This book questions to what extent EU social security coordination law can address key socio-economic, political, and legal challenges while ensuring adequate social protection and enabling effective free movement.

EU social security coordination law has played a fundamental role in facilitating the free movements of persons within the EU. Yet the framework, rooted in principles devised in the 1960s, now faces unprecedented legal challenges, from evolving labour markets and digitalisation, to democratic change, geopolitical shifts, and crisis-driven mobility.

This book situates EU social security coordination law within the broader context of EU constitutional law, fundamental rights, and social citizenship, and interrogates its evolving role in the wider legal landscape. Drawing on key legal instruments and interdisciplinary insights, the contributors critically assess whether the current framework can meet new demands or whether a more fundamental overhaul is required.

Organised in four parts, the book examines the core principles of EU social security coordination law, contemporary challenges, the protection of vulnerable groups, and finally the position of third-country nationals. By scrutinising both enduring assumptions and emerging developments, the book offers crucial insights for academics, policymakers, and practitioners concerned with the future of EU free movement, transnational solidarity, and social protection in an era of transformation.

Eleni De Becker is Assistant Professor in European Social Security Law at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and KU Leuven, Belgium.
Katarina Hyltén-Cavallius is Associate Professor of European Law at Linnaeus University, Sweden.
Luka Mišic is Assistant Professor of Social Security Law at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.