Social Security

The self-employed will no longer have to queue at the offices of their social security fund (OAEE) to get the booklet containing stickers showing their credits updated.

As of Friday, their details will be automatically updated electronically.

This will not apply in cases where the booklet owner has a dependent under the age of 18 recorded on their booklet.

The Labor Ministry announced on Monday the launch of an effort to simplify Greece’s social security laws, which stretch to almost 39,000 pages and some of which date back to 1940.

“We said that the country’s social security system is labyrinthine - a mosaic full of special regimes and loopholes – and today that has been confirmed,” said Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis.

Sixty Greeks have had their pensions stopped because they refused to provide their social security numbers (AMKA) to inspectors for religious reasons, Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis has revealed.

Romania's lower chamber of parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a 5-per-cent cut in the social security tax paid by employers, which the government wants to enforce from October.

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President Traian Basescu said on Tuesday he will ask for his term to be extended if suspended from position again and underscored he would not like to be in Prime Minister Victor Ponta's shoes in the presidential runoff, later in November.

Education Minister Andreas Loverdos (photo) on Tuesday announced the closure of Domi, a private college in Athens, due to pending debts to the Social Security Foundation (IKA) totaling some 20 million euros.

By Roula Salourou

In its first meeting on Monday, the new Government Council for Employment approved a series of targeted actions intended to support the unemployed and strengthen entrepreneurship, with an aim of creating 770,000 jobs by 2020.

The Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) has opposed the proposal to increase the minimum wage and the social security contributions.

BIA explains in a media statement that it firmly opposed the plans to cope with the chronic deficit in the systems of social security and health insurance through an administrative increase in the minimum insurance income.

The Labor, Social Security and Welfare Ministry is preparing to launch a work experience program for unemployed youths aged between 18 and 24, through private sector jobs, as part of a new action plan organized by the ministry, dubbed ‘Youth Guarantees.’

Yordan Hristoskov, Bulgaria's caretaker Minister of Labor and Social Policy, has suggested that a minimum wage hike from BGN 340 to BGN 400 will not harm the business sector.

In a Thursday interview for private TV station bTV, Hristoskov said that it was high time to do something about Bulgaria still being at the bottom of the EU ranking by guaranteed minimum income.