Social Security Rights under Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Association Council: Developments in the EU and in the Netherlands

Abstract

This article deals with the recent developments of Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Association Council in the EU and in the Netherlands. Decision No 3/80 established social security measures for workers of Turkish nationality moving within the Community (now Union) and members of their family living with them. Decision No 3/80 has mainly had an impact in two Member States: the Netherlands and Germany. In this article I will limit myself to the Netherlands, where the social security system has become much more territorially-based since the year 2000. The importance attached to residence in the design of the Dutch social security system showcases the revitalisation of nationstate approaches to the delivery of welfare at a time when EU rules are interfering more and more in the everyday life of EU citizens. The second part of this article analyses the discussion raised by the Akdas judgment of the EC], which gave Turkish nationals more rights than EU nationals, and the Demirci judgment, which reversed this advantage for Turkish workers with dual nationality. It also deals with the 2012 initiative of the European Union in replacing Decision No 3/80 by a new Association Council Decision and the legal and political challenges of this new initiative.