Social Security for Self-Employed in EU Law: A Minimum-Level Playing Field?

Digitalization and technological development are rapidly transforming our society and economies worldwide. Due their impact, new forms of work are emerging in various sectors, bringing to a marked shift away from traditional employment relationships to non-standard forms of employment and self-employment. As for the labour law, where self-employed workers are traditionally less covered, this situation appears similar in the field of social security. In this field, self-employed workers are normally excluded by social security systems or the effective coverage is far from the reality. European institutions, aware of this issue, are dealing with possible measures capable to cope with this phenomenon. The essay will focus on the available legal options in the framework of EU law for the creation of a minimum level playing field in social security system for self-employed workers. The analisys will deal with two different proposals: one based on the art. 153, comma 2, TFEU and one on exploiting the so-called flexibility clause (aert. 352 TFEU). Two different legal options with a similar political obstacle, namely the unanimous approval by the Council.