The Internal, Systemic and Constitutional Integrity of EU Regulation 883/2004 on the Coordination of Social Security Systems: Lessons from a Scandal

Abstract

The Norwegian ‘social security’ scandal concerns the right to export sickness benefits pursuant to EU Regulation 883/2004. Norway is party to the EEA Agreement and the Regulation is binding in Norway. Norway’s Social Security Act requires continued presence in Norway to retain payable benefits. Thousands of claims have been rejected by disregarding Regulation 883/2004 or reading it down. Some hundred citizens have been sentenced to prison for welfare fraud because they stayed in another EU/EEA State and exported cash benefits in the absence of prior authorization.

Legal uncertainty seems to remain, and the exact scope of the scandal is still not clear. The paper discusses the reach and depth of the rights afforded by Regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems. It argues that the main rules on equal treatment (Articles 4 and 5) and the main rule on free movement (Article 7) provide an unconditional right to export sickness benefits in cash. It provides an account of the internal, systemic, and constitutional integrity of the Regulation, and the equilibrium between coordination and harmonization.