EU framework agreement on cross-border telework: State of play

The framework agreement on EU cross-border telework, allowing employers and employees to agree to deviate from the regular social security coordination rules in specific cross-border teleworking situations, entered into force on 1 July 2023. Therefore, it is increasingly important to understand the status of the agreement, and which countries will be participating.

For more information, please see Deloitte Belgium’s general alert in April and the June alert concerning signatories and the retroactive application of the agreement.

Neighboring countries

So far, 18 countries have signed the official agreement, including Belgium and its neighbouring countries of Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

Following uncertainty over whether France would participate, on 30 June 2023, France confirmed that it had signed the agreement.

The remaining signatories of the agreement are Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Liechtenstein, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Additional countries have committed to sign, albeit potentially at a later date. These are Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, and Lithuania.

All signatory countries commit to agree to a request to designate the member state where the employer's registered office is located as the competent authority, provided the employee works less than 50% of the total working time in their state of residence. For all countries that have not yet signed, the existing “no-impact” position was not extended beyond 30 June 2023, and the general rules of the EU regulation on the coordination of social security systems apply after this date for continuous cross-border telework arrangements. Depending on the specific situation, this could lead to a switch in the applicable social security scheme, e.g., if an employee (tele)works more than 25% of their total working time in their residence state, the social security regime will shift and the scheme of that residence state will apply.

Limosa declaration

It is important to note that, unlike other countries, Belgium requires a part-time worker notification (Limosa declaration) if an individual works for an employer with registered seat in one of the signatory countries, while teleworking from Belgium for less than 50% of the total working time.

How Deloitte Legal can help

As not all of Belgium’s neighbouring countries have signed the framework agreement, it is very important for employers to effectively map their cross-border employee population, and to perform a multidisciplinary risk analysis, taking into account the impact on labour and social security laws and individual income and corporate income taxes, and to decide on which business approach is preferred.

Deloitte Legal will keep you informed on further developments and can provide further advice on your cross-border teleworking situations involving France.

We can also assist with the requests for article 16 agreements for cross-border teleworkers, as well as with the multidisciplinary aspects to be considered in the decision-making process.