EU-medborgares rätt till svensk föräldrapenning : Föräldrapenningens samordning inom EU enligt förordning 883/2004

There is a system in place in the European Union regulated by Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the (cit. the Regulation) that coordinates the social security benefits amongst the member states for migrating workers and others. This system is in place so that migrating workers and others get to retain their rights and acquired advantages concerning social security benefits when moving within the European Union for work or other pursuits. The Regulation do not grant the European Unions any authority over the members states’ national social security legislation, the right to legislate and amend the terms and conditions of the national social security benefits are reserved for each member state. The Regulation’s only aim is to draw up a system of coordination concerning the member states social security system. Such a system of coordination was deemed necessary due to the negative effects arising when migrant workers and other persons moved within the European Union. The differences existing between the member states national social security legislation could lead to negative effects for persons moving within the European Union. Depending on the terms of the national social security legislation, situations could arise where a migrating worker would be left without any social security coverage when for example living in one member state and working in another. The Regulations primary rules for coordination are rules of equality of treatment of persons, equal treatment of benefits income, facts or events, aggregation of periods and waiving of residence rules. The coordination rules guarantee that persons moving within the European Union retain the rights acquired concerning social security benefits, thereby removing hindrances for the free movement of persons and benefitting the free movement of persons. This paper’s focus is the Swedish social security benefit, the Swedish parent’s allowance and the purpose of this study is to present a systematic review and analysis of the Regulation’s rules of coordination on the Swedish parent’s allowance. This is done by analysing how the Swedish parent’s allowance becomes applicable according to the Regulation and how and when the coordination of the Swedish parent’s allowance takes place according to the Regulations rules of coordination. It is noticeable that the classification of the Swedish parent’s allowance according to the Regulation has recently been changed by the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden. The reclassification of the Swedish parent’s allowance according to the Regulation finds that the way the coordination of the Swedish parent’s allowance takes places changes in several ways. Most notably by the fact that Sweden now is subjected to an increased obligation to grant Swedish parent’s allowance to citizens of the European Union than before. The analysis conducted in the paper, especially finds that the classification of the Swedish parent’s allowance up until now was wrong and also that the Swedish government, who made the classification in the first place, must have had the knowledge, in some capacity, that their classification of the Swedish parent’s allowance according to the Regulation were fallible. It is hoped this paper will inform it’s readers about the rights of the citizens of the European Union to Swedish parents’ allowance following the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden’s new ruling