Joint Nordic declaration on unemployment benefits urges the EU to change the rules

At the meeting of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Labour in Copenhagen, the Nordic Ministers for Employment and Labour discussed the question of unemployment benefits in the Nordic countries and their interaction with current EU regulation, particularly Regulation (EC) no. 883/2004.

- The Nordic countries are welfare societies.  We have well developed systems of social security and welfare benefits combined with an active policy regarding the labour market. We all agree that the EU-regulations cannot be undermining the Nordic welfare systems. For instance, we want better regulation when unemployed individuals collect benefits in another country. We want to make sure that they are actively seeking employment, and we do not want to extend the period they can collect unemployment abroad, says Jørn Neergaard Larsen.

EU rules cannot undermine the Nordic welfare systems

The ministers agree that regulation 883/2004 is an important tool to support the free movement of workers in the Nordic countries and in EU as a whole. However, it is important that the EU legislation is adjusted according to how the European Union and its labour markets develop.

The now 32 EU/EEA countries have different systems of social security and welfare benefits and there are substantial differences in the levels of wages and living conditions across EU/EEA countries. In order to be perceived as just and fair and  sustainable in the long run, the rules governing unemployment  benefits should reflect and be adjusted to these differences. 

Also, common provisions should not be detriment to other EU agendas such as the use of active labour market measures – advocated by the European Commission and practiced for years in the Nordic countries.

EU legislation should be adapted

Agreeing that EU legislation should be adapted when needed and new rules not introduced just for the sake of it, the Nordic Ministers for Employment and Labour find it necessary to modernize the rules so that they reflect European society today. 

Against this background, they consider it of utmost importance that the 883 regulation and its rules of coordination:

• are perceived as fair and just – reflecting an ever larger and more heterogeneous EU;
• support and reflect the use of an active labour market policy –  increasingly combining benefits to the individual with requirements of activity and availability;
• acknowledge the development of labour market recruitment and use of ICT and internet for job search across borders – thus making it unnecessary to extending the exportability of unemployment benefits to more than three months;
• allow Member States to better control whether persons who are exporting unemployment benefits are actually actively seeking job;  and
• do not take a form that risk to undermine the high levels of welfare benefits achieved in more Member States.

Read the declaration here:
Joint Nordic Declaration on Unemployment Benefits and Regulation (EC) No. 883/2004

In a letter to Marianne Thyssen, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, the ministers urge the Commission to consider these points as the Commission prepares for the Employment Mobility Package.

- I am pleased that the Nordic Council of Ministers for Labour has agreed upon a joint declaration. In my opinion, the declaration is a testament to the value of discussing areas of common interest in the Nordic Council of Ministers, concludes Jørn Neergaard LarsenMinister for Employment in Denmark.

Growth, welfare and values have been the keywords of the 2015 Danish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Read more here:

Danish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers