WRITTEN QUESTION E-1942/03

by Kyösti Virrankoski (ELDR) to the Commission

(13 June 2003)

Subject: Opportunities for unemployed job-seekers in Finland to apply for jobs abroad

Under Finnish law and administrative practice, people are not entitled to unemployment benefit if they are not available for employment because they are travelling abroad or for any comparable reason. If a person wishes to retain his status as a job-seeker and his entitlement to social security benefits, he must inform the employment exchange of his intention to travel in advance, and must not travel abroad for longer than one week.

In practice, Finnish law and administrative practice prevent unemployed people in Finland from seeking work abroad. At the same time they significantly restrict citizens' freedom of movement within the EU. Nor can they be defended on the grounds that travel abroad makes it difficult to offer jobs to the people in question, as nowadays it is easy to contact job-seekers, for example by mobile phone, anywhere in the EU and even outside it.

Do such restrictions on citizens' freedom of movement within the EU and their opportunities to seek work accord with EU law?

What will the Commission do to guarantee unemployed job-seekers equal rights to seek employment in other EU countries and to move in such countries?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(29 July 2003)

The Honourable Member raises a question on the application of Finnish law and administrative practice in relation to unemployment benefits in situations where the unemployed person wishes to leave Finland for a temporary stay abroad, e.g. for vacation, and retain the right to the benefit. The Honourable Member questions the conformity of Finnish law and administrative practice with Community law for the right to benefits in such situations.

Under Community law in the field of social security, there is no unified European social security system. Each Member State is responsible for its own social security system and decides which benefits shall be provided, the conditions for eligibility and the value of these benefits. There are, however, Community provisions for the co-ordination of these systems in Council Regulations (EEC) Nos 1408/71 and 574/72(1), in order to ensure that migrant workers and members of their families do not lose their social security protection when moving within the Community and also to ensure that the basic principles of equality of treatment and non-discrimination are respected.

In accordance with the above, the conditions for eligibility to unemployment benefits, such as for example being available for the labour market, are left to the discretion of the Member States to decide upon. Therefore, the right to unemployment benefit in situations to which the Honourable Member draws attention do not, in principle, fall under the remit of the Commission but is a matter to be resolved solely under national Finnish legislation.

However, in Article 69 of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 there are provisions which enable an unemployed person, under certain conditions, to seek work in another Member State and, during that period, to retain the right to unemployment benefits from the first Member State. During this search for work the benefits are provided by the institution in the Member State to which the unemployed person has gone to seek work. The institution in the first Member State is obliged to reimburse the institution which provided the benefits, the amount of such benefits.

If the Honourable Member considers that Finland is not properly implementing the provisions of Article 69 of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71, the Commission would invite him to submit more details directly to the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs so that it may examine them in the light of Community law.

(1) Last consolidated version: Council Regulation (EC) No118/97 of 2 December 1996 amending and updating Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community and Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71, OJ L 28, 30.1.1997.