed workers for many year s, also covering th ose working in agriculture.  
Individual farmers, i.e. individuals pursuing an agricultural ac tivity who are self-employed and own their own arable farms, ha ve their own system of social 
security separate from the universal system.  
Generally social security is compulsory for farmers for whom agriculture is their only means of making a living and whose arabl e farm comprises usable 
arable land with an area greater th an 1 comparative fiscal hectare. 
Voluntary social security applies to farmers pursuing agricultu ral activities on arable farms with an area less than 1 comparat ive fiscal hectare. Another 
voluntary social security scheme covers farmers who are gainfully employed in addition to their arable farming, but the scope o f insurance is limited solely 
to insurance against the risk of an accident  during farm work (one-off compensation).  
The social protection system for persons pursuing non-agricultu ral activities is mixed in character because those persons are s ubject to compulsory 
retirement and disability insurance and insurance against accident s at work and occupational diseases and to voluntary insuranc e in the event of sickness 
and motherhood. 
In the Polish legal system, persons pursuing an activity other than an agricultural activity as defined in the Act on the Socia l Security System, 
notwithstanding the type of activity performed, come under the social security system. 
PT Le régime de sécurité sociale pour les travailleurs indépendan ts est obligatoire. Cependant, il est facultatif pour les personn es qui obtiennent des rendements 
annuels bruts égaux ou supérieurs à 6 fois la valeur de ‘l’index des soutiens sociaux’ (397,86 € en 2007). 
RO Romania has opted to include self-employed workers in the existing public pension, unemployment insurance and social health ins urance schemes.  
Lawyers belong to a specific manda tory social insurance scheme.  
In order to receive a pension and other social insurance rights, farmers can opt to enter the scheme for public pensions and ot her social insurance rights by 
concluding an individual social insurance contract.  
 
EN 83   EN Under the national legislation governing the public pension and health insurance schemes, there are special rules for self-empl oyed workers and for family 
members regarding insurance cover, financing, and the consequences of non-compliance, while there are similar rules for self-em ployed workers and other 
groups of people as regards the risks covered and the benefits granted. Statutory cover is permitted in cases where several pro fessional activities are 
practised. 
SK Act No 461/2003 Coll. on social insurance defines a gainful activity for the purposes of sickness and pension insurance as the activity of an employee or the 
activity of a self-employed worker. It is th erefore clear that this is a universal system applying to all employees and self-em ployed workers (with the 
exception of members of the armed forces and the police, etc.)  
Self-employed workers are compulsorily covered by sickness and pension insurance if their income from business and other self-e mployed activity or 
revenue associated with business or other self-employed activity  (for the previous calendar year) exceeds 12 times the minimum assessment basis. If the 
income or revenue is less, they may take out sickness and pension insurance voluntarily. 
 
 
EN 84   EN Question 2.2: Which of the following aspects are c overed by social security for the self-employed? 
Areas 
MS Permanent 
disability Temporary or 
long-term disability /sickness Pension Unemployment Maternity leave Paternity leave Leave to care 
for dependants 
AT Yes Yes, on voluntary 
basis Yes No. From 2009, 
possibility to opt-in. Comparable 
allowance available Comparable 
allowance available No, but available on 
a voluntary basis 
BE Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No 
BU Yes Optional Yes No Optional No No 
CY Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No 
DE Yes Yes Yes Optional Optional Yes Yes 
EE Yes Yes Yes Yes No, but maternity 
benefit available No No 
EL Yes Yes (agriculture) Yes No? No, but allowance No No 
ES Yes Yes Yes No ? No No 
FI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 
FR Yes Yes, partially Yes No Yes Yes Yes 
IT ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? 
LT Yes Yes, partially ? No Yes, partially No Yes, partially 
 
EN 85   EN LU Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 
LV Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes 
MT Yes Yes Yes No No No No 
NL No No Yes No Yes? (Bill?) No No 
PL Yes Yes Yes Yes (not in 
agriculture) Yes Yes Yes 
PT Yes Optional Yes No Yes Yes No 
RO Yes Yes Yes Optional Optional Optional  Optional 
SK Yes Yes Yes Optional Yes Yes Yes 
 
 
EN 86   EN Question 2.3: How are the social security cont ributions of self-emplo yed workers calculated? 
MS Reply 
AT Contributions are first (provisionally) assessed on the basis of the income of the insured person in the third previous calenda r year and — once statements of 
income have been submitted — then (retrospectively) definitively on the basis of the insured person’s income in the year for wh ich the contributions are due. 
The income taken into account for this purpose is that earned by  the insured person from the self-employed activity to which th e mandatory insurance relates, 
plus the statutory pension and sickness insurance contributions for that year, minus, under certain circumstances, any recapita lisation and capital gains. 
The contribution ceiling (2008) is €4 585 a month and, for most  insured persons, the minimum contribution is €951.87 (which wil l, however, be reduced 
gradually up to 1 January 2015). 
In the pension insurance scheme for self-employed workers, the contribution rate is 22.8% of the contribution basis, of which, in 2007, 15.5% (rising by 
0.25% a year to 17.5% in 2015) was accounted for by contributi ons from insured workers and 7.30% (falling by 0.25% a year to 5. 30% in 2015) was 
contributed by the State. The contribution rate for sickness insurance in 2007 was 9.1%, but this was reduced from 1 January 20 08 to 7.65%. 
The contributions of self-employed workers in the agricultural and forestry industries are based primarily on the standard valu e of the agricultural/or forestry 
holdings in question. The standard value is a capitalised income value determined by the tax offices for tax assessment purpose s. The contribution basis is a 
percentage of the standard value of the agricultural/forestry holding and represents a flat-rate ‘notional’ monthly income from  the agricultural/forestry 
holding. However, the person working the holding can also apply to have the social insurance contribution basis determined on t he basis of the actual income 
tax assessment.  
BE Les cotisations représentent principalement un pourcentage des re venus professionnels. Le pourcentage varie en fonction de la c atégorie de cotisant et de la 
tranche de revenu du cotisant. 
Les cotisations sociales diffère nt, par exemple, selon que la profession soit exercée à titre principal ou complémentaire, selo n qu’il s’agisse d’un pensionné ou 
non, d’un conjoint aidant ou d’une personne admise en activité complémentaire par extension. 
BU The amount of social insurance contributions paid by self-insured persons depends on the risks against which they choose to be covered: 
 - For persons insured against disability stemming from an unspecified disease, old age and death, 22 per cent;  - For persons insured against all social  risks excluding accidents at work, occupa tional disease and unemployment, 25.5 per ce nt. 
 Social insurance contributio ns are payable in advance and are calculated as follows:- 
 
EN 87   EN  1. for self-insured persons (except those registered as farm and tobacco leaf producers), on the basis of the monthly social i nsurance income, at an 
amount between the minimum and maximum monthly incomes determined by the ZBDOS State Social Insurance Budget Act ( Закон  за бюджета  на 
държавното  обществено  осигуряване ) for each relevant year; 
 2. for self-insured registered farm prod ucers and tobacco leaf producers, on the basi s of the monthly social insurance income,  at 50% of an amount 
between the minimum and maximum monthly incomes determined by the ZBDOS State Social Insurance Budget Act for each relevant yea r; 
 3. for self-insured persons who are registered solely as farm ers, on the basis of the monthly social insurance income, at 25 p er cent of an amount 
between the minimum and maximum monthly incomes determined by the ZBDOS State Social Insurance Budget Act for each relevant yea r. 
CY Contributions to the social security sche me are proportional to insurable earnings. The total contribution for self-employed wo rkers is 15.6% of insurable 
earnings. Of this amount, 11.6% is paid by self-employed workers themselves and 4% is  paid by the State. For each occupational category, there is a 
mandatory minimum amount of insu rable earnings. However, self-employed workers are entitled to pay contributions based on a hig her amount of insurable 
earnings, up to the maximum amount. If the actual income of self-employed workers is lower than the minimum amount for the rele vant occupational 
category, they are then entitled, on request, to pay contributions based on their actual income. 
DE Self-employed persons pay the normal monthly contribution irrespective of their actual earnings (the exceptions are marine pilo ts, home-workers, coastal 
mariners and coastal fishers). They can also  pay lower or higher contributions if they  can prove that their income sufficiently  deviates from the norm. During 
the first three calendar years following the start of their self-employed status, they only pay half the normal contribution, b ut this can be increased to the full 
contribution. 
Provision is made to protect farmers in their old age by requiring them to pay uniform contributions not based on income. The c ontribution amount is based 
on the relationship between contributions paid in and benefits pa id out under the statutory pension schemes (the Government mak es up any shortfall). Where 
necessary, farmers’ contributions may be subsidised depending on their income. 
The amount the self-employed pay in contributions to the professional associations’ pension schemes is primarily based on the t ype of professional work they 
do and on their income. 
In the case of statutory occupational accident  insurance, the regulations of the rele vant occupational accident insurance fund prescribe the amount of annual 
earnings that serves as the basis for determining the contributions paid by the self-employed, who may be either 1) persons ins ured by law 2) employers and 
their spouses insured in accordance with the regulations of the occupational accident insurance fund or 3) persons insured on a  voluntary basis. The 
regulations must provide persons insured by  law and those insured in accordance with the regulations with the opportunity to up grade their insurance.  
Under farmers’ occupational accide nt insurance, the amount of the annual earnings  of farming entrepreneurs and their spouses on  which contributions are 
chargeable is laid down by law. Under certain circumstances, the regulations of th e various farmers’ occupational accident fund s can set higher or lower 
contributions. 
 
EN 88   EN In the case of persons who pay unemployment insurance on a voluntary basis, the income subject to contributions is 25 per cent of the monthly reference 
figure (section 345b Title III Social Code). 
In 2007, the income subject to contributions  in the case of persons who voluntarily pa rticipate in a statutory health insurance  scheme was €3562.50 per month; 
a person’s contribution is determined by multiplying this figure by the percentage rate set by the health insurance fund in que stion (the average for 2007 was 
13.9+0.9 per cent). If a person proves that he/she is earni ng less than the above amount, his/ her actual earnings will represen t the income on which 
contributions are chargeable, whereby the lowest possible amount is €1 837.50 per month (figure for 2007). Based on this amount , the minimum contribution 
is about €250 a month. 
As from 1 April 2007, the minimum income subject to contributions has been reduced further to €1225 euros per month for persons  in need. To determine 
whether a person is in need, not only that person’s income is taken into account but also his/her assets and the income of othe rs living together with the person 
(in a joint household). This rule means that the person saves about €80 in contributions (now paying about €170 a month instead  of the previous minimum 
monthly sum of about €250). 
Self-employed persons who are insured under a statutory health insurance scheme on a voluntary basis, or who are compulsorily i nsured in accordance with 
the new legal provisions for boosting competition in the statutory health insurance system (section 5(1)(13) of Title V of the Social Code), are automatically 
compulsorily insured under a lo ng-term care insurance scheme. The income on whic h long-term care contribu tions are chargeable i s the same as for statutory 
health insurance. The minimum amount for 2007 was thus €31.24 a month (€1 837.50 x 1.7 per cent), or €35.83 a month (€1 837.50 x 1.95 per cent) for 
childless persons. 
Self-employed persons who have taken out private health insuran ce are compulsorily insured with  a private long-term care insure r. The premiums charged for 
long-term care insurance are subject to certain conditio ns to ensure that they  are socially acceptable. 
EE In order to be covered by pension and sickness insurance, self-e mployed persons pay social tax like other workers. The rate of social tax is 33% of a self-
employed person’s declared income, of which 20% goes to fund pension insurance and 13% to fund sickness insurance. 
Minimum and maximum rates are laid down for the calculation of the social tax for self-employed persons. The monthly rate laid down in the national budget 
for a given financial year may not be less than 75% of the minimum monthly wage set by the Government for 1 July of the previou s year. The maximum 
monthly rate is 15 times the minimum monthly wage set by the Government.  
EL There are 7 insurance classes for OGA Fund contributions (agriculture), and the level of contributions is calculated based on t hese classes. 
The contributions to social security sche mes for the self-employed are calculated on the basis of the insurance classes for the  self-employed and the pay for 
salaried employees. 
ES La cotisation au régime de sécurité sociale est obligatoire pour toutes les personnes qui exercent des activités indépendantes.  La particularité principale 
découle du fait que les travailleurs indépendants peuvent choisir annuellement la base de cotisation qui lui sera appliquée, en  respectant les bases maximale et 
 
