Report on frontier workers in Europe leads to proposal for legislative amendment by minister

On 5 September 2018, the Minister for Medical Care and Sports, Minister Bruins, informed the Lower House of Parliament by means of a letter to parliament about his steps for surviving dependants' pensions of treaty beneficiaries.

The report ‘Grenswerkers in Europa – een onderzoek naar fiscale en sociaalverzekerings- en pensioenaspecten van grensoverschrijdend werken', was published in June 2017 by the Vereniging voor Belastingwetenschap (Association for Tax Science) chaired by Prof. Dr. Marjon Weerepas (ITEM Expertise Centre / Faculty of Law, Maastricht University) and yielded 39 recommendations. The report recommended, among other things, that surviving relatives who are not independently entitled to treaty benefits should retain their derived treaty right after the death of their partner.

In the current situation, persons who live abroad but do not have an independent treaty right after the death of their partner must provide replacement medical expense coverage in the country where they live. This creates an undesirable additional administrative burden.

The Minister included the recommendation in a proposed amendment to the Regulation. The amendment has yet to be discussed and accepted through the European legislative process, so it is not clear how long it will take before the amendment is implemented.

Read the complete document here.

Source: Central government, Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports