Debate: Introduction of a European social security pass for improving the digital enforcement of social security rights and fair mobility
Date: MONDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2021
Speaker: Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová
Country: Germany
Language: EN

The European Parliament has been calling on the European Commission since 2014 to present a proposal for a European social security number so that we can facilitate the mobility of workers, combat social fraud and simplify administrative procedures. The Commission had announced in its work programme for 2018 that it would come up with a legislative proposal on such a European social security number, but in early 2021 we learned that this project was abandoned, which came as a surprise to us. Instead, the Commission announced that it would launch a pilot project to explore launching a digital European social security pass by 2023. So this question for oral answer and the draft motion for a resolution which will be put to the vote on Wednesday: we would like to get more information about the social security pass and understand why the Commission abandoned the project of launching a European social security number. Allow me, therefore, to ask you the following questions. First of all, for Parliament it is very important to know and understand the reasons why the Commission abandoned working on the European social security number and replaced it instead with a pilot project on a digital pass. On several occasions this year, a member of the Committee for Employment and Social Affairs therefore asked the Commission to give Parliament access to all relevant documents and evidence on which it had based its decision to discontinue the exploration and introduction of an ESSN. I’m very pleased to announce that, in anticipation of today’s oral question and the debate, the Commission reacted to these repeated requests for transparency and explanations, and at the end of last week, I actually received a letter, together with the relevant internal documents and evidence that will allow us to better understand why the project of introducing a European social security number was abandoned. My first question, in which I wanted to ask the Commission to give Parliament access to all relevant documents and evidence on which it has based its decision to discontinue the exploration of introducing an ESSN, has thus already been answered. But I would still be grateful if the Commission could explain again the reasons why the European social security number was replaced with the digital pass. My second question is related to timing. Earlier this year in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the Commission announced that it would launch a pilot project to explore launching a European social security pass by 2023. We believe that a legislative proposal for such a pass is urgently needed. Therefore, we would like to ask the Commission if the timeline for the proposal can be moved from 2023 to 2022, to improve the chances of reaching an agreement within the current legislature. My third question is related to real-time verification, which is a very important point for the European Parliament. Can the Commission explain how it will ensure that the social security pass will enable real-time verification of workers’ place of work, place of employment, employment relationship, identity and standardised social security benefits provisions and relevant certificates, as set out in Regulation 883 on the coordination of social security systems? My fourth question: it is also very important for us that the European social security pass covers all mobile citizens and workers. Can the Commission confirm that the pass will indeed cover all mobile citizens and workers, including those ones who are self-employed, as well as mobile third-country nationals? In some Member States, national cards or comparable instruments for labour law purposes exist already, and we ask ourselves how they will be linked to the European social security pass once created. Can the Commission explain how it plans to investigate the feasibility of allowing Member States to use the European social security pass to draw on information made available from national cards or comparable instruments for labour law purposes where they already exist? Can the Commission also commit to assessing which other areas of EU labour law could be included within the scope of the European social security pass? Data protection: it’s another question – another very important issue for the European Parliament – so I would be grateful if you could explain how the Commission will make sure that the EU data protection rules are strictly applied so that data is only available to the worker and the national authorities concerned. My last question is about the connection between the European social security pass and other tools and initiatives. There are already several initiatives and digitalisation processes at European level which concern the area of social security coordination, such as prior notification for posted workers, etc. Can the Commission explain how these digital processes and tools will relate to the European social security pass?