EN 89   EN minimale établies sur base annuelle. Les marges maximale et mini male varient en fonction de l’âge de la personne et d’autres fa cteurs. 
FI Under the Employees’ Pension Act (TyEL), a self-employed person’s pension contribution is set at the level of the average TyEL pension contribution. A 
rebate is granted to farmers, so that the average farmer’s contribution is about half that of an employee’s. The occupational p ension contribution is calculated 
as a percentage of earnings. Self-employed persons and farmers can  themselves, within certain limits, decide on the income leve l they insure. The 
contributions of employees or self-employed persons aged 53 and above are higher than those of younger persons. This finances t he higher pension accrual 
rate in the final years of working life.  
Entrepreneurs pay a mandatory 1.24% sickness insurance contribution on their annual earned income, which is used to finance the  pharmaceutical costs of 
outpatient treatment as a result of illness and expenses arising from the use of priv ate medical services, plus a 0.81% daily p ayment, which pays for sickness 
allowance and maternal, paternal and parental  leave. The State and municipal taxes paid by entrepreneurs are also used to fund public municipal health care 
services covering the whole population, on which the Finnish health care system is essentially based.  
Entrepreneurs do not pay the unemployment insurance contribution. The basic unemployment allowance is tax-financed. Entrepreneu rs can take out optional 
additional insurance to obtain an earnings-related (i.e. linked to income level) daily unemployment benefit — as can employees.  If they so wish, entrepreneurs 
can join the entrepreneurs’ unemployment f und. The earnings-related share of the daily unemployment benefit is financed in full  by entrepreneurs’ own 
contributions, i.e. by the members’ contributions to the unemployment fund. Entrepreneurs may themselves choose the income to b e insured, on the basis of 
which the contribution to the fund is determined. 
FR Les cotisations sont calculées sur la base des revenus professionnels. 
IT No reply. 
LT Social insurance contributions by self-employed workers to obtain the basic pension entitlement amount to 50% of the base pensi on, while contributions for 
an additional pension entitlement amount to 15 % of the annual income voluntarily declared  by the self-employed person for socia l insurance purposes, which, 
however, may not be less than 12 times the minimum monthly wage.  
Self-employed workers must pay social insu rance contributions for the additional pens ion entitlement where their annual taxed i ncome, calculated in 
accordance with the Law on Individual Income Tax, after income tax, is equal to or exceeds 12 times the minimum monthly wage. 
Annual income is calculated at the end of the tax year on the basis of the information in the tax returns. Where a self-employe d person has worked less than 
the entire tax year, his/her annual income is  recalculated in proportion to  the time worked. Where a self-employed person has w orked less than the entire tax 
year, contributions for the additional pension entitlement are paid where the income for the period worked, as calculated in ac cordance with the Law on 
Individual Income Tax, after income tax, is equal to or exceeds the minimum wage for the period worked. Where the beginning or the end of the period of 
work does not coincide with the beginning of a month, the minimum wage is calculated in proportion to the number of calendar da ys worked. 
Once the owners or holders of individual farms register their fa rms in the Register of Farmers’ Farms, they must pay mandatory health insurance 
 
EN 90   EN contributions, as required by Article 17.5 of the HIL for themselves and the grown-up members of their families working on the farm. Mandatory health 
insurance contributions must be paid starting from the month of the registration of the farm in the Register. Owners or holders  of individual farms must pay 
mandatory health insurance contributions for themselves and the grown-up members of their families working on the farm by the l ast day of the current 
month, but they may also calculate and pay the contributions for future periods.  
LU Les cotisations sont calculées sur base du revenu net pour le s activités non salariées autres qu’agricoles. Pour les activités non salariées agricoles, le revenu 
professionnel est fixé forfaitairement sur base des productions vé gétales et animales de l’explo itation agricole au cours de l’ année précédant l’exercice de 
cotisation. 
L’assiette de cotisation mensuelle ne peut être inférieure au salaire social minimum de référence prévu pour un travailleur non  qualifié, ni supérieure au 
quintuple de ce salaire.  
LV A self-employed person calculates social insu rance contributions by multiplying the base  for social insurance contributions by the contribution rate set for 
self-employed persons. The contribution rate is determined by th e types of social insurance to which self-employed workers are subject (the rate and its 
breakdown by type of social insurance are dete rmined each year by the Cabinet of Minsters). 
When paying social insurance contributions, self-employed persons must comply with the minimum and maximum bases for social ins urance contributions 
established in Cabinet Regulation No 193 of 6 June 2000 ‘on the minimum and maximum bases for social insurance contributions’. 
MT There are four categories of social security  contributions for employees and self-employed workers: those who earn up to €8 446  per year pay a fixed social 
security contribution of €24.37 per week; workers who earn from €8 449 up to €16 417 per year pay social security contributions  equivalent to 15% of their 
total pay per week; those who earn more than €16 420 per year pay a fixed social security contribution of €47.38 per week; whil e those workers who are not 
self-employed and earn from €1 004 up to €6 986 per year pay a social security contribution of €20.17 per week. 
NL The contributions of self-employed workers towards their state old-age and survivors’ pensions are income-dependent. 
The amount of the contribution for the volu ntary continuation of state sickness and disability insurance is based on the insure d amount, subject to a ceiling 
(the ‘full daily wage’).  
Where former employees opt to continue contributing to a pension fund, they must pay the full contribution themselves, even in cases where part of that 
contribution was formerly paid by the employer (as part of the worker’s terms and conditions of employment). 
PL Social protection contributions for persons pursuing a non-agric ultural activity are calculated as a percentage of the contribu tion calculation base.  
The calculation base for retirement and disability pension cont ributions for persons pursuing non-agricultural activities is th e income declared by these 
persons, but no lower than 60% of the average monthly wage fo r the previous quarter. The calcu lation base for sickness and acci dent social security 
contributions for persons pursuing a non-agricultural activity is the calculation base for retirement and disability pension co ntributions. The calculation base 
 
EN 91   EN for voluntary sickness insurance co ntributions may not exceed 250% of the average monthly wage in the previous quarter. This fi gure is determined on a 
monthly basis starting from the third month of the calendar quarter, for a three-month period, on the basis of the average wage  for the previous quarter. 
PT La cotisation des travailleurs indépendants est fonction de l’ application d’un taux contributif à une rémunération conventionne lle choisie par le bénéficiaire 
parmi 10 échelons préalablement définis. Le taux contributif est de 25,45% pour le régime obligatoire ou 32% pour le régime éla rgi. 
RO As regards unemployment insurance contributions, persons insured under an unemployment insurance contract are obliged to pay a monthly contribution at a 
rate determined according to their monthly income declared in the unemp loyment insurance contract. Th e declared monthly income may not be less than the 
minimum gross guaranteed national wage. 
As regards insurance contributions to the public pension scheme , there are special rules for sel f-employed workers. Under the r ules, contributions are borne 
entirely by the insured person and rates vary according to work ing conditions as follows: normal  working conditions — 29%; diff icult working conditions — 
34%; special working conditions — 39%. The calculation is based on declared monthly income. 
As regards insurance contributions to the health insurance scheme , the monthly contribution of an insured person is set at a ra te of 6.5%, which applies to the 
taxable income of a self-employed person paying income tax. If that income is the sole income upon which the contribution is ca lculated, the contribution 
may not be less than the minimum gross national monthly wage. The contribution is paid on a quarterly basis. 
SK The assessment basis for a self-employed worker subject to mandatory sickness insurance and pension insurance is half the propo rtional amount of the income 
tax basis for natural persons pursuing a business or other self-employed activity. The proportional amount of the tax basis is the amount corresponding to one 
calendar month of pursuing the business or other self-employed activity. Depending on the assessment of the start of mandatory sickness and pension 
insurance and the amount of the assessment basis, a self-employed worker is required to submit a tax return statement to the co mpetent office (according to 
the place of residence) by 30 June of the calendar year. 
 
 
EN 92   EN Question 2.4. Is the status of assisting sp ouses recognised at national level? How? 
MS Reply 
AT There is no special rule for assisting spouses. In other words, assisting spouses are covered by pension insurance only if they  meet the statutory criteria for 
such mandatory insurance, e.g. they are employees. However, the fact that there is no special ru le for assisting spouses also m eans that, if necessary, they can 
also claim all the benefits provided for in the applicable social security legislation. 
BE Les conjoints aidants bénéficient d’un statut propre depuis le 1er janvier 2003, date à laquelle une présomption légale a été i ntroduite en leur faveur. 
Désormais, est assujetti au statut social en qualité de conjoint  aidant l’époux ou l’épouse d’un travailleur indépendant qui n’ ouvre pas de droits propres à des 
prestations dans un régime obligatoire de pensiuon, d’allocations  familiales et d’assurance contre la maladie et l’invalidité, au moins égales à celles du statut 
social des travailleurs indépendants, notamment via une activité professionnelle propre. Cette mesure s’applique également à l’ aidant célibataire d’un 
travailleur indépendant lié à ce dernier par une déclaration de cohabitation légale. 
BU The social security system does not provide for participation by ‘assisting spouses’. It ought to be pointed out, however, that  uninsured mothers have the right 
to family benefits under the ZSPD Family Child Benefits Act ( Закон  за семейни  помощи  за деца ), including a one-off pregnancy benefit payment, a one-off 
childbirth benefit and monthly benefits for minding children up to the age of one. 
CY The employment of a spouse in a self-employed worker’s business, where he/she carries out the same or similar tasks, is recogni sed as insurable. 
DE The important role played by farmers’ wives in agricultural holdings is recognised under the farmers’ old-age protection scheme s, especially by the fact that 
they enjoy protection in their own right — this new protection was at the heart of the agrarian so cial reform of 1995. An assis ting spouse is insured in the 
same way as the farmer. 
With regard to unemployment insurance, ther e are no special rules for assisting spouses or other persons employed by a member o f their family beyond those 
that apply to all other employees. They require mandatory insurance under the same conditions as all other employees, and if th ey become redundant they 
may claim employment-promotion benefits. The deciding factor here is whether a genuine agreement underlies the work in question , and whether such work 
is actually done, or whether it is merely a case of a relativ e helping out the family. If the following criteria are fulfilled,  this would suggest than the job is 
subject to mandatory insurance: there is a written employment cont ract, the family member is integrated within the business in the same way as an employee 
from outside the family, he/she carries out work as agreed, the employer has the authority to give orders to the family member (even if in a milder form), the 
family member receives appropriate remuneration for the work done, the family member pays income tax, and the family member’s r emuneration is entered 
in the accounts as operating expenditure. 
EE The role of a non-working spouse in assisting a working spouse does not give the non-working partner any social entitlements. B y way of exception, in certain 
 
EN 93   EN cases the State pays social tax in the employer’s stead. For ex ample, the State pays social tax for the following persons: 
1) one parent or guardian resident in Estonia of a child under three years of age; 
2) one parent resident in Estonia with no employment who is bringing up three or more children under 19 years of age; 3) one parent or step-parent resident in Estonia with no empl oyment and not in receipt of a st ate pension having a child reside nt in Estonia of 3–16 years of 
age with a medium, serious or profound disability or of 16 –18 years of age with a serious or profound disability. 
In addition, all women are afforded protection in connection with  pregnancy and maternity, in that they become entitled to sick ness insurance from the 12th 
week of pregnancy. Sickness insurance cover is also afforded to an insured person’s dependent spouse who is five years or less from qualifying for a 
retirement pension, such a spouse being treated as an insured pers on although no social tax is paid in his or her respect. Assi sting spouses are likewise entitled 
to services and allowances/benefits that are not linked to contri butions or being in employment (e.g. family benefits, funeral allowance, social benefits for the 
disabled). 
EL Regarding insurance for assisting spouses in general under the OGA Fund, we would mention that both spouses are mandatorily ins ured provided they are 
engaged in work eligible to be insured by the OGA Fund. 
There is no provision for assisting spouses as such in the social security scheme for the self-employed. However, the scheme do es provide that assisting 
(unpaid) members of family businesses come under the social security scheme for salaried employees on condition that they engag e primarily in the same 
activity as the spouse and are not covere d by any other social security scheme. 
ES Le Statut du travailleur indépendant inclut dans son champ d’application les travailleurs familiaux qui exercent des activités de façon habituelle, sans avoir le 
statut de travailleurs salariés. Ainsi, il n’y a apas de reconnaissance explicite du statut de conjoint aidant, mais une reconn aissance implicite en les incluant 
dans le champ d’application du régime applicable aux travailleurs indépendants. 
FI There is no established or legally recognised status for assis ting spouses in the Finnish social  security scheme, which is base d on individual rights. A working 
person is therefore defined in the social security scheme either as an employee of a business or an entrepreneur.  
Whether a person is considered to be an entrepreneur or not depends on his or her own share of the business and that of his/her  family members. Control is 
considered to be on a par with ownership. An assisting spouse can work in the business without an employment contract or pay, a s can another (close) family 
member of the entrepreneur. There are some minimal differences between types of social insurance and types of company as to whe n a person is considered to 
be an entrepreneur.  
FR Le statut de conjoint aidant (conjoint collaborateur) existe depeuis 1982 pour les professuions commerciales, artisanales, indu strielles et libérales et depuis 
1999 pour le secteur agricole. 
 
