Recently, AEBR and DG REGIO have selected the 100th case to receive support to solve legal or administrative obstacles hindering cross-border cooperation within the b-solutions initiative.

Case number 100, with the title “Working from home across borders”, was submitted by Openbaar Lichaam Eurode and looks at the regions bordering the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. It focuses on home office and its consequences, which has become a new reality for workers all over the EU, including in border regions. The application aims to continue the work already started in the region in 2021 thanks to the analysis requested at the time by GrenzInfoPunkt Aachen-Eurode, also through participating in b-solutions.

Employers and employees face many challenges in border regions when staff works from home, as this might imply that the workplace is transferred from the state of employment to the state of residence. This relocation has consequences for, among others, taxation liabilities, insurance obligations, and the building-up of pension schemes:

To which country do cross-border workers pay their taxes when they are working from home?

To which social security system(s) have these cross-border workers access to?

These and many more questions arise depending on each country’s context.

Uncertainties in the taxation of individuals and the access to social security by cross-border workers are fundamental topics and acute challenges for border regions, as demonstrated during the intense discussion in January 2023 at the Vibrant Cross-border labour markets conference organised by EU Commission’s DG REGIO in Brussels.

Among the 100 cases currently collected or under analysis within the b-solutions initiative, four are related to the impact of home office regulations or the lack of them on cross-border labour markets. Authorities along various internal EU borders are looking for solutions: the Spanish-Portuguese, the German-Austrian, the Danish-Swedish and the Belgium-Dutch-German border, the latter hosting b-solutions’ case number 100.

This sample of selected cases gives us a small glimpse to how widely spread this challenge is for employees and employers in border regions. It is likely that working from home across borders will keep on being at the core of cross-border obstacles if no policies and clear administrative procedures are implemented. Despite the existence of bilateral agreements in a few cases, difficulties in terms of taxes, insurances, social security affiliations remain for the parties involved. 

The legal grey zone in which they are is a serious impediment to the development of an integrated cross-border labour market in a more connected and digitalised Europe.  

Border regions have a role to play to adapt to the evolutions of work practices in order to progress both at local level to facilitate the hiring of cross-border workers to telework, as well as at the European level to build a resilient economy as part of the EU Cohesion Policy.

This multilevel approach is underlined by Cor Chudy from the municipality of Kerkrade (NL) and Kylian Cruts from Openbaar Lichaam Eurode: “For European unification in general, it is precisely the border regions and Euregions that also need to integrate from an economic point of view. Making use of each other's potential and perspective offers more than just focusing on one's own country.”

AEBR will keep on enhancing cross-border cooperation in the field of labour market by supporting the implementation of the case number 100 in the next months, and many others. More information on case number 100 can be found on AEBR website.

The b-solutions initiative, promoted by DG REGIO and AEBR, has supported the resolution of obstacles of legal or administrative nature which hinder cross-border cooperation. More than 100 cases brought up by public bodies and cross-border structures in border regions have been analysed by experts who suggested solutions to address them. 90 cases collected are already published and are accessible in the b-solutions library.

To find out more on b-solutions and how to receive advice from top experts in CBC, click here. There is an open call for proposals to apply for support which is open until 10 November. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with immediate application.

Contact: b-solutions@aebr.eu.