The coordination of social security between Member States is one of the oldest pillars in EU social policy. It guarantees continuous coverage of social security rights and expectations when moving to another Member State, whether it is for work, on holiday, to retire or for planned healthcare. The 2022 statistical reports focus on the most recent developments that still were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic which strongly reduced intra-EU mobility in 2020 and 2021. The report also newly entails country specific overviews to more easily compare the situations in the different countries.

Key data:

• In 2021, the number of authorisations to export unemployment benefits further decreased by 1 % compared to 2020 after already having steeply declined by 19 % between 2019 and 2020.
• The hampering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were still visible in the data on the number of ‘Portable Documents A1’ with a decrease by 2.4 % compared to 2020.
• There  were 235 million EHICs in circulation in 2021, i.e. around 44 % of the insured in the EU/EFTA and the UK were in possession of an EHIC.
• The decrease in the number of tourism trips abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the level of unplanned necessary cross-border healthcare in the EU.  In 2020 and 2021, there has been a sharp drop in both years, i.e. the amount claimed was around EUR 700 million in both years, compared to EUR 1.2 billion in 2019.
• There was a recovery from the serious drop in planned cross-border healthcare in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In 2021, planned healthcare increased by almost 15 % compared to 2020, but it still was not at the levels of 2019 as from 2019 to 2020 it fell by 29 %.
• Not visibly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, family benefits were transferred to more than 1 million family members residing in another EU/EFTA country or the UK, similar to the number in 2020.
• Around 6 million pensions were paid to persons residing in another EU/EFTA country or the UK, amounting to a total expenditure of some EUR 24.8 billion, which indicates a continuous increase from 2019 onwards.

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