About the Cleiss: Roles and organization

Created in 1959, the Cleiss (Centre of European and International Liaisons for Social Security) is a public administrative establishment for international mobility and social security.

Facilitating International Mobility

To facilitate the ever-increasing movement of people between countries, France and Europe have an international legal framework which ensures efficient coordination of national social security systems for persons moving outside national boundaries.

The framework comprises European Regulations No 883/2004 and No 987/2009, the former Regulations No 1408/71 and 574/72 and 38 bilateral agreements signed by France and most of its main non-European partners in the Mediterranean Basin, Maghreb, French-speaking Africa, America and the Far East, as well as 3 Coordination Decrees with New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Saint-Pierre et Miquelon.

For persons living or residing outside the country which habitually provides their social security cover, these legislative texts enable: the exemption from residence conditions and waiting period requirements for access to benefits; the totalization of acquired rights taking into consideration all working periods performed in all States concerned when retirement or survivor's pension is to be paid; the exportation of pensions; and, as required and under certain conditions, the continuing applicability of the sending country's labor laws for workers posted to another contracting State.

A wide range of persons from the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the French overseas territories benefit from these rights: students, working and non-working persons and dependants, who reap the benefit of better protection than that which is generally provided for in bilateral agreements which usually concern only citizens from the States concerned who are working or have worked in those States.

Facilitating Social Security

The Cleiss is the French hub organization involved in implementing these European regulations and bilateral and multilateral agreements on behalf of public authorities and social security organizations, with respect to all risks and social security schemes. It acts as a liaison body between French and foreign social security institutions. Thus:

• It provides the French Government with its expertise for the negotiation and implementation of international agreements and European regulations on social security and helps make such legislation accessible to individuals and companies.
• It acts as an intermediary between French and foreign social security institutions and between those institutions and individuals and companies, providing administrative assistance to resolve financial or legal problems.
• It meets the translation needs of French social security institutions; in this respect it is France's premier public translator, 50,000 pages a year being translated on average from 40 or more languages.
• It issues an annual statistical report showing human and financial flows between States in the context of international social security coordination.

An advisory role

The Cleiss assists French and foreign social security organizations, insured individuals and employers in examining submissions. It can supply information relating to the procedures provided under different international agreements and the interpretation of laws or other legal texts issued by its supervisory authorities.

Its role as a coordinator between the institutions and the ministry with responsibility for social security – within which its main partner is the Division of European and International Affairs of the Social Security Directorate – confers on the Cleiss a unique position within the French social security system.

Through its website, the Cleiss provides French funds, employers and insured persons with thorough, up-to-date information about the international aspects of Social Security, particularly with regards to the schemes of countries linked to France by social security agreements.

Conversely, it informs foreign institutions about French social security law and changes in French legislation.

The Cleiss is also France's National Contact Point pursuant to EU directive 2011/24/EU on patients' rights in cross-border healthcare. As such, it provides information to both patients and health professionals on these rights, particularly with regard to coverage of health care provided in a State other than the State of affiliation.

A statistics role

The Cleiss produces an annual statistics report based on the statistical and financial data it collects from the French social security institutions relating to the transfer of benefits to and from France in accordance with international agreements.

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 States involved.

In addition to the statistics report, the Financial and Statistical Studies department periodically publishes a research and analysis bulletin, "Décryptage," which covers a variety of topics. The publication "Regard sur" also offers an overview of selected data from the annual report.

A translation and linguistics expertise role

The Cleiss is the translation body for the French social security funds.

At the request of French social security funds and the Ministry in charge of Social Security, the Cleiss provides translations (into French as well as into foreign languages) of documents sent to it and certifies translations submitted to it.

At the request of the same institutions, it also provides other services in direct relation with its linguistics expertise: interpreting, foreign language telephone assistance, creation of glossaries and lexicons, and document research in foreign languages.