EN 94   EN Depuis 2005 (2006 pour l’agriculture), le conjoint marié d’un tr availleur indépendant qui exerce de manière régulière et effect ive une activité dans l’entreprise 
familiale doit obligatoirement choisir entre trois statuts: conjoint salarié, conjoint associé ou conjoint collaborateur. 
IT No reply. 
LT If the assisting spouses of self-employed persons work without an employment contract, they may be covered by voluntary social insurance for pension 
entitlements and/or sickness or maternity benefits. In such cases , an assisting spouse is entitled to sickness and maternity be nefits and to incapacity and 
retirement pensions. 
The Law on Health Insurance of the Republic of Lithuania provides for mandatory health insurance for permanent residents of the  Republic of Lithuania 
irrespective of their marital status or gender. The term ‘assisting spouses’ is not defined by law and it is not used in respec t of mandatory health insurance. 
LU Le conjoint ou le partenaire déclaré d’un travailleur indépendant et, pour les activités agricoles, le parent ou allié en ligne  directe ou collatérale jusqu’au 
troisième degré inclusivement, est affilié obligatoirement pour vu qu’il soit âgé de 18 ans au moins et prête à l’assuré princip al des services nécessaires dans 
une mesure telle que ces services peuvent être considérés comme activité principale. Toutefois, le statut de conjoint ou parten aire aidant n’est pas reconnu 
dans le cadre d’une société. Dans ce cas, le conjoint est affili é en tant que travailleur salarié ou en tant que travailleur no n salarié à titre personnel. 
LV The assisting spouse of a self-employed worker may be employed by his or her spouse as an employee (on the basis of an employme nt contract) or may join 
the state social insurance scheme voluntarily. 
MT A person assisting a self-employed worker is recognised under the Social Security Act (Chap. 318), as both spouses have to be i nsured under the Act, as well 
as under the Equality for Men and Women Act in Malta’s legal syst em. Assisting spouses have the right to be covered under the s ame social security scheme. 
It is the assisting spouse who chooses whether to take up this right or not. The assisting spouse can insure her/himself as a w orker employed by the other 
spouse’s business or as a self-employed worker. 
NL Generally speaking, an assisting spouse is recognised in his or her own right, not as the (assisting) spouse of a self-employed  worker. 
However, special provision has been made for assisting spouses. This is the case, for example, in the new legislative proposal for maternity and childbirth 
benefit for self-employed workers, under which assisting spouses are also entitled to benefit in respect of pregnancy and the b irth of a child. 
PL The status of assisting spouses is recognised in national legislation. A spouse is deemed in particular to be assisting a perso n pursuing a non-agricultural 
business activity where both spouses share a common household and work together to run the business. This does not apply to per sons with whom an 
employment contract has been concluded for the purpose of professional training. 
In addition, provisions governing the insurance of a farmer and the benefits to which he/she is entitled also apply to the spou se, provided that spouse works on 
 
EN 95   EN an arable farm of that farmer or in a house hold connected directly with that arable farm. 
PT Le régime des travailleurs indépendants reconnaît le droit à la  protection des conjoints qui collaborent à l’exercice de l’acti vité indépendante de façon 
régulière et permanente. 
RO National legislation does not refer specifically to the status of assisting spouses.  
However, all Romanian citizens, citizens of other states or stat eless persons are permitted to join the public pension scheme o n a voluntary basis for the period 
during which they are lawfully domiciled or residing in Romania. Insured persons are obliged to pay social insurance contributi ons and have the right to 
receive social insurance benefits under the public pension scheme.  
Likewise, assisting spouses may enter the unemployment insurance scheme on a voluntary basis by concluding an unemployment insu rance contract.  
Therefore, assisting spouses are included indirectly within the scope of national legislation covering the public pension, unem ployment and health insurance 
schemes. 
SK Currently, the legislation governing social insurance does not cover ‘assisting spouses’. The commencement of statutory insuran ce and the payment of 
insurance contributions depend on the form of employment relationship between the spouses. In principle, there are three possib ilities: employee, self-
employed worker, and worker pursuing work on the basis of a work contract outside the employment relationship. 
Where assisting spouses perform work on the basis of a work contract, but also in other cases where there is no mandatory parti cipation in social insurance, 
they may take out voluntary sickness and pension insurance, provided they are 16 years of age or older with permanent residence  in the Slovak Republic, 
permission for temporary residence, or permission for permanent residence. 
 
 
EN 96   EN Question 2.5: Are assisting spouses covered by the same social protection scheme as se lf-employed workers? Is it mandatory or o ptional for 
assisting spouses? 
MS Reply 
AT Assisting spouses are covered by pension insurance only if they meet the statutory criteria for such mandatory insurance, e.g. they are employees. However, 
the fact that there is no special rule for assisting spouses also  means that, if necessary, they can also claim all the benefit s provided for in the applicable social 
security legislation. 
BE A partir du 1re janvier 2003, les conjoints aidants on été obligat oirement assujettis au mini-statut, c’est-à-dire, au régime d e l’assurance contre la maladie et 
l’invalidité, secteur des indemnités et l’assurance maternité. Ils peuvent choisir de s’assujettir au maxi-statut, qui couvre é galement les assurances pension, les 
soins de santé et les prestations familiales. 
A partir du 1er juillet 2005, l’assujettissement au statut social complet (maxi-statut) est devenu obligatoire pour l’ensemble des conjoints a idants, à l’exception 
des personnes nées avant 1956, qui restent uniquement assujetties au mini-statut, à moins qu’elles fassent la demande d’adhésio n au maxi-statut. 
BU Assisting spouses not covered. See 2.4. 
CY It is mandatory for assisting spouses to belong to the social security scheme, and they are in sured as self-employed workers. 
DE Under the old-age pension schemes for farmers, spouses are insured in the same way as the farmer; they are thus obliged to join  the same schemes. 
The assisting spouses of other self-employed persons have various options with regard to social protection. Those who have empl oyee status in their self-
employed spouse’s enterprise have mandatory insurance with a statutory pension scheme. Self-employed persons who employ their s pouses in ‘mini-jobs’ 
(not paid more than 400 euros a month) pay a lump sum to insure them with the statutory health, long-term care, pension and une mployment insurance 
schemes. This lump sum can be topped up by the employed person to match the compulsory contribution, so that he/she may claim t he full range of benefits 
on offer from a statutory pension scheme. 
With regard to statutory occupational accident  insurance, assisting spouses have the sa me insurance options at their disposal a s an entrepreneur. 
Where a person is an employee of his or her spouse’s company, he or she has compulsory unemployment insurance. 
An assisting spouse can maintain his or her insurance with an unemployment insurance scheme on a voluntary basis only if both s pouses are self-employed, 
i.e. if they work as self-employed persons for at least 15 hour s per week and fulfil all the other requirements laid down in se ction 28a of Title III of the Social 
Code. 
 
EN 97   EN The situation in the case of illness — where the assisting spouse does not work in the company on the basis of an employment re lationship requiring 
mandatory health insurance or (on the basis of a participatin g relationship) as a self-employed person — is as follows: 
Where self-employed persons have health and long-term care insu rance, their assisting spouses are not required to pay independe nt contributions, but are 
insured as family members of the insured person, provided such spouses do not have a total inco me that regularly exceeds a cert ain threshold (the figure for 
2007 was 350 euros a month). 
If the self-employed person does not have stat utory health insurance, or if the total income of his or her spouse exceeds the t hreshold, the spouse may 
voluntarily remain in a statutory health insurance scheme subject to the conditions listed under 2.1. to 2.3. If such spouses o pt to extend their insurance, they 
automatically have compulsory lo ng-term care social insurance. 
Any person with no sickness insurance cover may either obtain ma ndatory cover with a statutory health insurer, as introduced on  1 April 2007, or, as from 1 
July 2007, join a private health  insurance scheme under a modified standard tari ff. Such persons will then also have compulsory  long-term care insurance with 
their statutory or private insurance scheme. 
EE As regards contributory schemes, assisting spouses may voluntar ily join the sickness insurance sc heme for self-employed persons  and employees. As at 8 
January 2008, 236 persons are covered by such voluntary contract s. Assisting spouses are also covered by all non-contributory s chemes, since they extend to 
all persons resident in Estonia.  
EL As far as the self-employed are concerned, assisting spouses are not covered by the social security scheme except as family mem bers, and as such are entitled 
to health care and a pension in the event of the death of their spouse. 
ES Les conjoints aidants sont obligatoirement couverts par le régime spécial pour travailleurs indépendants et bénéficient de la m ême protection sociale. 
FI There is no established or legally recognis ed status for assisting spouses in the Finnish social protection scheme, which is ba sed on individual rights (see reply 
to question 2.4). 
FR Les conjoints aidants doivent choisir un de trois statuts possibles. Le statut de conjoint salarié est identique à celui de l’e nsemble des salariés, le statut de 
conjoint associé entraîne son affiliation à titre obligatoire au ré gime de sécurité sociale du travailleur indépendant. Enfin, le statut de conjoint collaborateur 
entraîne son affiliation — avec des adaptations — à titre obligatoire  au régime de sécurité sociale obligatoire du travailleur indépendant. 
IT No reply. 
LT Assisting spouses of self-employed workers are not covered by the same social protection scheme and are not obliged to join a s cheme. The options available 
to assisting spouses in this respect ar e presented in answer  to question 2.4. 
 
EN 98   EN LU Ils sont couverts par le même régime que les travailleurs indépenda nts, mais le conjoint ou partenaire aidant peut demander à ê tre dispensé de l’assurance 
obligatoire. Cette possibilité de dispense n’est pas applicable au co njoint ou au partenaire d’un assuré agricole ou d’un aidan t agricole. 
LV If no employment contract has been signed, the assisting spous e may join the state social insurance scheme voluntarily. 
MT Assisting spouses have the right to be covered under the same social security scheme. It is the assisting spouse who chooses wh ether to take up this right or 
not. The assisting spouse can insure her/himself as an employed worker with the other spouse’s business or as a self-employed w orker. It also has to be noted 
that although the assisting spouse always has certain rights to social benefits resulting from the other spouse’s payment of co ntributions, this will not be the 
first time that the spouse would be paying social security contributions, so he/she also has the right to social benefits resul ting from payment of corresponding 
contributions under the National Social Security scheme. 
NL Generally speaking, the entitlements of assisting spouses are dete rmined by their own income, not by the fact they are the (ass isting) spouse of a self-
employed person. 
Like self-employed workers, they are entitled in their own right to state child allowance, old-age pension, survivors’ pension and reimbursement of health 
costs (health insurance, special health costs), as set out in the reply to question 2.1. Like self-employed workers, they can o pt to continue their state disability 
insurance or to conclude an insu rance policy in th e private sector. 
Under the proposed rules for maternity and childbirth benefit, assisting spouses have the same entitlements as women who have a n independent income from 
self-employment. 
PL Assisting spouses are covered by the same social security system as persons pu rsuing a non-agricultural activity, who are subje ct to compulsory retirement 
and disability insurance and insurance agai nst accidents at work and occupational dis ease, and voluntary insurance in the case of sickness or motherhood. 
PT Le régime des travailleurs indépendants reconnaît le droit à la  protection des conjoints qui collaborent à l’exercice de l’acti vité indépendante de façon 
régulière et permanente. 
RO Assisting spouses are covered by the same social protection scheme as self-employed workers, namely the public pension scheme. The insurance scheme is 
optional and assisting spouses are granted the right to an old-age pension or invalidity pension as an individual right and the  right to a survivor’s pension as a 
derived right.  
Assisting spouses may enter the unemployment insurance scheme on a voluntary basis under the same conditions as self-employed w orkers, by concluding an 
unemployment insurance contract. 
Likewise, under the health insurance scheme, husbands, wives and parents without their own income who are financially dependent  on an insured person 
benefit from health insurance without having to pay contributions. 
 
