Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on Frontier workers: Assessment of the situation after ten years of the Internal Market: Problems and Perspectives
Date: 2004-09-29
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: EU employment policy, accession to the European Union, free movement of workers, frontier worker, social security

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Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on Frontier workers: Assessment of the situation after
ten years of the Internal Market: Problems and Perspectives

(2005/C 43/02)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

HAVING REGARD TO the decision of its Bureau of (10 February 2004) in accordance with Article 265(5)
of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to instruct its Commission for Economic and Social
Policy to draw up this opinion, Frontier workers: Assessment of the situation after ten years of the Internal
Market: Problems and Perspectives;

HAVING REGARD TO the consolidated version of the Treaty establishing the European Community of
March 1957, and in particular Title III: Free movement of persons, services and capital, Chapter 1:
Workers, Articles 39 and 42, Chapter 2: Right of establishment, Article 43;

HAVING REGARD TO the rules on the coordination of national social security systems, which are part of
the free movement of persons and which are intended to contribute to the improvement of living and
working conditions;

HAVING REGARD TO Council Regulation (EC) No. 118/97 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, as it is to be
amended;

HAVING REGARD TO Regulation (EEC) No. 1612/68 of the Council of 15 October 1968 on freedom of
movement for workers within the Community;

HAVING REGARD TO the judgments of the European Court of Justice on cross-border workers, cross-
border medical goods or services and regarding labour law and re-entry into employment;

HAVING REGARD TO the meeting of the Council of the European Union (Employment, Social Policy,
Health and Consumer Protection) of 1 December 2003, agenda item 3, proposal for a Regulation of the
European Parliament and of the Council coordinating social security systems (reform of Regulation (EEC)
No. 1408/71);

HAVING REGARD TO the common position of the Council of 28 January 2004 with a view to the adop-
tion of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council coordinating social security systems;

HAVING REGARD TO the decision of the Copenhagen European Council of 13 December 2002 on the
accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004 of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia,
Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Cyprus and of the informal Athens European Council of 16/17
April 2003 on the signature of the Accession Treaty and the Europe Conference;

HAVING REGARD TO the Europe Agreements with the Central and Eastern European Countries: the
Agreements of December 1991 concluded with Hungary and Poland, that of February 1995 with Romania
and Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, that of February 1998 with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,
and that of February 1999 with Slovenia, as well as the Association Agreements existing since 1964 with
Turkey, 1971 with Malta and 1973 with Cyprus;

HAVING REGARD TO the accession perspectives established by the Copenhagen European Council of
June 1993, as set out in the ‘Copenhagen criteria’;

HAVING REGARD TO the Treaty on European Union signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992 (‘Maas-
tricht Treaty’), which states that any European state may apply for membership of the EU;

HAVING REGARD TO the draft opinion adopted by the Commission for Economic and Social Policy on
30 April 2004 (CdR 95/2004 rev. 1) (rapporteur: Mr Karl-Heinz Lambertz, First Minister of the German-
speaking community, (BE/PES));

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Whereas:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Regulation (EEC) No. 1408/71 defines a ‘frontier worker’ as ‘any employed or self-employed
person who pursues his occupation in the territory of a Member State and resides in the territory of
another Member State to which he returns as a rule daily or at least once a week’.

Free movement of employed workers and their equal treatment in terms of work and employment
conditions (wages, protection against dismissal, re-entry into employment, tax and social benefits)
are mainly dealt with in Regulation (EEC) No. 1612/68.

The principle of equal treatment applies to all frontier (and migrant) workers living and working in
the EU.

Social protection is regulated by Regulation (EEC) No. 1408/71 and the corresponding Imple-
menting Regulation No. 574/72. The aim of these is to coordinate the social security systems of
the Member States.

In accordance with these regulations, the frontier worker is in principle covered by the rules and
regulations of the country in which he works.

The EU accession of ten central and eastern European countries will lead to a new situation with
regard to migration (migrant workers) and the frontier worker phenomenon, as well as to effects on
the European labour market.

