The adequacy of the lex loci laboris principle for social security coordination within the European Union

Within the European Union, the competence concerning social security firmly remains in the hands of the Member States. However, to ensure the implementation of the freedom of workers within the Union, coordination is crucial. To that end, coordination to determine the applicable social security legislation for cross-border work between the Member States of the European Union is regulated by reg. no. 883/2004 and its implementing regulation. Without such a framework, workers and self-employed persons would be discouraged from working in a cross-border context between several member states, as they might lose their social protection by falling between the diverging rules of individual Member States determining the applicability of social security schemes. The basic principle to determine the applicable legislation is the lex loci laboris principle. It has to be observed however that this principle is confronted with several challenges. On the one hand this principle is confronted with specific situations of highly mobile workers, such as those working in the transport sector, where the rules of the regulation might not completely be adequate to deal with the nature of their work. On the other hand the exceptions foreseen in the regulation for posted workers and people who simultaneously work in more than one Member State or not always clear cut, with similar situations being able to be qualified as posting in the one instance and as simultaneous work in different Member States in the other. For that reason, the main question the research project will focus on is the question whether the choice for the lex loci laboris principle as a connecting factor for social security coordination within the EU still is justified, and if not, to conduct a normative exercise pertaining to what solutions can be proposed.