EN 99   EN SK See reply to question 2.4. 
 
 
EN 100   EN Question 2.6: Which of the aspects mentione d in question 2.2 apply to assisting spouses? 
Areas 
MS Permanent 
disability Temporary or 
long-term disability /sickness Pension Unemployment Maternity leave Paternity leave Leave to care 
for dependants 
AT No No No No No No No 
BE Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No 
BU No No No No No No No 
CY Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No 
DE? Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes 
EE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 
EL No No No No No No No 
ES Yes Yes Yes No ? No No 
FI N/A N/A N/A N/ A N/A N/A N/A 
FR Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No 
IT ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 
LT Yes, optional Yes, optional Yes, optional No Yes, optional No No 
LU Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 
 
EN 101   EN LV Yes, optional Yes, optional Yes, optional No  Yes, optional Yes, optional Yes, optional 
MT Yes, optional Yes, optional Yes, optional No No No No 
NL No Yes Yes No No (extension 
proposed) No No 
PL Yes Yes Yes No No No No 
PT Optional Optional Optional No Optional Optional No 
RO Optional Optional Optional Optional Optional Optional Optional 
SK Optional Optional Optional Optional Optional Optional Optional 
 
 
EN 102   EN Question 2.7: How are the contributi ons of assisting spouses to the so cial security scheme calculated? 
MS Reply 
AT The contribution basis for farmers is first calculated for the agricultural/forestry holding. Wher e a person works in the agric ultural/forestry holding of his/her 
spouse, the contribution basis for each spouse is half of th e basis determined for the agricultural/forestry holding. 
BE En début d’activité, le conjoint aidant paie des cotisations tr imestrielles provisoires calculées sur la base d’un revenu repré sentant la moitié du revenu 
minimum sur base duquel l’indépendant cotise. 
Lorsque les revenus réellement perçus par le conjoint aidant se ront connus, les cotisations seront calculées de manière définit ive et feront l’objet d’une 
régularisation. 
BU Assisting spouses not covered. See 2.4. 
CY The contributions of assisting spouses to th e social security scheme are calculated in  the same way as for their self-employed spouses (see answer to 2.3.). 
DE The basis for calculating the contributions of those voluntarily joining a statutory health insurance and social long-term care  scheme is their total earnings 
capacity, the ceiling for 2007 being 3562.50 euros and the lower threshold 816.67 euros per month. Total earnings are multiplie d by the percentage rate 
charged for contributions by the health insurer in question and by 1.7 per cent (or 1.95 per cent for childless persons) for lo ng-term care insurance. The 
resulting minimum contribution is thus about 120 euros for statutory health insurance and 13.88 euros (15.92 euros for childles s persons) for social long-term 
care insurance. When assessing a person’s to tal earnings capacity, half the income of a spouse who has no statutory health insu rance is normally taken into 
account as well. If the spouse is considered  to be essentially self-employed, the in formation given above for the self-employed  applies. 
EE In general, no contributions are paid to the social security system for assisting spouses who are not in an employment relation ship or are not themselves 
separately registered as self-employed pe rsons. For persons voluntarily joining the sickness insurance scheme, monthly contribu tions amount to 13% of the 
national average wage. 
EL Where the self-employed are concerned, contributions for assisting spouses only cover healthcare for family members. 
ES Les règles applicables aux conjoints aidants sont les mêmes qu e celles décrites pour les travailleurs indépendants, notamment e n ce qui concerne la possibilité 
de choisir la base de cotisation.  
FI There is no established or legally recognis ed status for assisting spouses in the Finnish social protection scheme, which is ba sed on individual rights (see reply 
 
EN 103   EN to question 2.4). 
FR Selon les régimes et les professions, il y a des cotisations fo rfaitaires sans rapport avec le revenu professionnel ou des coti sations assises sur le revenu 
professionnel avec, dans ce dernier cas, soit un partage de l’assi ette de cotisation entre le travailleur indépendant et son co n joint collaborateur, soit une 
cotisation additive du conjoint à la cotisation ‘pleine’ du travailleur indépendant. 
IT No reply. 
LT Reply given concerns employees, not assisting spouses. 
LU Le revenu professionnel du travailleur indépendant est divisé, le cas échéant, par le nombre des assurés principaux et des aida nts affiliés. Toutefois, pour le 
conjoint ou le partenaire aidant de l’assuré principal, le re venu cotisable ne peut pas dépasser le double du salaire social mi nimum de référence; le surplus 
éventuel est mis en compte  à l’assuré principal. 
LV The social insurance contributions of the spouse of a self-emp loyed person are calculated by multiplying the base for voluntary  contributions by the rate 
defined for the spouse of a self-employed person. This rate is determined according to the forms of social insurance for which the spouse of the self-employed 
worker pays contributions (the rate of social insurance contributions and its breakdown by type of social insurance is determin ed each year by the Cabinet of 
Minsters). 
When making social insurance contributions, the spouse of a self-employed person must comply with the minimum and maximum bases  for social insurance 
contributions. 
MT The social security contribution is calcula ted according to the assisting spouse’s sala ry. The spouse often chooses to be consi dered as an employed worker, 
where his/her contribution is then equal to 10% of his/her basic pay (another 10% is paid by the employer); while if the spouse  chooses to be considered as a 
self-employed worker, the social security contribution would be equal to 15% of his/her net work income. 
NL The contributions towards the general state old-age and survivors’ pensions are income-dependent. 
The amount of the contribution for voluntary  continuation of state sick ness and disability insurance is based on the insured am ount, subject to a ceiling (the 
‘full daily wage’). 
PL Social security contributions for assistin g persons are calculated in the same way as  for those pursuing a non-agricultural act ivity, i.e. as a percentage of the 
contribution calculation base, similar to point 2.3. 
PT Comme pour les travailleurs indépendants, la  cotisation des conjoints aidants est fo nction de l’application d’un taux contribut if à une rémunération 
conventionnelle choisie par le bénéficiaire parmi 10 échelons préalablement définis. Le taux contributif est de 25,45% pour le régime obligatoire ou 32% pour 
 
EN 104   EN le régime élargi. L’échelon choisi ne peut pas être plus  élevé que celui choisi pour le travailleur indépendant. 
RO The special financing rules for self-employed workers can also apply to persons covered by voluntary arrangements, including as sisting spouses, under both 
the pension and unemployment insurance schemes. 
SK See reply to question 2.4. 
 
EN 105   EN Question 2.8: At national level, do you have any evidence that the level of social protection granted to self-employed workers and assisting 
spouses has an impact on the number of peop le engaging in entrepreneurial activities? 
MS Reply 
AT No such evidence. 
BE Une augmentation des assujettis a été constatée depuis l’année 200 3. Cependant, il ne semble pas que l’assujettissement obligat oire du conjoint aidant au 
cours de cette même année ait un lien de cause à effet avec cette croissance. 
BU No information. 
CY At national level, there are no data on to the extent to which the level of protection has an impact on the number of people en gaging in entrepreneurial 
activities. 
DE No information. 
EE There are no data for assessing the impact of the level of social secu rity afforded to self-employed persons and their assistin g spouses on the number of 
persons engaging in entrepreneurial activity. 
EL No reply. 
FI There are no studies in Finland that provide direct evidence of the impact of social protection on the extent of entrepreneuria l activities in our country. As 
already indicated, social protection for entrepreneurs in Finland largely corresponds to that fo r employees, and no especially significant problems have arisen.  
Entrepreneurial activity in Finland is, however, relatively limited  in European terms. This is the consequence of various econo mic and social factors that have 
influenced the country’s unique history and social development.  One of the key objectives of the April 2007 Matti Vanhanen II g overnment programme is to 
promote entrepreneurship. The Government has also launched a special work, enterprise and working-life policy programme, under which the development of 
social protection is being considered as an instrument to promote entrepreneurship in Finland. 
FR Même si l’incitation à la création d’entreprises dépend avant tout de déterminants d’ordre économique, le rapprochement du nive au de protection sociale du 
travailleur indépendant vers celui du travailleur  salarié participe aussi à cet encouragement. 
IT No reply. 
 
EN 106   EN LT No information.  
LU No information. 
LV No information. 
MT No information. 
NL There is no evidence that the level of social protection for self-employed workers and their assisting spouses has any signific ant impact on the decision to 
engage in entrepreneurial activities. Generally speaking, peopl e make a conscious decision to opt for entrepreneurial activitie s and the associated risks. The 
desire to ‘be one’s own boss’ is the most important motivating factor. It gives workers the possibility of working and dividing  up their time as they see fit. 
Self-employed workers also benefit from a more generous tax regi me. In specific situations or in dividual circumstances, the lev el of social protection can be a 
reason for not opting for entrepreneurial activities. 
PL No such information. 
PT Le Portugal constate une augmentation du nombre de conjoints aidants couverts par le régime de sécurité sociale, ce qui démontr e l’intérêt suscité par cette 
possibilité lorsqu’elle a été introduite, mais n’a pas d’éléments po ur déterminer l’impact éventuel en termes de création d’ent reprises. 
RO Studies have shown that there is currently a low level of cover fo r self-employed workers. In the past five years, the number o f self-employed workers with 
cover was approximately 100 000, including farmers, out of a total number of approximately 2 million eligible persons. For this  reason, the Ministry of 
Employment, the Family and Equal Opportunities is seeking to incr ease the number of self-employed workers who register for cove r, and regards this process 
as crucial for the long-term sustainability of the public pension scheme.  
Failure in this area could lead to the development of a two-tier system, in which those who have insured themselves during a pe riod of professional activity 
obtain adequate pensions upon retirement, whereas a large propor tion of the elderly will depend on social assistance, resulting  in the need for unanticipated 
transfers of income for the elderly in the future.  
SK One of the forms of social protection for self-employed workers is provided by Act No 5/2004 on employment services and amendme nts to some acts, as 
amended (the ‘employment services act’). The employment services act offers jobseekers registered in the jo bseeker records of a  labour, social affairs and 
family office the possibility of taking up active labour market measures, through which jobseekers can improve their chances of  finding a job. 
One such measure is a contribution to self-employed activity. This is one of the forms of support for unemployed citizens — job seekers registered in the 
jobseeker records, via which support for the creation of new jobs through self-employment is monitored. 
The contribution to self-employed activity is one of the most used active labour market measures. In the first half of 2007 509 8 jobs in self-employment were 
 
EN 107   EN created by this measure, whereby women took up 38 .3% of the jobs created. 
 
