WRITTEN QUESTION E-3165/02

by Ieke van den Burg (PSE) to the Commission

(5 November 2002)

Subject: Entitlement to unemployment benefit following disablement and a move to a different country of residence

The following problem exists in relation to coordination of social security arrangements in the border area of the Netherlands and Belgium. A woman becomes ill (primary disablement) and, after a year, is declared wholly unable to work (80-100 % invalidity). Her employment contract with her Netherlands employer is terminated, and she receives a Netherlands invalidity pension under the Disablement Insurance Act (WAO). Her family moves to Belgium. The woman remains insured in the Netherlands for medical expenses and against unemployment, and pays the relevant social security contributions in the Netherlands. After two years she is declared fit, and applies to the national employment office (RVA) of the Member State where she is resident, Belgium, for unemployment benefit. She is refused benefit on the grounds that, during her period of residence in Belgium, she has worked neither in Belgium nor as a frontier worker in the Netherlands and that Article 71(a)(ii) of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71(1) does not apply to her. She then makes an application for unemployment benefit to the unemployment authorities in the competent State, the Netherlands (UWV GAK employee insurance office), as, during the period of her illness/invalidity, she was insured in the Netherlands against unemployment. The UWV GAK refuses to pay unemployment benefit on the basis of the Netherlands unemployment regulations as the women is not resident in the Netherlands. In other words, there is a gap in the coordination arrangements. (The author of this question is able to provide the Commission with relevant documents.)

1. Does the Commission consider that the RVA in Belgium is right not to apply Article 71(a)(ii) of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 (governing wholly unemployed frontier workers)?

2. Does the Commission consider that, if Article 71(a)(ii) is not required to be applied, that Article 71(b)(i) (governing workers, other than frontier workers, who are wholly unemployed) should have been applied?

3. Does the Commission consider that, if Article 71 does not apply, the Netherlands authority should pay benefit, as the person concerned paid contributions in respect of Netherlands unemployment benefit during the period of invalidity?

4. Does the Commission consider that in this and similar cases Article 69 ought perhaps to have been applied, using the discretionary powers with regard to deadlines contained therein?

5. What provisions would have applied if the woman concerned had been declared partially incapacitated?

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

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(18 December 2002)

The Commission notes that in the situation described by the Honourable Member, the person in question cannot obtain unemployment benefits either in Belgium or in the Netherlands.

Before commenting on the specific problem raised by the Honourable Member concerning a gap in the social protection to which a person is entitled in return for the payment of social security contributions, the Commission wishes to check the conditions under which the national legislation in question applies and to be able to examine in greater detail the points of fact and law in the case, which the Honourable Member in any event offered to forward.