What is happening
The European Commission has published a proposal for a Council decision on the EU’s position in the EU-UK Joint CommitteeThe EU-UK body that oversees the Withdrawal Agreement’s implementation and can make decisions where the agreement permits.. It is not yet a Council decision or a change to the Withdrawal AgreementThe EU-UK treaty setting the arrangements for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU and Euratom. It entered into force on 1 February 2020.. The proposed Council decision would tell the EU how to act when the committee considers an update to the agreement’s social-security coordination material.12
The Commission proposes that the Council support adding four newer decisions to Part I of Annex IThe section of an attachment to the Withdrawal Agreement that lists social-security coordination decisions and recommendations which the EU and UK must take due account of when applying those rules.. An annex is an attachment to an agreement; this part lists social-security coordination decisions and recommendations that the EU and UK must take due account of when applying the relevant rules. The proposal would also remove two older decisions that newer decisions replace.2
The four additions are Decisions H14, E8, H15 and S12. They concern COVID-19 and telework guidance; management of the EESSIElectronic Exchange of Social Security Information: an electronic system whose directory lists relevant social-security bodies. electronic directory; the Technical Commission for Data Processing; and healthcare reimbursement where patients are transferred to another Member State after mass-casualty disasters. Decisions E8 and H15 would replace E2 and H10 respectively.2
Why it matters
The Withdrawal Agreement provides a route for this kind of update. Its Article 36(4) says the Joint Committee should amend Part I of Annex I to reflect new decisions or recommendations approved by the Administrative Commission for the Coordination of Social Security Systems. The Commission says this proposal is needed to reflect the four decisions approved by that body in 2023 and 2024.2
The Joint Committee includes EU and UK representatives and is co-chaired by both sides. It adopts decisions by mutual consent, meaning both sides must agree. If the committee adopts the planned decision, it will bind the EU and the UK and have the same legal effect as the Withdrawal Agreement. That outcome would follow from the committee decision, not from publication of the Commission proposal.2
What happens next
The proposal is at the published-proposal stage. The Council would first need to adopt a decision establishing the EU position; the proposal then envisages the Joint Committee considering its own decision at its next meeting. A committee decision would set its own effective date and, according to the proposal, would be published in the EU Official Journal after adoption. The available material gives no dates and does not say whether individual entitlements would change.12