EN 108   EN Question 3: The options for improvement at EU level 
MS Reply 
AT Self-employed workers in Austria enjoy excellent protection under the social security system. Th ese benefits are greatly apprec iated by the insured parties, 
and the associations representing their interests have no major desire for change. 
One of the main reasons for this is the following: social security for self-employed persons in Austria is organised in such a way that the benefits are to a 
large extent self-financed by their contribut ions — in contrast to employees, approxim ately half of whose contributions are pai d by their employers. For 
this reason, it has been left to the associations representing the interests of the self-employed to determine the development of their social system with 
regard to the type and extent of the benefits and the assessment of contributions, which they have done taking into account the  limited resources available 
for supplementary payments from the State. For this reason, there are no realistic propo sals for change that have not already b een implemented. 
BE Pas d’inconvénient majeur au maintien du status quo .  
Le nouveau statut du conjoint aidant en Belgique n’aurait pas eu de véritable influence sur les petites entreprises ni sur la c réation de nouvelles entreprises. 
Une étude effectuée en vue d’octroyer des titres services aux femmes travailleurs indépendants afin que celles-ci puissent se f aire remplacer en cas de 
congé de maternité a démontré que, d’un point de vue budgétaire, ce choix serait sans conséquence préjudiciable pour le régime de la sécurité sociale. 
L’avantage serait la possibilité de poursuite de l’activité. 
6.11 
BU The legal framework could be improved. Possible changes could address specific provisions that would have the greatest effect i n implementing 
commitments to boost entrepreneurship as part of the Lisbon Strategy.  
Since spouses contribute to family businesses, there appears to be  definite benefits to their being included in the social secu rity system, yet this ought to be 
considered carefully. 
CY In the event that the legal framework at EU level is maintained  in its current form, in our view social protection for assistin g spouses will remain limited 
despite the fact that they work in the business just like their partners. However, if the scope of social protection is extende d to countries that do not have 
equal treatment, this will certainly play a part in increasing costs for small businesses.  
In addition, as assisting spouses do not have their own social insurance, they will not be sufficiently protected in the event of divorce or the death of the 
self-employed spouse, as they themselves will not be insured and their rights will derive from the insurance of their spouse.  
 
EN 109   EN It is feasible and necessary to pay maternity allowance while self-employed women are on maternity leave, just as in the case o f employed women, 
although some difficulties arise in checking whether the self-emp loyed woman is actually absent from her work during maternity leave.  
The social security services support the vi ew that the contribution of assisting spouses to the family business should be recog nised and they should be 
guaranteed the same level of social protection as self-employe d workers, including maternity leave and maternity allowance. 
DE Germany considers the national social protection system to be adequate where unemployment insurance is concerned. It sees no po ssibility for improving 
the social protection of farmers at EU level since competence lies with the Member States. 
Germany notes that if maternity leave were to be provided for self-employed mothers, some difficulties would arise: provision o f benefit for loss of 
earnings, insofar as this is not included in parental benefit (period of protection prior to confinement), finding sufficiently  skilled substitutes for the 
transition period, financing such substitutes. 
EE We consider the statutory arrangements currently in place on these matters at EU level to be adequate. We do not see any need t o supplement or extend the 
regulations at EU level, since we take the view that social-s ecurity schemes must take accoun t of each country’s specific diffe rences. 
EL Greece considers that implementin g the proposals concerning maternity leave unde r labour law is not feasible. The same applies to paternity leave. 
ES No reply. 
FI No specific grounds are seen in Finland for chan ging the current legal framework at EU level.  
Likewise, the national legislation in force in Finland is appropriate in the current situation. Depending on the circumstances,  the level of protection for 
assisting spouses corresponds either to the level of social protection of the entrepreneur him/herself or that of employees, wh ich are broadly the same in 
Finland, as described above. Issues connected with the social protection of assisting spouses have not proved problematic; they  have not had an impact on 
the operating conditions of small businesses or on the creation of new businesses in Finland. 
FR D’une manière générale, les autorités françaises seraient ouverte s à une initiative destinée à améliorer la directive 86/613/CE E. L’impact économique d’une 
telle initiative, qui s’intègre dans le processus de révision des directives concernant l’égalité de traitement, devra être ana lysé. 
IT No reply. 
LT By maintaining the current legal framework at EU level it would be possible to maintain the situation in respect of the establi shment, operation and winding 
up of the activities of self-employed workers.  
Maintaining the existing level of social protection for assisting spouses would have no essential impact on small businesses or  the creation of new 
 
EN 110   EN businesses. 
LU Pas d’inconvénient constaté au maintien du ‘status quo’. Les options  envisagées n’auraient, en général, pas d’impact sur la sit uation au Luxembourg. 
LV In favour of providing, at EU level, for a period of maternity leave and a replacement income for self-emplo yed women. Also in favour of giving, at EU 
level, assisting spouses an opportunity to enjoy social protection and extend their protection in the case of maternity. 
MT Maintaining the status quo would present advantages and disadvantages. Under the current system, the assisting spouse has the r ight to choose whether or 
not to pay social security contributions in order to be covered under the social security scheme . The fact that Malta’s social security scheme (in line with the 
Directive) leaves the choice to join the in surance scheme up to the assisting spouse (where he/she is participating in the busi ness) offers some flexibility to 
both spouses in the management of the business. Among other things, this flexibility results in less expenses for the business and more profit, from which 
both spouses will benefit, or, where the assi sting spouse chooses to enter the social security scheme, the benefit of being cov ered for one of the 
contingencies mentioned in question 2.2. 
On the other hand, if assisting spouses choose not to insure themse lves, this means that they woul d have no social security rig hts apart from those deriving 
from the spouse’s insurance, which primarily covers the payment of the widows’ pension. Assisting spouses often choose not to i nsure themselves in order 
not to increase the business’s expenses. 
This means that assisting spouses would remain financially dependent on the business’s owner. Moreover, in the event of bankrup tcy, death, separation or 
abandonment by their husband/wife, they can have no right to that  business and are therefore at ri sk of social exclusion, pover ty and dependence on other 
systems of optional benefits. 
NL The Netherlands believes that the current Dir ective works well, partly because it is worded in a manner that allows the Member States to take account of 
national conditions and provide the type of social protection best  suited to the particular circumstances of the self-employed.  
PL Potential amendments to the law intended to support a pro-family policy should concentrate on making such solutions more popula r, which would enable 
persons bringing up children to reconcile family life and career  obligations. Proposals for the reconciliation of career and fa mily obligations should 
contemplate solutions such as equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women on the labour market, flexibility of the  labour market, and the 
demographic regeneration of Europe. 
RO Directive 86/613/EEC aims to ensure equal treatment between women and men for self-employed workers and for assisting spouses. The Ministry of 
Employment, the Family and Equal Opportunities considers that the Directive should continue to focus on concrete problems that could endanger this aim 
in the implementation process. This argument points to the disadvantage of leaving the current legal framework unchanged. 
SK In its Programme Declaration, the Slovak Government undertook to  support gender equality. One of the tasks in developing the Pr ogramme Declaration for 
the MoL SR is also to focus attention on reducing the long-term unemployment of women and, above all, increasing the level of e mployment of older 
 
EN 111   EN women through support for female entrepreneurship and self-employment in line with the Lisbon Strategy.  
The MoL SR supports the endeavour to improve the application of the principle of equal treatment by amending Council Directive 86/613/EEC of 11 
December 1986 on the application of the pr inciple of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity, including ag riculture, in a self-
employed capacity, and on the protection of self-employed women during pregnancy and motherhood. 
 
EN 112   EN Annex II: Consultation of th e European social partners  
1. The seminar  
The Commission departments held a seminar on 7 Ma rch 2008 with European social partners on the 
review of Directive 86/613/EEC. 
The following organisations were present: EFFAT (European Federation of Food, Agriculture and 
Tourism), COPA/COGECA (Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations), CEC 
(Confédération européenne des cadres), EUROCHAM BRES (Association of European Chambers of 
Commerce and Industry), EUROCOMMERCE (Retail, Wholesale and International Trade Sectors in Europe), UEAPME (European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises), CESI (European Confederation of Independent Trade Un ions), HOTREC (Hotels, Restaurants, Cafés and 
Similar Establishments in Europe), ETUC  (European Trade Union Confederation). 
During the seminar, the European social partners gave their views on the possible direction of an 
initiative concerning Directive 86/613/EEC. The views of  the social partners can be summarised as 
follows: 
UEAPME stressed the lack of knowledge about women entrepreneurship and assisting spouses. 
Because of the absence of statistics on both groups, it was difficult to say whether a review of the 
Directive would be beneficial or not. UEAPME unde rlined that the Directive currently covers two 
very different types of persons (the self-employed and assisting spouses), with totally different legal 
situations and needs. 
COPA/COGEPA views positively an initiative to review the Directive, since every woman should get 
a set of minimum rights to social protection. Nevertheless, it also underlined the lack of information 
preventing a clear overview of the situation, notably in terms of costs. 
EFFAT congratulated the Commission on the initiative to revise Directive 86/613/EEC. According to 
this trade union, women in agriculture and other sectors were frequently left without any social 
protection in cases of divorce, for instance. EFFAT al so recognises the lack of reliable statistics and 
contests the accuracy of certain statistics on women in the agricultural sector. 
HOTREC started by saying that family businesses w ith assisting spouses were very common in its 
sector. Although HOTREC had no time to consult its members, it mentioned that as the legislation 
dates back to ’86 and there have since been impor tant changes in society, there could be a case for 
reviewing the Directive. HOTREC underlined that le gislation alone would not bring about change and 
bridge the gender gap in terms of entrepreneurship. 
EUROCHAMBRES, like other organisations, had no tim e to consult their members and therefore had 
only received replies from two national associati ons (from DE and UK). Both seem very sceptical 
about the need to modify the Directive and to ‘extend employees’ rights to the self-employed’. In both cases, national legislation has gone beyond what is required by the Directive and both regard the 
extension of employees’ rights as problematic for small companies. 
CEC explained that the organisation represents employed executives and managerial staff but is 
interested in this issue, since so me of their members have been or will be engaged in self-employed 
activities. 
CESI sent a written contribution on the issue before the seminar. It underlines that the main objective 
of the review should be to give the self-employed and assisting spouses social protection in their own 
name. The costs of such a move could be offset by tax benefits. CESI also mentions that, in order to bridge the gender gap in terms of  entrepreneurship, the revised Di rective should provide for positive 
action, notably on access to finance. 
 
EN 113   EN ETUC is in favour of a review of the Directive, but  stressed that it needs more time to collect the 
views of their members. 
Following the seminar, UEAPME and HOTREC sent written contributions to the Commission. 
UEAPME recognises the importance of equal treat ment between men and women and that this 
particular Directive appears to concern women to a very great extent. Evidently, female 
entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged particular ly in view of the gender gap in entrepreneurial 
activities. With women currently representing 60% of graduates in Europe, UEAPME agrees that this untapped source of entrepreneurship needs to be better utilised.  
UEAPME warns against the risk of trying to a pply the same rights to employees and to the self-
employed. It regrets the absence of reliable statistic s, especially on the situation in the new Member 
States, and believes that further regulation at EU le vel is questionable, as the Directive covers a wide 
range of laws including marital law, company law, tax and fiscal law, as well as different social 
protection and social security systems, which very often fall under the exclusive competence of the Member States. According to UEAPME, it is difficult to evaluate the exact correlation between social 
security benefits and starting up businesses as the s ituation varies among Member States. There clearly 
needs to be a balance to allow for business creation a nd flexibility and in particular not to create overly 
heavy burdens on new businesses, which by definition are micro-companies. 
On assisting spouses, UEAPME completely supports the idea of full recognition of their contribution 
to the family business. This acknowledges in partic ular their often greater responsibility and higher 
economic contribution to the family business compared  to ‘normal’ employees. However, this does not 
necessarily call for the same level of social protection as for the self-employed. 
UEAPME calls for an in-depth impact assessment before any deci sion is taken which will have a 
financial impact on micro-businesses and the self-employed.  
Nevertheless, it considers that there is no need to  review the Directive. Member States should be 
called upon to ensure better implementation of the current Directive and to create more supportive 
conditions. For its part, the Commission should cont ribute to better information and awareness-raising 
through specific campaigns.  
HOTREC is of the opinion that many of the challenges faced by the self-employed and assisting 
spouses are practical, not legislative in nature. Theref ore, a revision of this Di rective will not help to 
solve them. Moreover, according to HOTREC, becau se the issues are linked to national social 
protection systems, they should be dealt with at Member State level, respecting the principle of 
subsidiarity. Thus, HOTREC considers that th ere is no need to revise the Directive. 
In conclusion, some organisations voiced their doubt s on the need to review the Directive and on the 
suitability of using it to reduce the gender gap in entr epreneurship. Most of the consulted organisations 
stressed the lack of information on the current stat e of play and the short pe riod for proper consultation 
of their members. The need to strike the right  balance between improved protection and costs was 
mentioned frequently as the challenge for this initiative. 
2. Written consultation  
On 30 April 2008, DG EMPL sent a letter to the Europ ean social partners asking their views on the 
envisaged content of a proposal to update Directive 86/613/EEC.  
DG EMPL asked social partners the following questions: (i) Do you consider that there is a need for further action concerning Directive 86/613/EEC? If 
you consider action to be necessary, should such  action be undertaken at Community level? 
 
