Amended proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) amending, for the benefit of unemployed persons, Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to the 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
Date: 1997-04-18
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: European social policy, social security, social-security benefit, unemployed person, vocational training

COMMISSION  OF THE  EUROPEAN  COMMUNITIES 

Brussels,  18.04.1997 
COM(97)158 final 

96/0004  (CNS) 

Amended  proposal  for  a 

COUNCIL  REGULATION  (EO 

amending, for the benefit  of unemployed  persons, Regulation (EEC) No 1408/7 
on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to 
self-employed  persons and to the 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 

(presented  by the Commission  pursuant  to Article  189 a (2) 
of the  EC-Treaty) 

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

Following the  opinion  of  the European  Parliament1  on  the proposal for  a  Regulation 
which the Commission presented  to the Council on 10 January 19962, two points  need to 
be amended and a new point  needs to be added to Article  1 of  the proposal  The rest of 
the proposal remains unchanged. 

In addition, one recital has been amended and a new recital added. 

Article 1 

Amendments to Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 

6. 

Article 69 

In order to ensure the continued  provision of benefits  to unemployed  persons who  follow 
training  in a Member  State other  than the competent  Member  State,  and  insofar  as  these 
persons would  have  retained  these benefits  if they had  taken part  in training in the  latter 
Member  State,  Article 69  should  be  supplemented  to  this  effect.  This is in  keeping  with 
the Green Paper presented by the Commission on 2 October  1996 and entitled  "Education 
- Training - Research: the obstacles to transnational mobility". 

7. 

Article 69b (7) 

Given that the Court of Justice, in its Spataro judgment  of  13 June  1996 (Case C-170/95, 
Court Report  1996 1-2921), gave a very restrictive interpretation  of the exception  granted 
to Belgium in paragraph  7 of the proposed Article 69b, this exception should be removed. 

9. 

Article 71 (1) (b). first  subparagraph 

The transitional  period  for  the reimbursement  between  competent  institutions  which  was 
proposed  in the  event  of  Luxembourg  being  the  competent  State  for  the  unemployment 
benefits  of  a  frontier  worker  is  reduced  to  five  years,  as  proposed  by  the  European 
Parliament. 

1  OJ C 

(N.B.: opinion adopted on 18 February 1997). 

2  COM(95) 734. OJ C 68, 6.3.1996, p.  11. 

- 2-

Amended proposal for a 
COUNCIL REGULATION  (EC) 

amending, for the benefit  of unemployed persons, Regulation (EEC) No  1408/71 
on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to 
self-employed  persons and to the 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 

- 3-

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

(Following the opinion of the European Parliament, the first recital  should  be amended as 
follows): 

"Whereas account should be taken of the fact  that possibilities of finding  work within a 
reasonable period  of  time  have  been  considerably  reduced; whereas  it  is  therefore 
necessary to provide for  the retention beyond the current three-month period  of the right 
to unemployment benefits when an unemployed worker goes to another Member  State to 
look for  work or to take part  in training; " 

(Following  the  opinion  of  the  European  Parliament,  the  following  recital  should  be 
inserted between the third and fourth recitals): 

"Whereas the exception for  Belgium currently provided for  in Article  69  (4) should no 
longer be maintained, in the light of  the restrictive interpretation given  by the Court of 
Justice to this provision in its judgment of J 3 June 1996 in case C-170/95,  Spataro; " 

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 

Article 1 

Regulation (EEC) No  1408/71 is amended as follows: 

6. 

The text of Article 69 is replaced by the following: 

"A  wholly  unemployed person  who was formerly  employed or  self-employed  and who 
satisfies  the conditions of  the  legislation of a Member State for  entitlement  to benefits, 
account being taken where appropriate of the provisions of Article  67, and  who goes to 
one or more other Member States in order to seek employment there or  to  take part  in 
training there shall retain his entitlement to such benefits under the conditions laid down 
in Article 69a and within the limits determined by Article 69b ". 

7. 

9. 

Paragraph  7 of the proposed Article 69b will be deleted. 

The  proposed  text  of  Article  71  (l)(b),  first  subparagraph,  is  replaced  by  the 
following: 

"An  unemployed person  who  has  become wholly unemployed and  who  makes himself 
available to the employment services in the territory of the competent State shall receive 
benefits in accordance with the provisions of the legislation of  the competent State as if 
he resided in the territory of that State; these benefits shall be provided  by the competent 
institution.  If the competent State is Luxembourg,  the institution of the place  of residence 
shall, for a transitional period  of five  years after the entry into force  of  this paragraph, 
refund  to  the  institution  of  that  State  half  the amount  of  the  benefits provided  to the 
frontier  worker within  the  meaning of  Article  1 (b),  within  the  limit  of  the  amount  to 
which the unemployed person would ha\>e been entitled if he had made himself available 
to the employment sendees of the State of residence. " 

ISSN 0254-1475 

COM(97)  158  final 

DOCUMENTS 

EN 

04  05  06 

Catalogue  number  :  CB-CO-97-144-EN-C 

ISBN 92-78-18209-5 

Office  for Official  Publications of the Kuropean Communities 

L-2985 Luxembourg 

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