New EU Social Security Coordination Rules: What Romanian Employers Must Change Before Posting Staff

On 28 September 2026, the Council of the EU gave its final green light to the revised rules on the coordination of national social security systems. The reform amends Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 and its implementing Regulation (EC) No 987/2009, ending a negotiation that began with the Commission's proposal in 2016. The European Parliament had already adopted the text on 7 July 2026.

For Romanian employers who send staff to other Member States, this is not a technical footnote. The new rules change when an A1 certificate must be requested, who can be posted immediately after hiring, how long a posting can be followed by another, and what documents must be available when an inspector asks. The practical message is simple: social security compliance is moving from something handled after departure to something that must be settled before it.

The good news is that there is time. The regulation enters into force on publication in the Official Journal, but most of the rules on postings, multi-state work, unemployment and family benefits apply only 24 months later. That window should be used to rebuild internal processes, not to wait.

What the reform covers

The Council describes the revision as making coordination clearer, fairer and easier to enforce. It focuses on five areas:

• unemployment benefits
• long-term care benefits
• access to welfare benefits for economically inactive persons
• family benefits
• applicable legislation for posted workers and people working in two or more Member States

For most employers, the last area carries the biggest operational impact. It determines which country's social security system an employee belongs to while working abroad, and it is where the A1 certificate sits.

The A1 must be requested before the posting starts

Under the revised rules, the A1 application must be submitted before the posting begins. Where the certificate is not issued automatically, the competent institution must send an automatic acknowledgement of receipt, which serves as proof that the application was made. If the A1 has not yet been issued when the employee starts work, the employer must be able to show the host-state institution either that acknowledgement or proof that an exemption applies.

This is stricter than current practice in many Member States, where late or retrospective applications are common. For a Romanian company, it means the A1 application to the Romanian competent institution has to become a fixed step in the pre-departure checklist, with the acknowledgement kept on file alongside the posting documentation.

A narrow exemption for business trips

The reform introduces an exemption from the prior A1 application for business trips and short activities lasting no more than three consecutive days within a 30-day period. The text defines a business trip as a temporary activity in the employer's interest that does not involve providing services or delivering goods. Meetings, conferences, training and similar events fall inside it.

Three points limit how useful this is in practice:

• construction is excluded, so every construction posting still needs a prior A1 application
• an employee who travels to the same country repeatedly will quickly fall outside the three-days-in-30 window
• Member States may interpret the business trip definition differently, and it is not yet clear what evidence of exemption will be accepted

Employers will need a way to track travel days per employee and per country if they intend to rely on the exemption.

Three months of prior affiliation and a cooling-off period

Two changes directly affect how quickly an employee can be sent abroad and how often.

First, an employee must have been affiliated to the social security system of the sending state for at least three months before a posting, replacing the current one-month requirement. A Romanian company that hires someone and plans to post them abroad in their first weeks will need to rethink that plan, or check whether another basis applies.

Second, after a 24-month posting, a two-month cooling-off period applies before the same employee can be posted again to the same Member State, or before another worker can replace them. Employers can still apply for an exceptional agreement allowing an A1 valid for up to five years, but that has to be requested and justified.

Multi-state workers and non-EU nationals

For employees who work regularly in two or more Member States, A1 certificates can be requested for 24 months, subject to renewal, based on the projected work pattern for the next 12 calendar months. That makes forecasting part of the application: HR and project teams will need to agree a realistic travel plan before the request is filed.

The reform also clarifies that non-EU nationals are treated as resident, for the purpose of determining the applicable legislation, in the Member State where they perform most of their activity. This matters for Romanian employers with third-country staff who work across several EU states.

Changes on the benefits side

Although employers feel the posting rules most, the benefit changes affect employees and their families. Jobseekers will be able to export home-country unemployment benefit for six months instead of three. The revision also introduces dedicated coordination rules for long-term care benefits and updates the rules on family benefits and on access to benefits for economically inactive people. These rules also apply after the 24-month transition, and they are worth reflecting in assignment policies and employee briefings.

How Nestlers Group Supports Employers Through the Transition

Nestlers Group's Payroll and HR Compliance team manages A1 applications for employees posted from Romania, including the analysis of prior affiliation, posting duration and multi-state work patterns that the revised rules make central. We help employers set up the pre-departure A1 step, keep acknowledgements of receipt on file, and track travel days where the business trip exemption may apply.

Our Immigration Advisory team works alongside this for non-EU employees, confirming right-to-work in the host state, preparing posted worker notifications and aligning immigration documents with the social security position. Over the 24-month transition, we review existing posting and business travel policies against the new rules so that clients start applying them with processes already in place.

Sources: Council of the EU press release "Social security coordination: Council gives final green light to updated rules", 28 September 2026; Revision of the regulations on the coordination of social security systems, final adopted text (Council document PE 29/2026); Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 and Regulation (EC) No 987/2009; European Parliament first-reading adoption, 7 July 2026; Fragomen, "New EU Social Security Coordination Rules: What Employers Need to Know", June 2026