Submission to call for evidence on ESSPASS

The European Social Security Pass is being proposed at a moment when European labour mobility has reached a level of structural complexity that existing legal and administrative instruments are no longer able to sustain. As part of the broader Fair Labour Mobility Package, the initiative represents an important opportunity to strengthen the practical effectiveness of social rights in a single market characterised by increasing cross-border employment.

EurECCA acknowledges the political ambition behind the ESSPASS initiative and welcomes the Commission’s recognition that the current system of social security coordination remains burdened by procedural opacity, legal uncertainty and insufficient enforceability. The persistence of non-verifiable documents, parallel administrative procedures and divergent national practices has created a situation in which mobile workers are formally protected by EU law yet practically exposed to uncertainty. This contradiction lies at the heart of the current crisis of trust in the European social dimension: rights exist on paper, but their portability and enforceability remain fragile in practice.

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