Key points
The European Economic and Social Committee endorses the amendments put forward in the Annexes to Regulation No 1408/71 and is convinced that these will help to improve the Regulation's content and benefit individuals in the EU who fall within its scope. This support applies most specifically to those changes that help to bring certain benefits into the field of coordination, meaning that they will no longer be exceptions or non-exportable rights.
As the representative of the social partners and organised civil society, the European Economic and Social Committee also wishes to highlight the slowness of the legislative process for the proposal for a Regulation implementing Regulation No 883/2004. The Committee would not be delivering this opinion if the Regulation referred to above had entered into force. The EESC, therefore, urges the European Parliament and the Council to speed up the decision-making process as much as possible and strive to ensure that the new coordination of social security systems enters into force as swiftly as can be achieved.