The eastern border areas of EU Member States like Austria and Germany are particularly geographi-
cally exposed in the context of enlargement. They have borders with Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary,
Poland and the Czech Republic and must initially expect an increase in cross-border movements.
The effects of EU enlargement can, however, also offer opportunities, e.g. the chance to regulate
migration which was previously illegal and the fact that migration will no longer be restricted to
border regions, but will move to areas where there is a labour shortage.

EU enlargement will probably create administrative, legal or tax barriers to mobility in addition to
those already facing every frontier worker in the EU.

unanimously adopted the following opinion at its 56th plenary session of 29/30 September 2004
(meeting of 29 September):

1. Views of the Committee of the Regions

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

1.1.3
there is no Community-wide approach to the condi-
tions for access to services, in the absence, for example, of a
common definition of invalidity, or a common approach to the
assessment of the degree of invalidity, or given the continuing
differences in the systems for the calculation of
insurance
periods;

1.1 notes that:

the concept of frontier worker varies from one border
1.1.1
region to another in line with the tax and social security law
criteria applied in the country of residence or employment and
the border commuters' active or inactive status; that there is no
generally applicable definition of the concept embracing tax,
legal and social-security components;

the principle that all

1.1.4
frontier workers living and
working in the EU should receive equal treatment is being
respected but not always correctly applied; a definition of this
principle does, however, exist, with regard to employment and
working conditions, in Regulation (EEC) No. 1612/68;

there is no Community-wide coordination of

tax
1.1.2
agreements or coordination between tax and social security
agreements for cross-border activity, despite the significant
achievements of Regulation (EEC) No. 1408/71 on the applica-
tion 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;

1.1.5
national practices exist which impede the guaranteed
freedom of movement for frontier and migrant workers, and
that the European Court of Justice – in particular on the basis
of Articles 39, 42 and 43 of the EC Treaty - is helping frontier
workers encountering discrimination to assert
rights
against national decisions and regulations, and is thus creating
European social law;

their

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1.1.6
after many years of additions designed to take account
of changes in national rules, improve certain provisions, close
loopholes and lay down rules on the insurance position of
certain groups of persons, Regulation 1408/71 has become
very large, complicated and opaque;

1.3.2
the Commission's objective of coordinating the social
security systems of the Member States, which should put into
effect in the interest of Europeans and of the construction of a
Social Europe;

in the absence of uniform national data, there is no
1.1.7
reliable statistical information giving an overview of the situa-
tion of frontier workers at European level;

1.1.8
workers in the European Union are frontier workers;

is estimated that

less than 0.5 % of employed

it

a

is

there

lack of

1.1.9
forward-looking Community
management of the specific and additional problems affecting
frontier workers from the new Member States and that this
management must mean more than the information distributed
by EURES offices;

1.2 considers that

1.2.1
progress on European integration should be matched
by progress on the free movement of persons and that this
must be made a joint priority task for all the Member States
and the European Union;

1.2.2
the question as to why – after completion of the
internal market and the introduction of a single currency –
there are still so few frontier workers is a relevant one. One of
the aspects that should be improved on, therefore, is access for
jobseekers and employers to an information and advice service
to facilitate the mobility of the workforce and transparency in
the EU labour market;

1.2.3
the vision of a united Europe, particularly in frontier
regions – which should be cutting edge and engine of the inte-
gration process – is in this way losing credibility;

1.2.4
the question of frontier and migrant workers will be
placed in a new light by the accession of ten new central and
eastern European Member States, particularly in the current
eastern border regions, and that forward-looking management
of the expected trends should therefore be stepped up as a
matter of urgency;

1.3 welcomes

1.3.1
the European Commission's initiative aimed at redu-
cing obstacles to the mobility of workers in the European
Union and at ensuring that everyone's social security entitle-
ments are respected as well as the reform of Regulation
1408/71, now adopted, and Regulation 883/04, which should
bring improvements for frontier workers with regard to sick-
ness cover and family benefits;

1.3.3
Decision No. 189 of the Administrative Commission
of the European Communities on social security for migrant
workers of 18 June 2003 aimed at introducing a European
health insurance card to replace the forms necessary for the
application of Council Regulations (EEC) No. 1408/71 and
(EEC) No. 574/72 as regards access to health care during a
temporary stay in another Member State;

1.3.4
the common position of the Council of 28 January
2004 with a view to the adoption of a Regulation of the Euro-
pean Parliament and of the Council coordinating social security
systems;

1.4 considers that

1.4.1
even when these proposed improvements are imple-
mented they will by no means overcome all the obstacles in
this area;

1.4.2
relation to frontier workers as a result of the EU enlargement;

further problems but also opportunities might arise in

the development of Community-wide

1.4.3
law
should not be left mainly to the European Court of Justice, but
should itself actively contribute to solving frontier worker
problems;

social

1.4.4
border regions are usually particularly dependent for
their economic development on the components of the cross-
border labour market and that this will be particularly true of
the new border regions after enlargement.

