In its
amendment proposal following the European Parliament’s opinion at 1st reading
on 9 July 2008, the Commission amends a certain number of points in its
original proposal based on the Parliament’s suggestions. The Commission
intends to merge 2 proposals that concern the same theme.
Proposals
COD/2006/0008 and COD/2007/0129
both relate to the Annexes to Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 and amend some of
the same Annexes.
The Council
and Parliament decided that the two proposals should be merged. Parliament
considers procedure COD/2007/0129 to have lapsed as a result of the incorporation
of the contents of Commission proposal into procedure COD/2006/0008.
The amended
proposal acknowledges the merging of the two proposals and adapts them on a
number of points as suggested by Parliament. The Commission agrees to
incorporate all amendments adopted at 1st reading apart from
amendments 6 and 12 which it accepts in part for the following reasons:
- Amendment
6: this amendment
reflects new recital 7a agreed by Council but removes the reference to
Annex III. The Commission can accept this amendment in part. The words
"in principle" should be inserted as follows: “The family
members of former frontier workers should in principle benefit from the
possibility to continue medical treatment in the former country of
employment of the insured person after his or her retirement.” This is
to reflect the fact that Annex III will continue to apply for a limited
period, so the benefits referred to will not be available immediately in
all cases.
- Amendment
12: this amendment
to Article 28(1) of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 reflects a similar amendment
agreed by Council but removes the reference to Annex III. The Commission
can accept this amendment in part. It appears that it is in fact
necessary to retain the reference to Annex III, but this reference
should be amended to acknowledge the fact that the Annex will only be in
force for a limited period. The amendment can therefore be accepted
subject to an amendment to the second subparagraph so that it reads as
follows: “The first subparagraph shall apply mutatis mutandis to the
members of the family of the retired frontier worker unless, for as long
as Annex III is in force, the Member State where the frontier worker
last pursued his or her activity is listed in Annex Ш”.