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Preliminary agreement on “Social Security”

A preliminary agreement between the European Parliament and the Council has been reached on the very sensitive revision of the “Social Security” Regulations.Amongst some of the main important changes foreseen we can point out :

  • the need for a mandatory period of 3 months prior affiliation in the “home” Member State before being able to post a worker in another Member State;
  • the need to have an interruption period of 2 months between 2 postings;
  • a specific procedure for contesting the validity of an A1 document, with the possibility for the “receiving country” to rectify or withdraw an A1 form in case of error or fraud or if it is incomplete;
  • some criteria have been included, in order to determine the “real” location of a business. They include criteria that are both related to the worker (e.g. the effective working time performed in each Member State) and to the company (e.g. place where the habitual nature of the activity is pursued).

The preliminary agreement now needs to be endorsed both by the Parliament and the Council and given the delicate balance that was reached in the latter during the negotiations, it cannot yet be considered a done deal.

 

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European Commission invests €421M in transport infrastructure

On 26th March, the European Commission proposed investment of €421 million in 69 projects aimed at promoting digitalisation, making roads safer, and fostering multimodal connections.
These 69 projects will be supported via the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU’s financial mechanism supporting infrastructure development and upgrade. The EU’s financial contribution is made in the form of grants, with different co-financing rates depending on the project type.
Under the CEF programme, €23.6 billion is available for grants from the EU’s 2014-2020 budget to co-fund projects of the Trans-European Transport Network in the EU Member States. Since the launch of CEF in 2014, five calls for project proposals have been launched annually. In total, CEF has so far supported 688 projects with a total of €22.9 billion.
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Digital Day 9 April

Next week, the third Digital Day will take place in Brussels. The annual event aims to encourage the EU and interested Member States to accelerate digital developments in key areas though joint efforts and resource sharing. This year, panel discussions with high-level political stakeholders from Member States’ governments will focus on the main areas in which digital is expected to make a significant impact in the coming years, including Artificial Intelligence Ethical Guidelines and promoting greater participation of women in digital.

 

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