SERI is organizing a colloquium (with a subsequent special issue in “Economia&Lavoro”) about the effects of Brexit on social security coordination, as well as about policy options to mitigate them. PhD students and young scholars interested in participating should send an application to Scuola Europea di Relazioni Industriali (SERI).

By the end of March 2019, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. At that time, the relations between the UK and the EU shall be ruled by a withdrawal agreement, setting out which EU law provisions shall continue to apply, how future law changes in areas of common interest will be coordinated, and which courts will have judicial power over the interpretation of the agreement and of the EU law that will continue to apply in the UK.

These aspects are particularly thorny in the area of social security coordination – Reg. (EC) No 883/2004 – as far as divergences in the related rules or in the application thereof would lead to conflicts of law, triggering risks of excluding European mobile citizens/workers from access to social security benefits (old-age benefits, unemployment benefits, family benefits, etc.).

This call is intended to explore the impacts of Brexit on the European coordination of social security in the light of the different forthcoming legal scenarios, including the failure to reach an agreement. PhD students and young scholars are invited to investigate such topic, focusing on how and why the European coordination of social security may boost sustainability for society in terms of intra and inter-generational solidarity in the EU.

As a starting point, applicants are invited to refer to the recent studies that our SERI team carried out for the European Parliament and the European Commission on the matters of social security coordination and of posting of workers.

Abstracts (no more than 500 words) and CVs must be submitted electronically (michele.faioli@uniroma2.it) by February 20, 2018. Annamaria Simonazzi (Sapienza University of Rome) and Michele Faioli (University of Rome Tor Vergata – Law School) will chair the Scientific Committee.

The colloquium will be held in Brussels, at Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini premises (Avenue Marnix, 19A) on April 18-19, 2018.