Ceemet, the employer voice of Europe’s metal, engineering and technology-based industries, supports the European Social Security Pass – ESSPASS initiative, calling on the European Commission to use it to deliver meaningful simplification for cross-border workers. In its response to the Commission’s Call for Evidence on the proposed ESSPASS, Ceemet argues that reducing administrative burdens is essential to strengthening the Single Market while upholding high levels of social protection.
Ceemet welcomes the inclusion of ESSPASS in the forthcoming Fair Labour Mobility Package, stressing that simplification must be treated as a strategic enabler of labour mobility rather than a purely technical exercise. While digitalisation offers clear potential, Ceemet cautions that new systems must not create additional layers of bureaucracy.
Originally conceived as a tool to digitise social security coordination documents such as the Portable Document A1 and the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), ESSPASS should evolve into or become part of a secure and user-friendly digital wallet. Ceemet supports expanding its scope to include labour law elements, such as posting declarations, and, in the longer term, potentially diplomas, certificates, and immigration documents.
Crucially, Ceemet calls for better alignment between social security and labour law procedures, including the reuse of data already submitted for A1 certificates when completing posting notifications in host Member States. It urges binding deadlines for national authorities, full digital solutions across all Member States, and the application of the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) principle, so that information is submitted just once and shared between administrations. By embracing existing EU digital frameworks and ensuring real-time cross-border verification, ESSPASS can be an instigator to reduce red tape and facilitate labour mobility across the EU.
For sectors reliant on cross-border supply and value chains, including the temporary posting of workers, streamlined and interoperable procedures are vital to remove what the Commission has identified as some of the most persistent Single Market barriers.