Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the coordination of social security systems (Text with relevance for the EEA and for Switzerland)

TITLE I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

(a) ‘activity as an employed person’ means any activity or equivalent situation treated as such for the purposes of the social security legislation of the Member State in which such activity or equivalent situation exists;

(b) ‘activity as a self-employed person’ means any activity or equivalent situation treated as such for the purposes of the social security legislation of the Member State in which such activity or equivalent situation exists;

(c) ‘insured person’, in relation to the social security branches covered by Title III, Chapters 1 and 3, means any person satisfying the conditions required under the legislation of the Member State competent under Title II to have the right to benefits, taking into account the provisions of this Regulation;

(d) ‘civil servant’ means a person considered to be such or treated as such by the Member State to which the administration employing him/her is subject;

(e) ‘special scheme for civil servants’ means any social security scheme which is different from the general social security scheme applicable to employed persons in the Member State concerned and to which all, or certain categories of, civil servants are directly subject;

(f) ‘frontier worker’ means any person pursuing an activity as an employed or self-employed person in a Member State and who resides in another Member State to which he/she returns as a rule daily or at least once a week;

(g) ‘refugee’ shall have the meaning assigned to it in Article 1 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, signed in Geneva on 28 July 1951;

(h) ‘stateless person’ shall have the meaning assigned to it in Article 1 of the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, signed in New York on 28 September 1954;

(i) ‘member of the family’ means:

(ii) with regard to benefits in kind pursuant to Title III, Chapter 1 on sickness, maternity and equivalent paternity benefits, any person defined or recognised as a member of the family or designated as a member of the household by the legislation of the Member State in which he/she resides;

(j) ‘residence’ means the place where a person habitually resides;

(k) ‘stay’ means temporary residence;

(l) ‘legislation’ means, in respect of each Member State, laws, regulations and other statutory provisions and all other implementing measures relating to the social security branches covered by Article 3(1); This term excludes contractual provisions other than those which serve to implement an insurance obligation arising from the laws and regulations referred to in the preceding subparagraph or which have been the subject of a decision by the public authorities which makes them obligatory or extends their scope, provided that the Member State concerned makes a declaration to that effect, notified to the President of the European Parliament and the President of the Council of the European Union. Such declaration shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union;

(m) ‘competent authority’ means, in respect of each Member State, the Minister, Ministers or other equivalent authority responsible for social security schemes throughout or in any part of the Member State in question;

(n) ‘Administrative Commission’ means the commission referred to in Article 71;

(na) ‘European Labour Authority’ means the body established by Regulation (EU) 2019/1149 of the European Parliament and of the Council (¹) and referred to in Article 74a;

(o) ‘Implementing Regulation’ means the Regulation referred to in Article 89;

(p) ‘institution’ means, in respect of each Member State, the body or authority responsible for applying all or part of the legislation;

(q) ‘competent institution’ means: (i) the institution with which the person concerned is insured at the time of the application for benefit; or (ii) the institution from which the person concerned is or would be entitled to benefits if he/she or a member or members of his/her family resided in the Member State in which the institution is situated; or (iii) the institution designated by the competent authority of the Member State concerned; or (iv) in the case of a scheme relating to an employer's obligations in respect of the benefits set out in Article 3(1), either the employer or the insurer involved or, in default thereof, the body or authority designated by the competent authority of the Member State concerned;

(r) ‘institution of the place of residence’ and ‘institution of the place of stay’ mean respectively the institution which is competent to provide benefits in the place where the person concerned resides and the institution which is competent to provide benefits in the place where the person concerned is staying, in accordance with the legislation administered by that institution or, where no such institution exists, the institution designated by the competent authority of the Member State concerned;

(s) ‘competent Member State’ means the Member State in which the competent institution is situated;

(t) ‘period of insurance’ means periods of contribution, employment or self-employment as defined or recognised as periods of insurance by the legislation under which they were completed or considered as completed, and all periods treated as such, where they are regarded by the said legislation as equivalent to periods of insurance;

(u) ‘period of employment’ or ‘period of self-employment’ mean periods so defined or recognised by the legislation under which they were completed, and all periods treated as such, where they are regarded by the said legislation as equivalent to periods of employment or to periods of self-employment;

(v) ‘period of residence’ means periods so defined or recognised by the legislation under which they were completed or considered as completed;

