1. External Dimension of Social Security Coordination
Monica Alfaro Murcia
DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Advisory Committee for the coordination of social security systems,
23 October 2015

2. EU-EEA-CH - Key dates to remember
This slide sets out key dates in the application of social security coordination regulations to EEA countries and Switzerland.
Today I would like to focus on the information concerning relations in the scope of social security coordination between Croatia and the Swiss Federation.
With the accession of Croatia to the EU on 1 July 2013, an agreement was reached between the EU and Switzerland on a third Protocol to the EU-Swiss Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, extending the agreement to Croatian nationals.
The Protocol was agreed in June 2013, but still has to be signed both by the EU and Switzerland. With the adoption of the referendum on 9 February 2014 on the mass immigration initiative, it is not possible to determine when the Protocol will be ratified.
On 30 April 2015, the Swiss government declared that it was going to adopt unilaterally measures contained in the third Protocol. The Annex II area (social security) was not mentioned in this declaration. Thus, the Regulations 883/04 and 987/09 do not apply between Croatia and the Swiss Federation, yet. In the social security field the bilateral agreements between these countries still apply.
As for the relations between Croatia and the countries of the European Economic Area, the Agreement on the participation of the Republic of Croatia in the European Economic Area and three related agreements were signed on the 11 April Pending their entry into force, the Agreement and one of the related agreements with regard to Norway (the Additional Protocol to the Agreement between the Kingdom of Norway and the European Union on a Norwegian Financial Mechanism for the period ), applies on a provisional basis as of 12 April 2014 in accordance with an exchange of letters also signed on the 11 April 2014 between Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein and the European Union that provide for such provisional application.
Thus, the Regulations 883/04 and 987/09 apply between the Republic of Croatia in the European Economic Area as of 12 April 2014.

3. Latest developments EU - Switzerland
The 4th adaptation of Annex II (28 November 2014) incorporates the newest EU legal provisions:
Commission Regulation (EU) No 1244/2010 of 9 December 2010
Commission Regulation (EU) No 1224/2012 of 18 December 2012
Regulation 465/2012 of 22 May 2012
Let me briefly mention latest developments in the social security area for the EU and Switzerland.
It has to be recalled, the 4th adaptation of Annex II was concluded by Decision 1/2014 amending Annex II on coordination of social systems was adopted by written procedure on 28 November 2014, incorporated as of 1 January 2015 into the EU-Switzerland Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, the newest EU legal provision such as:
 Commission Regulation (EU) No 1244/2010 of 9 December 2010 and;
 Commission Regulation (EU) No 1224/2012 of 18 December 2012
 Regulation (EU) No 465/2012 of 22 May 2012
Just to recall that these Regulations do apply to the EEA as from 2 February 2013.

4. Association Council Decisions - State of play
Text finalised
Last discussions on annex entries
on-going
Further exchange necessary
Israel
annex entries approved in the AC in Dec 2012
Morocco
no annex entries
Montenegro
Serbia
FYROM San Marino
Algeria Turkey Tunisia Albania
Next, I would like to give an update on progress with regard to the Association council Decisions:
As you will recall, a 1st package of EU common positions – October 2010 (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Israel Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
2nd package– Adopted in 2012 (Albania, San Marino, Montenegro and Turkey).
The annexes of these decisions had to be completed with the list of special non-contributory cash benefits that will not be exported and the specific national legislation needed to implement the decisions.
This has been done with respect to Morocco, Israel, Fyrom and Montenegro. The decisions must now be approved by the EU Council. This is likely to happen during (The interservice consultation finished ) However, at the moment they are still under consideration by the Commission.
In addition, the decision for Israel is currently blocked as the Israeli Government is opposed to introducing a territorial scope clause which explicitly limits the territorial scope of the Decision to Israel in its pre-1967 borders . Discussions with Serbia have also recently finalised. Serbia has communicated that it does not wish to have any annex entries for special non-contributory benefits or specific legislation.
For the remaining associated countries discussions are ongoing on the annexes but not much progress has occurred during the last year with the exception of Tunisia. (Albania, San Marino, Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey).
-In particular, with regard to Tunisia, after a long impasse due to the political instability in the country some developments have recently taken place. Following an introductory meeting in Tunis in April this year, a video conference with experts took place on 29 September to discuss the draft decision. Tunisia reinstated its wish to progress quickly in the discussions/adoption of the decision and agreed to send us as soon as possible its proposals for entries to Annexes I and II and information on the administrative capacity and competent institutions.

5. External Dimension of EU SSC
Open question of Legal Basis (Case C-81/13) in relation to Turkey (Articles 48, 79(2)(b) or 217 TFEU)
New Ad Hoc Group of the Administrative Commission
Follow up to 2012 Communication (Forums March 2013/14, October 2015)
Turning to other developments in the external coordination of social security, with regard to Turkey the open question was the legal basis of the Decision currently in force. As you might recall, the UK took to Court the agreements with Switzerland, the EEA and the Asoc Council Decision regarding Turkey because they are all based in Article 48 of the Treaty. The UK claims that the right legal basis should be Article 79. (2). B dealing the migration from third countries. (case C-81/13) the European Court of Justice delivered its ruling on 18 December The Court said that since the decision had been adopted in the framework of an association agreement and is aimed at the adoption of measures coordinating social security systems" the combination of article 48 of the Treaty and article 217 was the correct legal basis.
Another development has been the progress of the Ad Hoc Group set up by the Administrative Commission to reflecting on the content of social security provisions in the existing international agreements in order to work out how to approach new agreements. This Ad hoc group has evaluated existing Agreements and develop criteria to be used for future agreements before the introduction of social security provisions. They presented a report at the end of the 2014 at the Administrative Commission. This report will be discuss again at the AC meeting in December 2015.
To conclude, I would like to report on the Forum on the international dimension of social security which took place on 8 October 2015:
The Forum which is held annually was a big success. During the first part of the Forum the representatives of the Member States exchanged their experiences on bilateral agreements with the third countries. The question on bilateral agreements with China, Japon and Kosovo were of particular interest as well as the issue of posting. The Member States underlined the importance of informal network on negotiating social security agreements with China and expressed their view that the network should be maintained. In the afternoon the social security issues in New Zealand, Vietnam and Latin America were discussed.
The exchange of experiences on the negotiations with third counries proved to be very useful for Member states in order to solve common problems that are faced during discussions with some countries.