David Clarinval welcomes the agreement reached at European level on the revision of the rules coordinating social security systems. This breakthrough marks an important step in a complex dossier, under discussion for many years, which will make life easier for European citizens, particularly with regard to family benefits, long-term care and unemployment.
The free movement of workers is a fundamental principle of the European single market. It requires effective coordination of social security systems between member states. In a context of a changing labour market, marked in particular by teleworking, the rise of mobile workers and cross-border careers, this reform had become essential.
Belgium was historically against harmonisation, as it would have cost social security several hundred million euros, since it granted unlimited unemployment benefits to workers who had worked in Belgium but were now living abroad. Following the time limitation of unemployment benefits, Belgium is now becoming a net beneficiary of the mechanism, which is why Minister Clarinval was able to support this text.
However, certain concerns remain, particularly regarding the rules on unemployment benefits, in order to ensure equal treatment for all European citizens. Further clarifications and guarantees are needed to ensure effective monitoring, adequate activation of jobseekers, and rapid reintegration into the labour market.
That is why we made Belgium's support for this agreement conditional on commitments from the European Commission to strengthen control, monitoring and administrative cooperation mechanisms between member states.
In the short term, Belgium is calling for the principle of loyal cooperation to be strengthened and for data exchange to be improved.
In the medium term, we stress the need to invest in reliable data-exchange systems in order to guarantee greater efficiency, increased trust between administrations, and rigorous enforcement of the rules, including the possibility of sanctions where necessary.
David Clarinval, Minister of Employment: "Thanks to the unemployment reform, we can now support this historic breakthrough on a dossier that has been blocked for many years. This is an important step for workers' mobility in Europe. However, it is essential that control, activation and information-exchange mechanisms be strengthened. Mobility can only work if it is based on uniform and properly monitored rules."