2. Recommendations of the Committee of the Regions

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

2.1
recommends that the European Commission forward
all information on problems encountered by frontier workers
to one of
the existing bodies, such as the Administrative
Commission on Social Security for Migrant Workers set up by
Regulation (EEC) No. 1408/71, or the Technical Committee
promoting and advancing cooperation between the Member
States on freedom of movement of workers and their employ-
ment set up by Regulation (EEC) No. 1612/68;

2.2

proposes that the body assuming this task:

2.2.1
political bodies and institutions, e.g. information relating to:

collect (and collate) this information from all relevant

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2.2.1.1
the remit extending to the EU Member States, the
EFTA-EEA states and states with which the EU has concluded
bilateral agreements which also touch on free movement of
persons,

2.2.1.2
Treaty,

existing multilateral agreements such as the Benelux

2.2.1.3

existing joint coordination efforts by Member States,

2.2.1.4
the European Commission (DGV),

Community agreements and rules, the experience of

2.2.1.5

the experience of the AEBR,

2.2.1.6
the experience of parties involved with the problems
of frontier workers and organisations concerned with the elimi-
nation of barriers to the free movement of persons;

asks how, on the basis of existing agreements, this
2.2.2
experience can be exploited for the reduction of obstacles to
intra-European mobility of persons and for improved coordina-
tion of the social security systems of the Member States and
thus,
inter alia in the light of enlargement, to promote the
construction of a Social Europe more effectively.

At the same time,

2.2.3
in order to avoid overlap with
existing bodies, such as the agency for migration issues or the
Schengen office:

the flow of information and cooperation between all
2.2.3.1
players should be coordinated and promoted to the greatest
possible extent;

2.2.3.2
should be prepared;

Community statistics on frontier worker numbers

2.2.3.3
proposals on a Community social security and tax
law definition of active and passive frontier commuters and
migrant workers should be prepared;

2.2.3.4
proposals to improve the level of information and
training of the administrative authorities responsible for the
problems of frontier workers should be drawn up;

2.2.3.5
lations should be prepared;

proposals to simplify and develop the relevant regu-

Brussels, 29 September 2004

regional

2.2.3.6
cross-border offices dealing with the
problems of frontier workers should be set up which would be
empowered to establish on their own initiative temporary
working groups to look into specific issues relating to the elim-
ination of obstacles to the free movement of frontier workers
in European border areas.

proposes that the regional, cross-border offices dealing

2.3
with the problems of frontier workers:

2.3.1
border activities or at existing EURES offices;

be set up within local authorities involved in cross-

2.3.2
dual border regions and list specific problems;

gather information on the specific situation of indivi-

check draft national and international

2.3.3
regulations,
agreements and laws for their compatibility with the rights of
frontier workers;

2.3.4
notify, where appropriate, the competent national or
supranational bodies of any detrimental effect on freedom of
movement for migrant workers of the implementation of draft
national and international regulations, agreements and laws and
propose solutions to the partners concerned;

2.3.5
bilaterally involve the responsible experts from the
competent national government departments in the event of
specific problems between the Member States in question (e.g.
with regard to double taxation agreements, nursing care insur-
ance, child benefit for the families of frontier workers etc), and
arrange for them to be assisted by local and/or regional
experts;

2.3.6
submit proposed bilateral administrative or legislative
solutions to the competent government departments within a
short timespan and assist with their implementation;

2.3.7

be professionally staffed and managed;

proposes that,

2.4
in view of the extended remit of the
local authorities or existing EURES offices housing the regional
the
offices dealing with the problems of
necessary funding be provided by the EU.

frontier workers,

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Peter STRAUB