On 15 September 2026 the European Commission presented a five-piece ‘Fair Labour Mobility’ package in Strasbourg that will directly affect companies posting staff from – and to – France. Centre-piece of the bundle is a draft Regulation creating the European Social Security Pass (ESSPASS). Within a year of entry into force, the portable digital document A1 – which proves the employee remains insured in the home state – will be issued online and verifiable within 24 hours. The European Health Insurance Card will follow within three years. For HR and global-mobility teams the change is more than paperwork: digitised A1 forms should curb assignment delays caused by France’s notoriously paper-heavy URSSAF process and reduce the risk of on-site inspections turning into costly penalties for missing documents. A second proposal slashes the time-limit for mutual recognition of professional qualifications from four months to eleven weeks (and five weeks for automatically-recognised professions such as architects and doctors). This is expected to benefit French engineering consultancies bidding for rapid-deployment infrastructure projects elsewhere in the EU, and to make it easier for foreign-licensed nurses to bolster understaffed French hospitals. The package also beefs up the powers of the European Labour Authority, allowing it to launch joint Franco-Dutch or Franco-German inspections when complex cross-border subcontracting chains hide social-dumping practices. While trade unions welcomed stricter enforcement, French employers’ federation MEDEF said the digital tools would “finally bring 21st-century efficiency” to EU postings. The legislative texts now move to the Council and Parliament. Paris is expected to back the initiative but will lobby for budget support to help France’s social-security funds upgrade their IT to ESSPASS standards.
