WRITTEN QUESTION E-0635/00

by Ieke van den Burg (PSE) to the Commission

(3 March 2000)

Subject: Plans for a child care cheque in Carinthia

1. Is the Commission aware that the Governor of Carinthia, Jörg Haider, is planning to pay Austrian mothers in Carinthia a monthly child allowance for the first six years of a child's life if they stay at home to look after their children?

2. Does the Commission not feel that an arrangement of this kind is inconsistent with European rules concerning the coordination of social security (EEC 1408/71(1), etc.) and that it must be seen as discriminating against non-Austrian women and other inhabitants of Carinthia?

3. Does the Commission not feel that denying migrants and non-Austrians (or non-EU citizens) this child allowance is at odds with the European tradition that measures relating to children and child care must apply to all inhabitants?

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

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(7 April 2000)

The Commission's attention has been drawn to the plan to which the Honourable Member is referring.

In the absence of social security harmonisation, each Member State is responsible for determining all the specific characteristics of its social legislation as long as, in doing so, it respects Community law.

However, there are Community rules which coordinate the different national social security systems, contained in Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71(1) and its implementing Regulation No 574/72, and which aim to eliminate obstacles to the free movement of workers and members of their families, by guaranteeing certain fundamental principles such as equal treatment with nationals, exportability of social security benefits within the Community, aggregation of insurance periods and the prevalence of one applicable body of legislation.

The above-mentioned rules for coordinating Member States' social security systems protect the rights of migrant workers in so far as they are nationals of the European Union or the European Economic Area. Moreover, Tunisian, Moroccan, Algerian and Turkish nationals who are legally residing in a Member State also benefit from equal treatment with respect to social security due to agreements between their country of origin and the Community. Nationals from non-member countries residing in Member States cannot refer to Community law in order to receive equal treatment with nationals. As a result, when the Austrian authorities introduce the conditions for entitlement and the new social security allowance, they will have to respect the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality, which implies that Community nationals and the nationals of the four above-mentioned countries will benefit from the allowance under the same conditions as Austrian nationals.

In addition, in 1997, the Commission already proposed to extend the field of application of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 and Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 to cover nationals of all non-member countries who are insured under a Member State's legislation and who are legally residing in the Community. The Council is still reviewing this proposal(2).

Furthermore, the Commission also recently adopted a proposal to simplify and reform the rules for coordinating Member States' social security systems(3), which covers every person insured by social security legislation in a Member State and which also protects nationals of non-member countries. In accordance with the co-decision principle, Parliament and the Council are currently reviewing this proposal, which can only be adopted by a unanimous decision.

(1) Latest consolidated version: Regulation (EC) No 118/97 (OJ L 28, 30.10.1997).

(2) OJ C 6, 1.1.1998.

(3) OJ C 38, 12.2.1999.