Regulatory and financial burdens arising from the A1 Certificate

The A1 Directive: applied everywhere differently

It sounds simple: the EU issues requirements and all Member States implement them in the same way. But that’s only in theory. This is revealed in the first volume of a four-part series looking at the burdens of bureaucracy.

This volume looks specifically at the A1 certificate. Employers must apply for this if they temporarily post an employee to another EU country, no matter whether for a longer period or just for a short business trip – a procedure that is particularly burdensome for family businesses.

The study, which was prepared by three institutes from three countries, compares corporate practices in Germany, France, Italy and Austria. The astonishing result: every country asks for something different. In addition, the data is sometimes more and sometimes less digitised, and the waiting periods and associated costs vary accordingly.

In this context, Germany does not look good. In Germany, the process not only takes a particularly long time, but is also particularly expensive.

The researchers’ recommendation is therefore clear: they call for the pilot project launched by the EU in 2021 for a digital European social security card to be pushed ahead more quickly. In the short term, they propose streamlining applications to reduce the bureaucratic burden.

The other volumes in the series on bureaucratic burdens look at the Posted Workers Directive, the transparency register and the General Data Protection Regulation.