Maintaining social security rights across European-borders is a central concern of citizens who live and (or) work in a country other than their own. The European Year of Workers’ Mobility 2006 culminates with the launch of the new EUlisses Web portal offering valuable and targeted information on social security pensions. The launch of this new social security portal coincides with the closing conference of the European Year of Workers’ Mobility in Lille on 11–12 December.

EUlisses (pronounced “Ulysses”) stands for EU Links & Information on Social Security. Being one of the earliest, most well-known historical characters, Ulysses personifies the traveller in Europe. EUlisses is a multilingual web portal structured to reflect life events, which gives easy access to EU and national information on the social security rights and obligations of citizens on the move in Europe and consolidates national and European information sources. EUlisses gives information only on pensions and not on the full range of social security sectors like unemployment benefits, etc because research shows that pensions are the area which generates the most questions from citizens. Old age pensions, in particular, are among the most important social security benefits. Launching the portal for pensions means that feedback can help us develop the best possible portal for all the social security sectors in due course.

Every year thousands of citizens contact the European Commission and national social security authorities. About 70% of e-mails to the European Commission are questions about social security. A study also identified the need for such a portal. EUlisses therefore aims to help citizens find out about their social security rights and obligations at EU and national level, find the social security institutions in different European countries, and provide access to the national online social security services.

The EUlisses portal was developed within the framework of the EU’s IDABC programme (IDABC stands for Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens) and complements other online services on Europa.

The portal will be in seven languages (English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Greek and Spanish) at the launch on 11 December 2006. During 2007, the portal will be extended to all the other Community languages.

Today EUlisses starts off with the pension sector, shedding light on questions frequently asked by citizens. All content is tailored to match the real stages of life events. In other words, whether a person is working and merely interested in finding out more, or planning for retirement, or about to retire, or already retired – EUlisses has an answer. The various questions on pensions (concerning pension rights and contributions, pension applications, pension calculations, pension payments and more) that may arise during these stages of a citizen's life are dealt with in this portal.

Other services of the new EUlisses portal include:

• ‘faq’ section which should assist citizens to obtain answers to the most frequently asked questions on pensions;
• ‘find your institution’ which should enable tracking of the competent institution in any EEA Member State and Switzerland for more personal detailed information, for instance on the personal pension account;
• institutions a-z’ allows sifting through the list of institutions to find the one to help;
• ‘links’ provides ready access to other Web portals and national sites on social security issues and pensions;
• ‘glossary’ provides the meaning of commonly used social security terms; and
• 'online comments’ invites users of the portal to send their feedback.

Feedback from users is precious as it will help in the future development of the best possible portal for all the social security sectors including family benefits, health care, unemployment, accidents at work and occupational diseases etc. As the negotiations in Council are currently underway on the implementing regulation for the new modernised and simplified Regulation 883/2004 coordinating social security, it makes sense to extend the portal to all the other sectors of social security once this new Regulation begins to apply.

The 2006 European Year of Workers’ Mobility has cast a spotlight on job-to-job and geographical mobility and the obstacles that people can face. A major objective of the 2006 European Year has been to raise awareness of the rights and opportunities for workers' mobility - the portability of social security pension rights forms a cornerstone of this mobility. EUlisses demonstrates this with real-life examples. EUlisses therefore enhances the accessibility of information which is essential to assist people to make the most of Europe.