Le Cleiss Particuliers Employeurs Indépendants Documentation Actu

For 50 years, a help-desk in France for International Mobility and Social Security : the Cleiss (Center of European and International Liaisons for Social Security)

For International Mobility

In order to facilitate and streamline international mobility, France and Europe have an international legal framework which guarantees good coordination of national Social Security systems for persons moving outside national boundaries. The framework is comprised of 2 European Regulations No 1408/71 and No 574/72 and 34 bilateral agreements signed by France and most of the main extra-European partners in the Mediterranean Basin, in Maghreb, in French-speaking Africa, in America and in the Far East, as well as 3 Coordination Decrees with Mayotte, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

For persons living or residing outside the country which provides a regular social cover these legislative texts enable : an exemption from residence conditions and waiting period requirements for those entitled to benefits; a totalization of acquired rights and particularly a taking into consideration of all working periods performed in all the concerned States, when retirement or survivors pension is to be paid; an exportation of pensions; and as required, and under certain conditions, a retention under the sending country’s labour laws for those posted in the territory of another contracting State.

A wide range of persons from the Europe, Switzerland included, and overseas French territories benefit from these rights : students, working and non-working persons and beneficiaries, who reap the benefit of a better protection from what is more often provided for in bilateral agreements which usually concern only citizens from either one or the other State, and who are working or were working in either one or the other country.

For Social Security

The Cleiss is the French hub organization involved in implementing these agreements, on behalf of public authorities and Social Security organizations, all risks and schemes taken into account. Thus:

• it provides the French Government with its expertise for the negotiation and implementation of Social Security international agreements and European regulations and makes their approach easier for individuals and companies;
• it is the relevant body for the examination of all exemption agreements or exceptional agreements for workers posted abroad.
• it acts as an intermediary between French and foreign Social Security institutions and between these institutions, individuals and companies, providing administrative assistance in order to solve more easily any financial or legal problem.
• it provides these institutions help with recovery and settlement of claims and debts, related to health care expenses between States, making thus a positive financial contribution to the Social Security results and to the balance of payments of our country, ranging from 150 to 250 million Euros a year.
• it meets the translation needs of all concerned social security agencies and authorities; in this respect it is the first public translator, 50 000 pages a year being translated on average from 26 languages ;
• it issues an annual statistical report showing all financial and human movement between the concerned States under the coordination of regulations for international Social Security.

The "Cleiss" (Centre of European and International Liaisons for Social Security) acts as a liaison body between the French Social Security Institutions and their foreign counterparts by implementing Community Regulations and bilateral or multilateral Social Security agreements. It is a French public national institution, mainly funded by the French Social Security Schemes. It has a prominent position within the Social Security system owing to its international role.

Three types of mission

A financial mission

The Cleiss checks and pays claims and debts relating to health care costs incurred by families residing in a country other than the country where the worker is employed, by workers staying temporarily abroad or workers moving abroad or finally by pensioners and their families, the payments being made on the basis of actual costs or as lump-sum payments, according to the different agreements.

The Cleiss collects from the French Social Security Funds the statistical and financial data relating to the transfer of benefits abroad, carried out in accordance with international agreements and produces an annual statistical report on this basis. This financial and statistical data is also used for the final settlement of accounts between the French and foreign Social Security Schemes; these settlements are reached by joint bilateral committees, supervised by the competent authorities of the two States involved.

An advisory mission

The Cleiss assists French Social Security organisations in the implementation of the European regulations and bilateral agreements related to the coordination of social security systems. It intervenes at the request of French and foreign organisations and also of insured persons or their employers ; it supplies information relating to procedures in different international agreements and informs on the interpretation of laws or other legal texts issued by its supervisory authorities. It processes requests for exemption from French coverage or exceptional retention under the French system.

Its role as a coordinator between the institutions and the Ministry in charge of social security where its main partner is the Division of European and International Affairs of the Social Security Directorate provides the Cleiss with a unique position in the structure of French Social Security.

Thanks to documentation on foreign Social Security laws, on the one hand, the Cleiss informs the French Funds, the employers and the insured persons about the schemes of countries linked to France by a Social Security agreement, particularly through its website and its publication : "le Bulletin de Liaison et d'Information". On the other hand, it informs foreign institutions about French Social Security law and its changes.

A translation mission

The Cleiss is the department of translation for the Social Security Funds ; it carries out, at their request, translation into French of letters, legal, medical and administrative documents, necessary to their requirements.