The first legal international efforts date back to shortly after the development of modern social security systems. Acts of harmonisation of social security systems establish minimum social rights, the basic conditions for their entitlement and the minimum level of benefits, whereas acts of coordination create the conditions for the integration of different social security systems.
In the context of international legal efforts, bilateral treaties are the oldest means of coordinating social security systems. The UN framework is also important, as are the efforts of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The core organisation is however the International Labour Organisation (ILO): its fundamental document in the field of harmonisation is Convention No 102 on minimum standards of social security, which establishes minimum standards for nine branches of social security. Today, the ILO focuses on ensuring universal access to comprehensive and sustainable social protection and on adapting the scope of social security to needs and uncertainties arising from technological, social, demographic and economic change.
Council of Europe and European Union (EU) instruments are key to European legal efforts in the field of social security. In the EU, the development of the coordination of social security systems, which is ensured by regulations, has gone hand in hand with the development of freedom of movement of workers. In the field of harmonisation, the Union has only supporting competences and is therefore adopting mainly non-binding acts. The main challenges today include an increase in mobility and non-standard forms of work. A Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed was adopted, with a new revision of the Coordination Regulation under preparation.
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