(va) ‘Benefits in kind’ means: (i) for the purposes of Title III, Chapter 1 (sickness, maternity and equivalent paternity benefits), benefits in kind provided for under the legislation of a Member State which are intended to supply, make available, pay directly or reimburse the cost of medical care and products and services ancillary to that care. This includes long-term care benefits in kind; (ii) for the purposes of Title III, Chapter 2 (accidents at work and occupational diseases), all benefits in kind relating to accidents at work and occupational diseases as defined in point (i) above and provided for under the Member States' accidents at work and occupational diseases schemes;

(w) ‘pension’ covers not only pensions but also lump-sum benefits which can be substituted for them and payments in the form of reimbursement of contributions and, subject to the provisions of Title III, revaluation increases or supplementary allowances;

(x) ‘pre-retirement benefit’ means: all cash benefits, other than an unemployment benefit or an early old-age benefit, provided from a specified age to workers who have reduced, ceased or suspended their remunerative activities until the age at which they qualify for an old-age pension or an early retirement pension, the receipt of which is not conditional upon the person concerned being available to the employment services of the competent State; ‘early old-age benefit’ means a benefit provided before the normal pension entitlement age is reached and which either continues to be provided once the said age is reached or is replaced by another old-age benefit;

(y) ‘death grant’ means any one-off payment in the event of death excluding the lump-sum benefits referred to in subparagraph w;

(z) ‘family benefit’ means all benefits in kind or in cash intended to meet family expenses, excluding advances of maintenance payments and special childbirth and adoption allowances mentioned in Annex I.

Article 2

Persons covered

Article 3

Matters covered

This Regulation shall apply to all legislation concerning the following branches of social security:

(a) sickness benefits;

(b) maternity and equivalent paternity benefits;

(c) invalidity benefits;

(d) old-age benefits;

(e) survivors' benefits;

(f) benefits in respect of accidents at work and occupational diseases;

(g) death grants;

(h) unemployment benefits;

(i) pre-retirement benefits;

(j) family benefits.

This Regulation shall not apply to:

(a) social and medical assistance or

(b) benefits in relation to which a Member State assumes the liability for damages to persons and provides for compensation, such as those for victims of war and military action or their consequences; victims of crime, assassination or terrorist acts; victims of damage occasioned by agents of the Member State in the course of their duties; or victims who have suffered a disadvantage for political or religious reasons or for reasons of descent.

Article 4

Equality of treatment

Unless otherwise provided for by this Regulation, persons to whom this Regulation applies shall enjoy the same benefits and be subject to the same obligations under the legislation of any Member State as the nationals thereof.

Article 5

Equal treatment of benefits, income, facts or events

Unless otherwise provided for by this Regulation and in the light of the special implementing provisions laid down, the following shall apply:

(a) where, under the legislation of the competent Member State, the receipt of social security benefits and other income has certain legal effects, the relevant provisions of that legislation shall also apply to the receipt of equivalent benefits acquired under the legislation of another Member State or to income acquired in another Member State;

(b) where, under the legislation of the competent Member State, legal effects are attributed to the occurrence of certain facts or events, that Member State shall take account of like facts or events occurring in any Member State as though they had taken place in its own territory.

Article 6

Aggregation of periods

Unless otherwise provided for by this Regulation, the competent institution of a Member State whose legislation makes:

— the acquisition, retention, duration or recovery of the right to benefits,

— the coverage by legislation, or

— the access to or the exemption from compulsory, optional continued or voluntary insurance,

conditional upon the completion of periods of insurance, employment, self-employment or residence shall, to the extent necessary, take into account periods of insurance, employment, self-employment or residence completed under the legislation of any other Member State as though they were periods completed under the legislation which it applies.

Article 7

Waiving of residence rules

Unless otherwise provided for by this Regulation, cash benefits payable under the legislation of one or more Member States or under this Regulation shall not be subject to any reduction, amendment, suspension, withdrawal or confiscation on account of the fact that the beneficiary or the members of his/her family reside in a Member State other than that in which the institution responsible for providing benefits is situated.

Article 8

Relations between this Regulation and other coordination instruments

Article 9

Declarations by the Member States on the scope of this Regulation

Article 10

Prevention of overlapping of benefits

Unless otherwise specified, this Regulation shall neither confer nor maintain the right to several benefits of the same kind for one and the same period of compulsory insurance.

