WRITTEN QUESTION E-3165/02 by Ieke van den Burg (PSE) to the Commission. Entitlement to unemployment benefit following disablement and a move to a different country of residence.
Date: 2002-11-05
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Belgium, EU control, Netherlands, disability insurance, frontier region, parliamentary committee, residence, social security, unemployment insurance

C 155 E/104

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.7.2003

(2003/C 155 E/113)

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 (cid:1) on the basis of the Netherlands unemployment regulations (cid:1) 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.)

Does the Commission consider that the RVA in Belgium is right not to apply Article 71(a)(ii) of

1.
Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 (governing wholly unemployed frontier workers)?

Does the Commission consider

that
(governing workers, other than frontier workers, who are wholly unemployed) should

required to be applied,

if Article 71(a)(ii)

is not

that,

2.
Article 71(b)(i)
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?

Does the Commission consider that in this and similar cases Article 69 ought perhaps to have been

4.
applied, using the discretionary powers with regard to deadlines contained therein?

5. What provisions would have applied if
incapacitated?

the woman concerned had been declared partially

(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.