Member States' social security agreements with India: Lessons for the future of a common EU approach

In a 2012 Communication, the European Commission described the current approach to social security coordination with third countries as 'patchy'. The European Commission proposed to address that patchiness by developing a common EU approach to social security coordination with third countries whereby the Member States would cooperate more with each other when concluding bilateral agreements with third countries. This article aims to explore the policy agenda of the European Commission in that field by conducting a comparative legal analysis of the Member States' bilateral agreements with India. The idea behind the comparative legal analysis is to determine whether (1) there are common grounds between the Member States' approaches, and (2) based on these common grounds, it is possible to suggest a common EU approach. India is taken as a third-country case study due to its labour migration and investment potential for the European Union. In addition, there are currently 12 Member State bilateral agreements with India and no instrument at the EU level on social security coordination with India. Therefore, there is a potential need for a common EU approach to social security coordination with India. Based on the comparative legal analysis of the Member States' bilateral agreements with India, this article ends by outlining the content of a potential future common EU approach.