TITLE II

DETERMINATION OF THE LEGISLATION APPLICABLE

Article 11

General rules

Subject to Articles 12 to 16:

(a) a person pursuing an activity as an employed or self-employed person in a Member State shall be subject to the legislation of that Member State;

(b) a civil servant shall be subject to the legislation of the Member State to which the administration employing him/her is subject;

(c) a person receiving unemployment benefits in accordance with Article 65 under the legislation of the Member State of residence shall be subject to the legislation of that Member State;

(d) a person called up or recalled for service in the armed forces or for civilian service in a Member State shall be subject to the legislation of that Member State;

(e) any other person to whom subparagraphs (a) to (d) do not apply shall be subject to the legislation of the Member State of residence, without prejudice to other provisions of this Regulation guaranteeing him/her benefits under the legislation of one or more other Member States.

Article 12

Special rules

Article 13

Pursuit of activities in two or more Member States

A person who normally pursues an activity as an employed person in two or more Member States shall be subject:

(a) to the legislation of the Member State of residence if he/she pursues a substantial part of his/her activity in that Member State; or

(b) if he/she does not pursue a substantial part of his/her activity in the Member State of residence: (i) to the legislation of the Member State in which the registered office or place of business of the undertaking or employer is situated if he/she is employed by one undertaking or employer; or (ii) to the legislation of the Member State in which the registered office or place of business of the undertakings or employers is situated if he/she is employed by two or more undertakings or employers which have their registered office or place of business in only one Member State; or (iii) to the legislation of the Member State in which the registered office or place of business of the undertaking or employer is situated other than the Member State of residence if he/she is employed by two or more undertakings or employers, which have their registered office or place of business in two Member States, one of which is the Member State of residence; or (iv) to the legislation of the Member State of residence if he/she is employed by two or more undertakings or employers, at least two of which have their registered office or place of business in different Member States other than the Member State of residence.

A person who normally pursues an activity as a self-employed person in two or more Member States shall be subject to:

(a) the legislation of the Member State of residence if he/she pursues a substantial part of his/her activity in that Member State; or

(b) the legislation of the Member State in which the centre of interest of his/her activities is situated, if he/she does not reside in one of the Member States in which he/she pursues a substantial part of his/her activity.

Article 14

Voluntary insurance or optional continued insurance

Article 15

Contract staff of the European Communities

Contract staff of the European Communities may opt to be subject to the legislation of the Member State in which they are employed, to the legislation of the Member State to which they were last subject or to the legislation of the Member State whose nationals they are, in respect of provisions other than those relating to family allowances, provided under the scheme applicable to such staff. This right of option, which may be exercised once only, shall take effect from the date of entry into employment.

Article 16

Exceptions to Articles 11 to 15

TITLE III

SPECIAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING THE VARIOUS CATEGORIES OF BENEFITS

CHAPTER 1

Sickness, maternity and equivalent paternity benefits

Section 1

Insured persons and members of their families, except pensioners and members of their families

Article 17

Residence in a Member State other than the competent Member State

An insured person or members of his/her family who reside in a Member State other than the competent Member State shall receive in the Member State of residence benefits in kind provided, on behalf of the competent institution, by the institution of the place of residence, in accordance with the provisions of the legislation it applies, as though they were insured under the said legislation.

Article 18

Stay in the competent Member State when residence is in another Member State – Special rules for the members of the families of frontier workers

The members of the family of a frontier worker shall be entitled to benefits in kind during their stay in the competent Member State.

Where the competent Member State is listed in Annex III however, the members of the family of a frontier worker who reside in the same Member State as the frontier worker shall be entitled to benefits in kind in the competent Member State only under the conditions laid down in Article 19(1).

Article 19

Stay outside the competent Member State

Article 20

Travel with the purpose of receiving benefits in kind — authorisation to receive appropriate treatment outside the Member State of residence

Article 21

Cash benefits

Article 22

Pension claimants

Section 2

Pensioners and members of their families

Article 23

Right to benefits in kind under the legislation of the Member State of residence

A person who receives a pension or pensions under the legislation of two or more Member States, of which one is the Member State of residence, and who is entitled to benefits in kind under the legislation of that Member State, shall, with the members of his/her family, receive such benefits in kind from and at the expense of the institution of the place of residence, as though he/she were a pensioner whose pension was payable solely under the legislation of that Member State.

Article 24

No right to benefits in kind under the legislation of the Member State of residence

In the cases covered by paragraph 1, the cost of benefits in kind shall be borne by the institution as determined in accordance with the following rules:

(a) where the pensioner is entitled to benefits in kind under the legislation of a single Member State, the cost shall be borne by the competent institution of that Member State;