The European Commission is modelling a cross-border telework ceiling above 25%, in three scenarios it calls 883 2.0
Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu told the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee on 12 October 2026 that the Commission is running three scenario impact assessments on raising the amount of telework a cross-border worker may do before their social security coverage shifts country. The current test is 25% of working time in the country of residence, under Regulation 883/2004. Mînzatu described the exercise as part of a further revision she called “883 2.0”.
No figure has been proposed. Her words were: “Different options, more than 25, but I couldn’t say that it’s 50 or 75.” Several outlets have since run 50% or 75% as though those were proposals. They are not. Remote Work Europe is reporting the existence of the modelling, not a number, because no number exists yet.
The stated driver is the commitment to “fully fledged cross-border telework” attached to the EU Inc agenda, so that smaller companies can employ people across borders without the social security position becoming the obstacle. Committee members pushed back during the same session, arguing that more permitted telework must not become a route around host-country labour law.
Why this matters
The 25% threshold is the single rule that most constrains people who live in one member state and work for an employer in another. Cross it, and the country responsible for your social security can change, which in turn affects your contributions, your healthcare route and eventually your pension. It was written for frontier workers commuting to a workplace, not for someone doing most of their job from a spare room two countries away.
There is a reason the threshold is carrying this weight. A peer-reviewed article in ERA Forum published on 30 September 2026 notes that the 2026 amendment to the coordination rules added no conflict-of-law rules for international teleworking at all, and that the subject “has always been left out of the negotiations”. The framework agreement on cross-border telework, and the A1 certificate that goes with it, exist precisely to patch that absence. If the Commission now reopens the threshold itself, it is addressing the gap rather than another workaround for it.
A related correction worth making
As of 19 October the amended coordination regulation had still not been published in the Official Journal, so no entry-into-force date and no application date exist. The Council adopted the text on 28 September and most substantive changes apply twenty-four months after entry into force. Any adviser currently quoting a firm application date is estimating. Treat dates circulating for the new mandatory A1 rules as unconfirmed until the OJ publication appears.
What to watch
Publication of the amended regulation in the Official Journal, which starts the twenty-four-month clock, and any Commission document putting numbers to the three scenarios. Until a scenario is published, the only honest statement is that the ceiling is under review.