Social insurance

Subject: Social insurance

1. Does Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems govern the social insurance arrangements for persons who work for the foreign ministry of an EU Member State in a Member State other than their own?

2. If so, does this lead to inequality in the treatment of persons insured in this category and persons working for an EU Member State in a third country (for example in consulates and embassies in Africa, Asia, etc.)?

3. Is this state of affairs regarded as a breach of the principle of equal treatment, and if not, why not?

Answer given by Mr Schmit on behalf of the European Commission

(15 April 2020)

1. Pursuant to Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 (1), its personal scope includes ‘nationals of a Member State [...] who are or have been subject to the legislation of one or more Member States’. This provision applies regardless of the type of employer a person works for, including therefore individuals working for the foreign ministry of an EU Member State in a Member State other than their own. To the extent that the persons in question are civil servants, Article 11(3)(b) of the regulation stipulates that they are subject to the legislation of the Member State to which the administration employing them is subject. Hence, the persons concerned remain insured in the Member State for whose foreign ministry they work and the legislation of that Member State remains applicable to them.

2. The situation of persons working for an EU Member State in a third country is different insofar as it is not generally governed by the regulation. As the aim of the regulation is to facilitate the free movement of persons (cf. Recitals 1 and 45), it does not apply to situations that are confined in all respects within a single Member State (2). Thus, where there is no second Member State involved, the social insurance arrangements for this group of persons are outside the scope of EC law and are determined according to the relevant national law, which these persons are subject to.

3. The situations of the persons respectively referred to in question 1 and in question 2 (where only one Member State is involved) are not comparable, since the former is governed by EC law and the latter is not. Therefore, the different treatment cannot be regarded as a breach of the principle of equal treatment.

⋅1∙ Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the coordination of social security systems (OJ L 166, 30.4.2004,

p. 1).

⋅2∙ Cf. for instance Case C-276/06 Mamate El Youssfi v Office national des pensions (ONP) [2007] ECR I-2851, para. 39; Case C-212/06 Government of the French Community

and Walloon Government v Flemish Government [2008] ECR I-1683, para. 33