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Successful launch of the (UN)EMPL working group

On 20 February, ESIP held the first meeting of the (UN)EMPL working group. Representatives of seven organisations from within and outside of the ESIP structure came together to discuss hot topics on the European agenda in the field of employment and unemployment services and benefits.

The new working group will be a flexible structure within ESIP, with up to 2 or 3 meetings a year, to allow for practical exchanges between national organisations and direct contact with EU officials. 

For the first meeting Jos Kester, a Social Councillor of the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU, gave an update on the Labour Mobility Package and the foreseen changes to the provisions of unemployment benefits in the social security coordination rules. Regarding the unemployment chapter, the three main issues are aggregation, export of benefits and cross-border workers. For an overview of the changes we refer to the ESIP fact sheet.

In addition, the organisations represented informed each other of the current changes in their systems and of the difficulties they encounter when activating long term unemployed persons.  The challenges regarding the implementation of the EURES portal were also discussed. For the next meeting the focus will be put on the topic of tools for combatting fraud, including data mining and their interaction with the General Data Protection Regulation.

The next meeting will be held on the 5th of June. If you are working of an organisation competent in the field of unemployment benefits and interested in joining the working group, please feel free to contact us