In recent years, many French cross-border commuters who have worked in both Luxembourg and France have seen their retirement turn into an interminable administrative process. Between differences in legal age between countries and cumbersome coordination between administrations, cases were often held up for months, sometimes longer. At the heart of the problem was the late transmission of the P5000 form by France, an essential document for Luxembourg's Caisse nationale d'assurance pension (CNAP) to process the application.

The situation was all the more frustrating for policyholders as these delays were not of their making. The blockages were mainly due to the administrative machinery between States and to European procedures that had become unsuited to the growing volume of cross-border careers. The Covid period further exacerbated these delays, resulting in a backlog of cases on the French side.

Faced with these recurring malfunctions, the OGBL took up the cause. On the initiative of its local section in Audun-le-Tiche-Villerupt-Pays Haut, the union intervened directly with Carsat (the French retirement and occupational health insurance fund) in Strasbourg to explain the concrete difficulties encountered by cross-border workers and their consequences on pension payments.

The other border countries concerned

The OGBL announced on Thursday 12 March that the exchange had resulted in a very concrete development. "Carsat has decided to introduce a specific form for workers with a mixed career in Luxembourg", explains the union in its press release. The aim is simple: to immediately identify these special cases and give them priority treatment in order to speed up the transmission of documents to the CNAP.

In practical terms, employees will now have to submit their pension applications to Carsat, as usual, but attach this new "mixed career" form. This system will make it possible to direct claims more quickly to the appropriate channels and improve coordination between administrations. The mechanism could also be applied to applications involving other border countries, such as Germany or Switzerland.

For the OGBL, this development constitutes "a concrete administrative advance" obtained after intervention with the French authorities. The union says it will remain vigilant as to the effective application of the measure, at a time when cross-border careers have become the norm for tens of thousands of workers between Lorraine and Luxembourg.