EN 114   EN (ii) What are the main areas in which improvement s could be needed, taking into consideration in 
particular: 1) improving protection in the case of maternity for both self-employed women and 
assisting spouses; 2) extending social protection to  assisting spouses; 3) recognising the work of 
assisting spouses; 4) providing leave to care for family members?  
(iii) How can the best balance be struck between  the costs and benefits of measures aimed at 
improving the application of the principle of equal treatment between women and men to self-
employed workers and assisting spouses? In particul ar, do you consider that increased protection of 
self-employed women and assisting spouses would impact  negatively on the contributions paid by the 
self-employed to social security schemes and th erefore on the viability of family businesses? 
The following organisations re plied to the consultation: 
– CESI (European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions) 
– UEAPME (European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) 
– COPA (Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations in the EU) 
Their views can be summarised as follows. CESI On question (i) 
CESI is in favour of a review of Directive 86/613/EE C. In order to obtain the same level of protection 
for the self-employed and assisting spouses, common , EU-wide goals and measures are required. At 
the same time, when integrating these goals and measur es within the recast Directive, we must not lose 
sight of the fact that the Directive can be success fully implemented within the national social systems 
of each of the Member States only if the latter are given sufficient room for manoeuvre in the way they put the Directive into practice.  
On question (ii) 
CESI feels action is needed to improve protection in the early stages of parenthood. A key problem 
here is the fact that the labour provided by the s pouse who helps his/her partner must be replaced for a 
certain period. Here, the extra fina ncial burden of hiring a relief work er must not fall on the parents. 
Especially when one considers that self-employe d people and assisting spouses often receive no or few 
state benefits to compensate for their lack of income , this added financial burde n ought to be funded as 
an independent benefit by the social security system s. Redressing the financial balance in this fashion 
would lead to both revaluation and greater recognition of the work done by people who work 
alongside their spouses. Any problems in translating the work done by the workers in question into 
financial amounts could be eliminated by providing flat-rate sums on the basis of the qualifications 
needed to do the job and the scale of the work. Thought might al so be given to carrying out a needs 
analysis based on self-evaluation.  
CESI takes the view that independent social security  for spouses working with their partners must be 
all-encompassing and include all areas, particularly  health care, care insurance, old-age cover and 
unemployment. CESI sees a clear need for action here in recasting Directive 86/613/EEC and stresses 
that independent social security for all family me mbers is necessary for each individual to flourish, 
and, as such, is a crucial component of human dignity. In order for these demands to be met at Member State level, however, the diversity of the Member States’ social systems must be sufficiently acknowledged in the new Directive.  
 
EN 115   EN CESI feels that the primary motivation for recasting Directive 86/613/EEC lies in the desire to 
recognise the work done by spouses working with thei r partners. Independent social protection is the 
first step towards valuing and recognising the work  performed by spouses working with their partners 
and, at the same time, provides th e basis for society to recognise this work as proper and equal work. 
A further step along this road might involve thi nking about including access to training and further 
training for assisting spouses in legislation to the same extent as for dependent employees.  
CESI would like to stress that demographic change is also making the matter of care for family 
members an increasingly pressing issue. Action must be  taken on this issue in reworking Directive 
86/613/EEC. As with the issue of parents, the probl em here lies in bringing in support staff and the 
financial burden that this entails. In addition to th e comments under (ii)(1), it should be stressed that it 
is harder to anticipate and thus provide for situa tions prompted by an ill relative suddenly being in 
need of care. This sudden and, at times, short-term  need for help can therefore only be met by equally 
speedy support to redress the added financial pressures.  In smaller family businesses in particular, the 
funds are often not available in advance. This is why CESI considers it necessary for the Directive to 
provide for immediate, short-term financial support where needed. 
On question (iii) 
Although a high level of social security cannot be realised without spending extra money, social 
security nevertheless embodies a social value that exceeds its monetary value. Especially where the 
equal treatment of the self-employed and assisting spouses are concerned, added financial pressures 
must not be used to explain away persistent discrimination. To this extent, the present practice under 
Directive 86/613/EEC of making voluntary contributi ons to social security systems has not been a 
success.  
Therefore, CESI feels that the Commission should focus on reflecting on how a balance can be struck 
between the burden borne by the worker and that bo rne by the state security systems. Here, CESI 
stresses that, by providing independent social pr otection for the self-employed and assisting spouses, 
the burden on the state social security systems as  a whole would be spread equally. Such a measure 
would also do away with state transfers that mi ght be needed when the person in question has 
insufficient cover. With the money saved, we might  then ease the demands on individual companies 
where required. At the same time, the way these  kinds of measures to redress the balance are 
implemented should initially be decided at the level of the Member States, in order to guarantee 
optimum implementation taking into account the di fferences between the various national social 
security systems.  
Above and beyond the questions posed by the Commission, CESI would like to point out once again 
that social security can only be a first, albeit important, step in promoting the cause of women on the 
path towards self-employment and setting up companies. 
Additional measures addressing, among other things, the problem of bogus self-employment and the 
establishment of a supportive loans system speci fically geared towards women founding their own 
business are also called for if we want to achieve the goal of equal opportunities. At the same time, a 
support programme should accompany the implementa tion of a new Directive 86/613/EEC, both to 
establish the database called for by all who particip ated in the seminar and to raise awareness and 
inform the women and business owners concerned. 
UEAPME On question (i) 
There are clearly insufficient quantitative a nd qualitative data to discuss effectively the 
implementation of the Directive and make recomme ndations for both groups of persons covering all 
 
EN 116   EN 27 EU Member States. The last report of the Eur opean Commission on the 1986 directive was in 1994 
and only gives data on 12 Member States. 
Overall, however, there appears to  be scope for improvement at national level to support the self-
employed and assisting spouses in entrepreneursh ip, which could easily be undertaken without 
revision of the Directive. The current legal framework  in place does not need to be modified in order 
to bring about changes at national level fo r both the self-employed and assisting spouses. 
Moreover, the Directive mainly deals with subjects that fall within the exclusive competence of the 
Member States, such as marital law, company law, tax and fiscal law, as well as different social protection and social security systems. In all these areas, the principle of subsidiarity must be 
respected. 
On question (ii) 
For the self-employed, UEAPME cannot support any provision for compulsory leave as this very 
much interferes with entreprene urial choice and independence. 
In the case of maternity leave some countries provide assistance in the form of a temporary 
replacement worker, others do not, but the decision lies once again with the Member States. There 
clearly are practical problems for self-employed women: e.g. in Finland, self-employed women already have a right to maternity leave, but cannot afford to take it in full because of the problems 
caused by being absent from the business. In this pa rticular case, formal revision of the Directive 
would not help. 
UEAPME takes note of the EIM study on business creation, which suggests a positive influence of 
social security on ‘opportunity-based entr epreneurship’ when th e differences between 
entrepreneurship and alternative types of employment  are very small in terms of their social security 
position. In the case of women, it can be assumed th at the existence or absence of protection in the 
event of maternity, for example, would be a factor to consider. This is an aspect that would need to be 
discussed at Member State level, taking national specificities into account. 
Regarding assisting spouses, this group of persons has in some Member States better maternity 
protection than the self-employed. Again, this is an  issue that needs to be decided nationally taking 
into account the wide range of laws affected. 
In other Member States, assisting spouses also have better social protection in general than the self-
employed. Again, this is an issu e that needs to be decided nationally considering the wide range of 
laws affected. Minimum social security coverage should be provided. 
UEAPME completely supports the idea of full recognition for the contribution of assisting spouses to 
the family business. This acknowledges in partic ular their often greater responsibility and higher 
economic contribution to the family business compared to ‘normal’ employees. 
Provision of leave to care for family members 
For the self-employed again, the principle of entrepreneurial independence takes precedence. 
Regarding assisting spouses, this has to be seen w ithin the context of already existing leave provision 
and supportive measures in individual Member States. 
Once again, however, UEAPME would like to stress that all these topics — which are important topics 
—should be tackled at national level without the n eed to revise the current Directive as it stands. 
On question (iii) 
 
EN 117   EN Again this needs to be seen in the context of th e Member States, depending on their respective national 
security systems. 
The role of the European Commis sion in this specific case should be  to identify best practices and 
solutions and to organise exchanges be tween Member States on this subject. 
As aptly put in the second consultation paper, the Eu ropean Commission’s task should be to ‘assist the 
national and regional authorities within the current framework of the Directive to address those areas 
where the needs of female entrepre neurs are still insufficiently met’. 
Additional comments 
Any new possible measures at EU level should no t be detrimental to ec onomic growth and job 
creation. More widely beneficial conditions fo r business creation should be put in place and any 
remaining obstacles should be removed. 
UEAPME would like to call on Member States to ensure better implementation of the current 
Directive and to create more supportive conditions. 
COPA  
Given that Directive 86/613 dates back to 1986, CO PA understands the need to update it. Before any 
changes or adaptations to the Directive are proposed , COPA would like a prior examination of how the 
Directive is applied in practice in the EU countries. 
The review proposed should prioritise evidence-gath ering. The review should also identify whether 
shortcomings are found at Member State or pan- EU level. COPA supports  equal rights for equal 
commitment for all partners in farm businesses. 
 
EN 118   EN Annex III: Consultation of other stakeholders  
The Commission departments drew up, with the assi stance of the members of the Steering Group, a 
list of other stakeholders to consult on the review of the Directive.  
A letter was sent by DG EMPL on 11 March 2008 to the following organisations: 
• Conseil européen des Jeunes Agriculteurs 
• Coordination Paysane Européenne 
• Confédération des organisations fa miliales de l’Union européenne 
• European Women’s Lobby 
• Platform of European Social NGOs 
• Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales 
• European Union Women Innovators and Inventors 
• The European Network for Promoting Women 
In order to facilitate processi ng of the replies, a questionnaire  was attached to the letter.  
The organisations were asked questions about the following: 
• the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining unchanged the current legal framework at EU 
level (essentially Directive 86/613/EEC); 
• the impact on small businesses and on the creation of new businesses of maintaining the existing 
level of social protection for assisting spouses; 
• the impact of the current situation on assisting spouses,  notably in the event of divorce, death of the 
self-employed worker or bankruptcy; 
• the feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of  providing self-employed women a period of 
maternity leave (including at least  two weeks of compulsory leave); 
• the feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of ensu ring a payment or allowance equivalent to the 
allowance received in th e event of sick leave; 
• the feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of ensuri ng, as an alternative to payment, a temporary 
replacement for self-employed women; 
• the feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of reco gnising the contribution of assisting spouses to 
the family business and ensuring them the same level of social protection as the self employed; 
• the feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of extending option 3.2 above to assisting spouses; 
• feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of ensuri ng leave entitlement in certain circumstances 
(need to care for sick or handicapped children, for example), with remuneration or a replacement as 
in option 3.2; 
 
