(MENAFN- Morocco World News) ‘country of residence‘.Thismeans that social security has to be adapted tothe standard of living of thecountry where one resides.The Dutch governmentsays that they have made agreements for adjusting the social agreement with many countries but failed to do so with Morocco. The Dutch government accused Morocco not being cooperative and unwilling to comply to new times.
After years of bickering and negotiations the Dutch government seemed to have reached an agreement with the Moroccan government in September 2015. They agreed that thesurvivor benefitsand thebenefits for the disabledwill be lower in the future.Also after 2021 Child benefitand theChild budgetwill no longer be exported to Morocco. Compensation of Health Care Costs (for temporary residence)would be terminated as well. All this would save the Netherlands several millions each year. Everything seemed to be solved and it was assumed that the new agreements would be signed any time soon.but the Moroccan government added an additional requirement in December: The Netherlands must also transfer benefits to the Western Sahara. The Netherlands does not recognize the “annexation” of Western Sahara as Moroccan territory. The Dutch government did not understand this extra demand and decided to end all further negotiation with Morocco. The Dutch government decided to terminate the Social agreement unilaterally. On 16 February 2016 The Senate approved after a debate took place between the Minister of Social Affairs with theHouse of Representatives theadoption of the intention to terminate General Convention and Administrative Arrangement on Social Security with Morocco.If this treaty is terminated before July 1 2016 it no longer applies from 1 January 2017. This does not mean that all benefits will end immediately to Morocco. Current benefits cannot be cancelled. Morocco receives millions of euros on an annual basis. The Dutch Minister of Social Affairs still holds the door open to Morocco and he sincerely hopes the Moroccan government will come back to the table to negotiate. Morocco is still unsatisfied and other treaties with the Netherlands such as the fight against fraud security and justice will come under pressure as well. Parallel to this there are also negotiations between Morocco and the EU regarding an association agreement and that is now also under severe pressure. If Morocco and the EU resolve their issues and sign a new treaty the new treaty would include that the Netherlandsmust resumetheir benefits to Morocco. I find the Dutch government rather peculiar on this specific matter as I ask myself Are the benefits adjusted for Dutch people who live in the USA Japan Canada or Australia as well?The living of standard is much more expensive in these countries than in the Netherlands.By the way this was also a question of the Moroccan government to the Dutch because the Dutch claim to have done extensive research to justify the adjustment of benefits to this so-called principle“the country of residence”.Also the Dutch governmentstill has notshared the results of this extensive research with Morocco up until today. To say the least this is unusual. In the midst of all of this ordinary Dutch Moroccans who returned to Morocco to enjoy retirement or recuperate and who have worked in the Netherlands will be victims. They will receive fewer benefits for which they have paid years of premiums and on top of that they lose other forms of benefits as well. For Dutch people who live for example in Spain Italy Hungary Greece or Turkey benefits are much less or not adjusted simply because these countries belong to the European Union or considered as belonging to the European society.
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