New regulations on the coordination of social security in the EU - basic principles and coordination of sickness benefits

It has been almost one year since the new Regulations No 883/2004 and 987/2009 came into force on 1.5.2010. These regulations replaced the former Regulations No 1408/71 and 574/72, which had been laying down the rules for coordination of the national social security systems for almost 40 years. As the extent of issue is relatively huge I have focused only on some aspects of coordination. The first chapter concerns the general concept of coordination and the sources of coordination law. It also includes the detailed description of personal and material scope of regulations. One part of this chapter is dealing also with some of the new concepts included in the regulation. The second chapter describes the basic social security coordination principles, ie. the principle of equal treatment, the principle of single applicable legislation, the principle of exporting the benefits and the aggregation principle. In addition to these four basic principles mentioned above new rule for the assimilation of facts is described. This is in fact a new principle, previously applied only on the basis of case-law. The third chapter focuses on organizational aspect at both EU and national levels. There are lists of all relevant bodies included together with description of their roles and responsibilities. The fourth chapter..