EN 119   EN • feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of ensu ring paternity leave for male self-employed 
workers. 
The deadline for contributions to this consultation was 30 April 2008. 
EWL entirely supports the opinion issued by th e Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities 
for Women and Men.  
COFACE strongly advocates revision of Dir ective 86/613/EEC, along the lines detailed 
below: 
• Improvement of protection in the event of maternity 
COFACE insists on the need to extend maternity leave to self-employed mothers at EU level. The 
duration of compulsory maternity leave as specified  in Directive 92/85/EEC has as its prime objective 
the protection of the health of the mother and th e child. Self-employed mothers must benefit from the 
same health protection as other workers. They shou ld be entitled to maternity leave long enough to 
ensure the proper course of a normal pregnancy and physical recovery of the mother after a normal 
childbirth. Beyond the period of leave aiming to prot ect the health of the mother and the child, self-
employed mothers should also be entitled to a period of post-natal settling-in leave as part of the 
measures to reconcile family life and working life.  Maternity leave should be covered by social 
protection. During maternity leave, self-employed mo thers should be able to benefit from maternity 
benefits at least equivalent to the allowance receiv ed in the case of sick leav e. The absence of such 
benefits would act as a real disincentive for self-emp loyed women to stop working, to the detriment of 
their own and their child’s health. Entitlement to  maternity leave for self-employed women also 
implies the organisation of temporary replacement services. These services should be tailored to the 
diversity of activities exercised by self-employed pers ons. They should be complementary to maternity 
benefits. Furthermore, during the settling-in peri od, self-employed workers and assisting spouses must 
have the choice between taking the leave and returning to work. This means that they must be able to 
find suitable replacement services for child care. 
• Recognising the contribution of assisting spouses 
Assisting spouses still suffer from a lack of legal status in many Member States, which leads to 
specific financial and legal problems, for exam ple in the case of family breakdowns. COFACE 
therefore urges the Commission to propose amendm ents of Directive 86/613/EEC to oblige Member 
States to recognise the contribution of assisting spou ses to the family business a nd to ensure that they 
benefit from the same level of social protection as the self-employed. Regarding protection in the 
event of maternity, assisting spouses should be entitled to maternity leave, with a right to maternity 
benefit and access to temporary replacement services. 
• 4) Providing leave to care for family members and paternity leave 
Measures enabling reconciliation of family life and work life, including leave entitlements, are key to 
encouraging better integration of women in economic activities and s upporting families in their desire 
to have children. This holds true for all work ers, whether employed, self-employed or assisting 
spouses. Moreover, the specific characteristics of self-employment often impose more constraints on 
the work-life balance. Therefore, any EU legi slation providing for reconciliation measures should 
apply to all workers, while taking into account the specific needs of self-employed workers and 
assisting spouses. The current parental leave schemes  should be made accessible to these categories of 
workers. Should a right to paternity leave, adop tion leave and leave to care for family members be 
provided at EU level, as supported by COFACE , these schemes should be made available to all 
workers. Leave entitlements should be accompanied by a right to financial compensation. The level of 
compensation should be high enough to enable worker s to make use of these leave arrangements. Self-
 
EN 120   EN employed workers and assisting spouses on leave must also be able to make use of temporary 
replacement services. These services should be tailore d to the diversity of activities exercised by self-
employed persons. In addition, self-employed work ers and assisting spouses must have the choice 
between taking the leave and staying at work. This means that they must be able to find suitable 
replacement services for child and dependent person care, which corr espond to their particular area of 
activity and their working patterns. 
 
EN 121   EN Annex IV: Consultation of the Advisory Co mmittee on Equal Opportunities for Women 
and Men  
The Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men was created in 1981 by 
Commission Decision36, as amended. The Advisory Committee assists the Commission in formulating 
and implementing the Community’s activities aiming  to promote equal opportunities for women and 
men and fosters ongoing exchanges of experiences be tween Member States and the various parties 
involved. It comprises representatives of Member  States, European social partners and NGOs. 
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN AND MEN 
Opinion37 on the revision of Directive 86/613/EEC on the application of the principle of equal 
treatment between men and women engaged in an activity, including agriculture, in a self-
employed capacity, and on the protection of  self-employed women during pregnancy and 
motherhood38. 
Background 
A Working Group was set up following the decision of the Advisory Committee at its meeting of 16 
November 2007 to prepare an opinion on Directive 86/613/EEC. In particular, the working group was asked to consider the following issues: 
• How to improve the provisions on the protectio n of maternity (for the self-employed and 
assisting spouses) 
• How to recognise the work of assisting spouses 
• How to provide leave to care for fa mily members and paternity leave 
• Any other options for improvement. 
This Directive was adopted in 1986 and covered 12 EU  Member States. Since then, the EU has more 
than doubled and the Directive has never been revised. The implementation report produced by the 
Commission in 199439 highlighted a number of issues that  the Advisory Committee believes are 
equally relevant today. The main point  stressed at the time relates to the failure of the Directive, due to 
the lack of any obligation on the Member States, to ensure action to clarify the professional status and 
subsequent social security entitlements of assisting spouses.  
Transposition of the Directive into national law did not require amended legislation due to the absence 
of obligations on the Member States. Therefore, wome n, particularly those engaged in an ‘assisting’ 
role in economic activities alongside their male partne r (husband or otherwise) , continue to remain 
                                                 
36 Commission Decision 82/43/EEC of  9 December 1981 relating to the setting up of an Advisory 
Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, OJ L 20, 28.1.1982. 
37 The opinion of the Advisory Committee does not nece ssarily reflect the positions of the Member States 
and does not bind the Member States. 
38 OJ L 359, 19.12.1986. 
39 Commission of the European Communities, report from the Commission on the implementation of the 
Council Directive of 11 D ecember 1986 on the appli cation of the principle of  equal treatment between 
women and men engaged in an activity, including agriculture, in a self-employed capacity and on the 
protection of self-employed women during pregnancy and motherhood (86/613/EEC), COM(94) 163 
final, 15.09.1994. 
 
EN 122   EN outside social protection systems during pregnancy and motherhood and at other moments in the life-
cycle (for example retirement, separation, divorce, bankruptcy or death of husband/partner). This concerns women engaged in agriculture and trade
40 and the assisting spouses of other self-employed 
professionals, including those in the medical professi ons (self-employed doctors and specialists), the 
legal profession (self-employed lawyers), self-employe d entrepreneurs in the building and construction 
industry and those in other manual professions where women provide the necessary administrative backup work without either jointly owning and/or being employed by the business.  
While the Directive establishes the rule that the principle of equa l treatment applies to the self-
employed and assisting spouses, it does not create any direct right to compulsory social security 
coverage or to protection in the event of maternity , so the Advisory Committee is of the opinion that 
the principle of equal treatment is not met.  
The Directive addresses two categories of workers: firstly, those engaged in self-employed activities 
and pursuing a gainful activity for their own account, including farmers and the liberal professions, for 
which not all Member States require compulsory soci al security protection, and, secondly, the partners 
or ‘spouses’ of these self-employed workers, the ma jority of whom are women, which the Directive 
acknowledges by reference to the terms ‘spouse’ and ‘wife’.  
The Directive has never been amended nor updated despite the number of directives adopted since 
1986 in the area of equality between women and men. Therefore, there is an urgent need not only to 
update the Directive in order to reflect the reality  of the self-employed and assisting spouses but also 
to ensure that this latter invisible category of work ers benefit from equality legislation particularly in 
matters of social protection, and that the objective of the Directive itself is met by improving the status of assisting spouses in the context of an enlarged EU.  
• How to improve the provisions for the protec tion of maternity (for the self-employed 
and assisting spouses) 
It is difficult to ascertain the numbers of women w ho fall outside social security protection systems. 
Given the nature of the problem itself and the fact  that Member States are not obliged to provide 
compulsory social security protection, they remain invisible. A lack of data and statistics on the numbers of women who have opted for voluntary cove rage as provided for in the Directive, coupled 
with the lack of data on the actual number of women who could be covered (again on a voluntary 
basis), impedes identification of the scope of the problem in terms of the overall numbers and 
percentages of women who are not protected. Theref ore, the Advisory Committee strongly insists on 
the need for more visibility in terms of data a nd statistics in order to understand the scope of the 
problem, the take-up rate of the voluntary measures provided for in the Directive and the numbers of 
women unprotected.  
The scarce data that do exist show, for example in France
41, that 91% of those employed in agriculture 
in 2006 as ‘assisting spouses’42 were female, 61 521 women as agai nst 6 121 men. The total number of 
spouses (all categories) in 200543 was 247 000, of which only 28%  were affiliated to the social security 
system. The number of women working as employees has risen an average 1% per year since 1999, 
with variations according to the production sector. Th e average hourly wage varied in 2005 between 9- 
                                                 
40 Many assisting spouses work in restaurants or shops owned by their husbands/partners. 
41 Commission Nationale des Agricultrices, Assemblée Générale 13/12/2007 « L’installation des femmes 
en agriculture ». 
42 France has created a new category ( conjoint collaborateur ) for spouses of self-employed workers, but 
they must voluntarily  opt for this status. 
43 Santé, famille, retraite, services , Direction des étud es, des répertoires et des statistiques, « Les femmes 
dans l’agriculture en 2005 », décembre 2007. 
 
EN 123   EN 11 euros/hour, depending on the sector.44 Only 34% of women, as against 83% of men, have 40 years 
of activity in agriculture. Women farmers represented one quarter of the total number in 2005, and this 
figure has remained stable since 1999.45 Data from the Netherlands46 reveal that 97% of assisting 
spouses have no social protection. However, new legisl ation expected to come into force in July 2008 
will grant a replacement income to fema le entrepreneurs for maternity leave.47 In 2006, Portugal48 had 
90 000 ‘non-remunerated family workers’, 62.7% of whom were women. This category of workers 
had the highest proportion of women compared with the other categories: ‘employed’, ‘self-employed’ and ‘employers’.  
Given the absence of data, the Advisory Committee urgently calls for reliable data and statistics from 
all Member States to provide a more accurate pict ure of the situation of assisting spouses, including 
the numbers of women with and without social security  protection. The compilation of such data will 
necessitate the compulsory registration of assisting spouses in all Member States.  
The Advisory Committee stresses that it is regr ettable that self-employed workers do not have 
compulsory social protection cover in all
 Member States. The Advisory  Committee, however, strongly 
advises that those Member States where social prot ection is compulsory for-self employed workers 
should provide automatic  cover for assisting spouses under existing systems.  
The Advisory Committee wishes to point out there are a number of underlying contradictions in 
assisting spouses continuing to be without social protection. Firstly, the cost factor needs to be considered within a broader economic framework. Assu ming that it is too costly to provide mandatory 
cover for assisting spouses in social security protection schemes is in fact a false ‘saving’. Many 
women not covered by social protection systems wh ile engaged alongside thei r male partner in self-
employed activities, including agriculture, often require  financial assistance in the form of payments 
from collective solidarity funds later in their lives due to the fact that they have made no contributions 
to social security systems and are therefore excluded from state pensions and other complementary forms of pension schemes. For example, in France,  in the area of agriculture, the average monthly 
pension paid to assisting spouses who have contri buted to social security systems represents 
€304.94/month as against €147.85/month for widows on the basis of derived rights. For the category ‘family members’, which includes women who do not opt for ‘assisting spouse’ status, the monthly pension based on direct rights (c ontributions paid) is €60.08/month.
49  
The ‘savings’ that are made earlier in their lives in fa ct represent a cost for the whole of society later in 
life, hence shifting the financial burden from economic activities throughout working life to 
compensation paid at minimal levels later in life. Th is contributes to the feminisation of poverty in old 
age, due to the excessively low levels of non- contributory pension schemes. Rendering compulsory 
social protection coverage for the self-employed and ‘assisting spouses’ should therefore be considered as a long-term investment that will contribute to ensuring a safety net of coverage 
particularly in the later stages of life.  
                                                 
44 Op. cit. 
45 It should also be noted that the general level of women’s entrepreneurship across the EU remains 
stagnant at 30%. 
46 Provided by the Women’s Committee of COPA (Beleidsadviseur Vrouw & Bedrijf/Internationale 
Samenwerking). 
47 The replacement income for a period of 16 weeks w ill be based on the equivalent of the minimum wage 
on the basis of 1225 hours/year worked. For women who have less than the required number of hours, a 
basic payment based on the previous year’s income will be provided. 
48 Portuguese Inquiry on Employment — average data for 2006, provided by Isabel Romão 
Coordenatora da Unidade para as Relações Internacionais. 
49 Groupe de travail — retraite ministère agriculture 120308 — Statistiques 2007 Mutuelle Sociale 
Agricole (MSA). 
 
