Poland and Bulgaria’s bilateral agreements with Eastern partnership countries in the context of circular migration

The article aims to examine the existing possibilities for social security coordination with Eastern partnership countries by taking as case studies two new Member States with relatively recent migration policies: Bulgaria and Poland. It first presents social security coordination dynamics at the national level, looking into the bilateral agreements concluded by Bulgaria and Poland and at their personal and material scope. Then it moves to an analysis of their implementation based on empirical data gathered through focus groups with migrant workers coming from Ukraine and Russia, interviews with officials and data obtained from the respective Ministries. The article employs a rights-based framework for analysis consisting of international standards in the field of coordination of social security, against which it assesses the bilateral agreements concluded by Bulgaria and Poland with Eastern Partnership countries.