The External Dimension of Social Protection: EU Nationals’ Access to Social Protection in Third Countries

While there are plenty regulations and policies related to the safeguarding of social protection of mobile EU nationals settling in other EU member states, the scope of those policies is limited once the individuals decide to settle in third countries. As in the latter case the EU safety nets are no longer valid, other type of arrangements are in place. The Bilateral Social Security Agreements (BSSAs) have been proven a useful tool for the signing partners to ensure that the social protection rights of their nationals will be guaranteed once on the move in third countries. The aim of this paper would be to map out the BSSAs that all EU member states have signed till 2018 and assess whether the EU member states ensure the social protection of their nationals abroad or the BSSAs were singed as an initiative of the non-EU signing partners, and subsequently reply to the questions: do EU member states care about the social protection of their nationals residing abroad? If yes, how much do they care? Which policies areas of social protection doe the BSSAs cover for? Are some countries more engaged to the social protection of their nationals abroad? In order to answer those questions and evaluate both the coverage of the BSSAs, as well as the motivation of the EU member states to sign those agreements all the BSSAs that the EU member states have signing will be analysed from a comparative perspective.