EN 124   EN Another contradiction that the Advisory Committee  wishes to point out re lates to the issue of 
undeclared work. All employers condemn any form of undeclared or illegal work. However, the non-
binding registration and protection of assisting spouses can be seen as an endorsement of work that is 
carried out in the informal economy and can  be deemed as a form of illegal work.  
• How to recognise the work of assisting spouses 
Assisting spouses are part of the informal econom y and their contribution to economic growth and 
development is invisible and unknown. It is the view of the Advisory Committee that compulsory 
registration of assisting spouses is urgently required  to avoid loopholes in valuing the work and the 
real contribution of these invisible workers. Compulsory registration should also — while respecting the principle of subsidiarity — lead to  compulsory social security protection
 with the possibility of a 
voluntary opt-out clause,  and not the contrary as is currently  the case with the Directive. Such 
compulsory coverage should include income repl acement during maternity leave following pregnancy 
at a level decided by Member States, for example, where possible, at the rate equivalent to the national minimum wage. In situations of separation, di vorce and/or widowhood, the assisting spouse should be 
entitled to either claim benefits immediately (widowhood for example) or to carry the contributions 
with her so that these are counted as contributor y years, particularly towards the pension.  
Without the vital input of assisting spouses, there is  a strong likelihood that self-employed activities 
would not be sustained, whether with in agriculture or in any other area of self-employment. Therefore, 
given that the majority of assisting spouses are wo men, maintaining them in the informal economy 
should be considered as a form of  indirect gender discrimination,
 which is contrary to the EU’s 
objective of equality between women and men and contra ry to Article 3 of the Directive itself, which 
specifically mentions ‘ [..] the absence of all discrimination [..] directly or indirectly, by reference in 
particular to marital or family status .’ 
Since the Directive was adopted in 1986, socio-cultura l norms have also changed. It is therefore the 
opinion of the Advisory Committee that the Direc tive needs to reflect these changes by including, 
alongside the terms ‘wife’ and ‘marital status’,  references to non-married and same-sex couples . Many 
Member States recognise unmarried couples while othe rs recognise same-sex relationships (including 
marriage), so the Directive should refer to these in  recognition of their contribution to the economic 
sustainability of self-employed activities, including in agriculture.  
While the scope of the Directive does not address issues of equality in ownership, it is the view of the 
Advisory Committee that this issue should be further explored in the context of national legislation. 
By recognising legal ownership by one of the partners only , the assisting partner remains either 
invisible or, in cases where they opt for employee status, are in a relationship that is both intimate and 
subservient, which goes against one of the intended obj ectives of the Directive, which is to clarify the 
particular situation of assisting spouses. The ‘particul ar situation’ in this c ontext should be understood 
as a partnership that extends be yond economic gains and contributes to the well-being of the two 
adults of the partnership and their off-spring. 
Derived rights are not, in the view of the Advisory  Committee, an option due to the dependency factor, 
where women’s rights are derived from those of th eir husband/partner, which is contrary to the 
principle of equality between women and men. In relation to derived rights  the term ‘dependent 
person’ is used.  
• How to provide leave to care for fa mily members and paternity leave 
The nature of self-employment, including in agri culture, entails atypical working times and patterns 
where the division between work time and rest time is often blurred. In this c ontext, existing child care 
and dependant care structures, which are generally insufficient in most Member States as testified in 
 
EN 125   EN the reporting on the Barcelona targets for child care50, are unlikely to respond to the specific needs of 
combining self-employment with family life. Theref ore, the Advisory Comm ittee proposes that further 
initiatives be taken, including possibilities for fi nancial compensation, to provide care facilities 
corresponding to the particular areas of activity an d working patterns of the self-employed and their 
assisting spouses/unmarried partners. The level of the benefit could be the legal minimum wage, 
unless the actual earnings are less than that amount  
The Advisory Committee believes that future deci sions on new measures concerning maternity leave 
for self-employed workers and assisting spouses/unmarri ed partners living as a couple should take into 
consideration the outcome of the current consulta tions between the social partners on measures to 
reconcile professional, family and private life. Some Member States do not believe that there should 
be further EU legislation in the area of maternit y/paternity/parental leave. The majority of the 
Advisory Committee believes that any new and ame nded measures in directives should also apply to 
self-employed workers and assisting spouses/unmarri ed partners living as a couple and that the 
principle of two weeks leave after childbirth, as in ot her forms of maternity leave, should also apply to 
self-employed workers and assisting spouses. 
The Advisory Committee also proposes that the Structural Funds  be used to fund pilot and innovative 
projects for childcare/dependent persons care to cater  to the needs and working patterns of the self-
employed, which require more flexible forms of replacement and care services.  
Any other options for improvement 
The Advisory Committee proposes that action be taken to  ensure that the costs of compulsory social 
security protection for both self-employed workers a nd assisting spouses/unmarried partners living as 
a couple are covered.  
In the context of a rapid changing economy, self-emp loyment will continue to grow and expand and 
assisting spouses/partners will continue to play a vital role in sustaining businesses and adapting to 
changing economic environments. Therefore, it is crucial that self-employed workers and assisting 
spouses/unmarried partners are pr ovided with opportunities to remain competitive, notably through 
training opportunities and representation in professional organisations. The Advisory Committee believes that the Member States have an important ro le to play in facilitating this and in ensuring the 
visibility of the self-employed and their assisting spouses/unmarried partners.  
The Advisory Committee recommends that:  
A. Legal Aspects — EU legislation
 
1. Assisting spouses are given every possibilit y to acquire a clear professional status.  
2. Compulsory registration of assisting spouses is systematically carried out, while respecting the 
principle of subsidiarity, to ensure social security protection  with the possibility of a voluntary opt-out 
clause.   
3. In addition to the terms ‘wife’ and ‘marita l status’, ‘unmarried partner living as a couple ’ and 
‘same-sex couples’  should be added. 
4. Assisting spouses are given every possibility to be  covered under existing systems in Member States 
where compulsory social protection is in place for self-employed workers.  
                                                 
50 The report on the 2007 Cambridge Revi ew of the National Reform Programmes, 
EMCO/27/141107/EN-Final-rev1, states that the Bar celona targets are not met by most Member States. 
 
EN 126   EN 5. Financial compensation should be  made available for the self-emp loyed and their assisting spouses 
to enable them to find suitable replacement services for child and dependent person care.  
6. Provision for paid maternity/paternity leave should be made available to the self-employed and 
assisting spouses, on the same basis as for othe r employers and employees, in accordance with 
national laws, practices and traditions.  
B. Non-legal aspects  
1. Reliable data and statistics, based on homogeneous criteria for data collection, are available in all 
Member States. The compilation of such data will necessitate the compulsory registration of assisting 
spouses in all Member States.  
2. While the scope of the Directive does not cover equality in ownership , this issue should 
nevertheless be further explored in th e context of national legislation.  
3. The Structural Funds  should be used to fund projects for childcare/dependent persons care, 
particularly in rural areas.  
4. Access to training opportunities and professional representation is facilitated as a means to remain 
competitive. 
C. Other actions as appropriate.  
Under the Treaty establishing the European Co mmunity, income taxes are not subject to 
harmonisation, with the exception of those cases wher e it is necessary for the proper functioning of the 
internal market and compliance with the Treaty fr eedoms. In full recognition of the principle of 
subsidiarity in matters relating to taxation, the Advisory Committee nevertheless proposes that, in the 
context of national legislation on taxation, possi bilities for tax incentives should be explored at 
national level to ensure that the costs of compul sory social security protection for both self-employed 
workers and assisting spouses/unmarried partners living as a couple are covered.  
The opinion of the Advisory Committee does not n ecessarily reflect the positions of the Member 
States and does not bind the Member States  
 
EN 127   EN Annex V: Legal context  
The main primary legal base for legislation im plementing the principle of equal treatment is 
Article 141 EC (former Article 119). In the original Treaty  of Rome, Article 119 was not 
applicable to self-employed workers. This wa s recognised by the established case law of the 
European Court of Justice51. This situation changed with the entry into force of the 
Amsterdam Treaty. The new paragraph 3 of Artic le 141 EC now applies to ‘matters of 
employment and occupation’ and theref ore covers self-employed workers. 
Because of this limitation in the scope of Artic le 119 of the Treaty of Rome, the legal texts  
adopted under this basis before the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty do not cover the 
self-employed. This is the case notably with  the first two direc tives adopted on equal 
treatment between women a nd men: Directive 75/117/EEC52 on the application of the 
principle of equal pay for men and women and Directive 76/2077/EEC53 on the 
implementation of the principle of equal tr eatment as regards access to employment, 
vocational training and promotion and working conditions. 
Nevertheless, three Directives adopted before the Amsterdam Treaty entered into force also 
apply to self-employed workers, namely Di rectives 79/7/EEC, 86/ 378/EEC and Directive 
86/613/EEC. In all these cases, the residual legal basis concerning the internal market was 
used: Article 235 in the case of Directive 79/7/EEC and Articles 100 and 235 for the other 
two Directives. 
After the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, the self-employed were included in the 
scope of Directives 2002/73/EC54 and 2006/54/EC55. 
Finally, another recent Directive is  relevant to the self-employe d, although it does not directly 
concern them: Directive 2004/113/EC56. This Directive lays down a framework for combating 
discrimination based on sex in access to and supply of goods and services. 
The legal framework for self-employed workers regarding the implementation of the principle 
of equal treatment between women a nd men is complex and fragmented. 
In short, the legal situation can be summari sed as follows. Discrimi nation based on sex is 
prohibited in the following areas: 
                                                 
51 See for example points 67  and 68 of the Court’s judgment in case C-256/01, Allonby . 
52 Council Directive 75/117/EEC of 10 February 1975 on the approximation of the laws of the Member 
States relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women, OJ L 45, 19.2.1975, 
p. 19. 
53 Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 on the implementation of the principle of equal 
treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and 
working conditions, OJ L 39, 14.2.1976, p. 40. 
54 Directive 2002/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2002 amending 
Council Directive 76/207/EEC on the implementation of  the principle of equal treatment for men and 
women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions, 
OJ L 269, 5.10.2002, p. 15. 
55 Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the 
implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in 
matters of employment and occupation (recast), OJ L 204, 26.7.2006, p. 23. 
56 Council Directive 2004/113/EC of 13 December 2004 implementing the principle of equal treatment 
between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services, OJ  L 373, 21.12.2004, p. 
37. 
 
EN 128   EN • social security and other elements of social protec tion (Directive 79/7/EEC); 
• occupational schemes (Directive 86/378/EEC); 
• conditions for access to self-employmen t (Directives 2002/73/EC and 2006/54/EC); 
• access to and supply of goods and services (Directive 2004/113/EC). 
Directive 86/613/EEC is the only text dealing specifically with self-e mployed workers (and 
assisting spouses). The main provisions of th e Directive can be summarised as follows. 
• Personal scope : it applies to self-employed worker s and their spouses who perform the 
same tasks or ancillary tasks; 
• Principle of equal treatment : it implies the absence of al l discrimination on grounds of 
sex, either directly or indirec tly, by reference in particular to marital or family status. 
Member States must eliminate all provisions that are contrary to the principle of equal treatment, especially in respect of the establ ishment, equipment or ex tension of a business 
or the launching or extension of any othe r form of self-empl oyed activity, including 
financial facilities. 
• Creation of a business : the conditions for the formation of a company between spouses 
should not be more restrictive than the condi tions for the formation of a company between 
unmarried persons. 
• Assisting spouses : should be able to join a contributor y social security scheme voluntarily, 
if it exists, and Member States should examin e how to encourage rec ognition of their work. 
• Protection of maternity and motherhood : Member States should examine whether, and 
under what conditions, female self-employed workers and the wives of self-employed workers may, during interruptions in their o ccupational activity ow ing to pregnancy or 
motherhood, have access to services supplying temporary replacements or existing national 
social services, or be entitled  to cash benefits under a social  security scheme or under any 
other public social protection system.