EU
Unemployment
Insurance
EU rules about Unemployment Insurance
The EU rules regarding unemployment insurance grant rights for individuals moving within EU, or coming to EU for working. The rules also determine in which country you must be covered by unemployment insurance - whether its compulsory or voluntary Unemployment Insurance Schemes.
However the EU rules do not introduce a common EU unemployment Insurance system.
The purpose of the EU Regulation is therefore mostly to coordinate or connect the different Unemployment Insurance systems in the individual Member states.
Regulation (EC) No 1408/71
Regulation (EC) No 1408/71 was the predecessor of Regulation 883/2004.
1408/71 is still refered to by CJEU in some court decisions, see for example case C-610/18 from 2020.
Article 90(1) of Regulation No 883/2004, that article being headed "Repeal", provides:
[Regulation No 1408/71] shall be repealed from the date of application of this Regulation.
However, Regulation [No 1408/71] shall remain in force and shall continue to have legal effect for the purposes of:
the Agreement on the European Economic Area [of 2 May 1992 (OJ 1994 L 1, p. 3)], the Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Swiss Confederation, of the other part, on the free movement of persons [signed in Luxembourg on 21 June 1999, and approved on behalf of the European Community by Decision 2002/309/EC/Euratom of the Council and of the Commission as regards the Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of 4 April 2002 on the conclusion of seven Agreements with the Swiss Confederation (OJ 2002 L 114, p. 6)] for as long as those agreements have not been modified in the light of this Regulation.
Regulation (EC) No 883/2004
Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems. This Regulation also apply to Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Specific rules are in place in the agreements with the United Kingdom.
Regulation (EC) No 987/2009
Laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation No 883/2004.
Regulation (EC) No 1231/2010
Extend Regulation 883/2004 to also cover third-country nationals.
Opt-out options
Certain EU Member States have what are known as opt-outs, which are a means of ensuring that when a given Member State does not want to take part in a particular field of EU policy, it can opt out, thus avoiding legal obligations in the EU regulations in question.
In the area of social security Denmark has opted out of Regulation (EU) 1231/2010 (extending the personal scope of Regulation 883/2004 to third-country nationals).
In practise it means that third-country nationals can not use the EU rules about social security coodination when Denmark are involved, including aggregation of insurance periods when moving between EU countries, and export of unemployment benefits.
Source: European Union.
You might also be interested in:
⇒Unemployment Insurance Schemes in EU
⇒Unemployment Insurance in the Nordic countries
Key points of EU Unemployment Insurance coordination
- Transferring periods of work and insurance between EEA countries As an EU citizen you can transfer acquired rights from Unemployment Insurance when moving between EU/EEA contries. In this way it may be easier to become entitled to unemployment benefit in the country you move to.
In the vast majority of the Member states the aggregation rule become fully applicable as soon as you starts to work in the country. However in Denmark, Belgium and Finland you must work some period there before you can use the aggregation rule.
You need a PD U1 document in the country you leave or if the involved countries use electronically exhange (EESSI) there will be issued a SED U002. The countries who issues the highest number of PD U1 documents are Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The countries who receives most PD U1 documents are Lithuania and Italy. - Transferring unemployment benefits Under certain conditions you can go to another EU country to look for work and continue to receive your unemployment benefits from the country where you became unemployed. The period you can export your unemployment benefits varies from 3 to 6 months in the different Member states.
You have to apply for a PD U2 document in the country you leave, or if you haven't done that the institution in the receiving country must request a SED U008 from the competent institution in your last country.
The countries who issues the highest number of PD U2 documents are Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark. Poland is the country who receives by far most PD U2 documents. - Unemployment benefits coverage According to OECD the net replacement of income after 2 months of unemployment, for a single person without children whose previous in-work earnings were 67% of the average wage varies from 33 percent (Ireland) to 91 percent (Belgium). Read more here..
- Having residence in another EU country than where you work? According to EU social security coordination rules you must only be insured against unemployment in one country at a time. As a generel rule this country is where you work.
In Member states who have compulsory insurance, you will automatically be covered when you start working there.
However you may be insured by your country of residence if you are posted to a EU/EEA country or work in two or more EU/EEA countries at a time. In these situations you can not your self decide where to have unemployment Insurance, but you (or your employer) must apply for a PD A1 document which states in which country you are covered by social security, including Unemployment Insurance. Special rule also apply for cross-border workers ("frontier workers"). - Third-country Nationals working in EU/EEANON-EEA citizens are covered by Unemployment Insurance in the EU countries who have compulsory Unemployment Insurance. In countries with voluntary Unemployment Insurance (Denmark, Sweden and Finland) third-country nationals can become member of an Unemployment Insurance Fund.
In the most countries Third-country nationals can also use the EU Coordination rules when moving within EU/EEA (however not in Denmark, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).
Third-country nationals in short-tem working relations often faces problems with actually get Unemployment benefits, even though they have contributed to the system. This is due to the fact that one normally need a residence permit which allow one to take any job, and also because of a qualifying period in most countries between 6-12 months.