The European Parliament voted on Tuesday in favour of a reform of the coordination of social security systems.
The reform has been in the works for around 10 years and has major implications for Luxembourg, particularly because the country relies heavily on cross-border workers. One of the key questions addressed in the text is which country is responsible for paying unemployment benefits, and after what period of employment.
Under the reform, people who have worked in Luxembourg for at least 22 weeks will be entitled to six months of unemployment benefits. This will have considerable financial consequences for Luxembourg, according to MEP Tilly Metz of The Greens (déi gréng), who voted in favour of the reform. She stressed that, from a certain point onwards, cross-border workers are entitled to these benefits.
Metz stressed that cross-border workers had paid taxes in Luxembourg for years and said it was therefore "completely logical and fair" for unemployment benefits to be paid by the country in which they had worked. "Luxembourg cannot simply cherry-pick the benefits", she added. "As a country, we would collapse without cross-border workers."
However, Metz said more detail was now needed on how the reform would be applied. She also raised questions about further training and what would happen once the six-month period had come to an end.
MEPs of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) are also calling for further details. Isabelle Wiseler-Lima and Martine Kemp abstained in the vote. Kemp pointed out that reintegration into the Luxembourg labour market would also have to be handled, which could pose a challenge for the National Employment Agency (ADEM).
Kemp said ADEM would need sufficient capacity to support cross-border workers who lose their jobs, describing this as one of the key challenges in implementing the reform. The file had been approved "after very long negotiations", she noted, but "many details will still have to be examined" as the EU-level framework is applied differently across individual countries.
Much remains unclear, said Charel Goerens, an MEP for Luxembourg's Democratic Party (DP), which sits with the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. Goerens voted in favour of the text and noted that a meeting had already been held last week with representatives from the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL) and Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (LCGB).
Goerens said the multi-year transition period should be used to assess how the reform will work in practice. He pointed in particular to the question of monitoring people receiving unemployment benefits in border regions, saying it would be important "to get some clarity" on how this will be handled.
MEP Marc Angel of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) also voted in favour of the text. Fernand Kartheiser of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) abstained.
In addition to unemployment benefits, the reform also covers family benefits, long-term care benefits, and a simpler exchange of data between administrations to prevent fraud.
Goerens has proposed a meeting between Luxembourg's six MEPs and the relevant parliamentary committee at the Chamber.
