THE ANDEAN COUNCIL OF FOREIGN MINISTERS,

       HAVING SEEN: Articles 1, 3, 12, 16 and 30 of the codified text of the Cartagena Agreement set out in Decision 406; the Treaty creating the Andean Community Court of Justice; Decision 503 of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers; Commission Decisions 40, 439, 441 and 510; the Regulations of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers approved through Decision 407; and the Regulations of the Andean Community Commission approved through Decisions 471 and 508;

       In building the Andean Common Market, it is of basic importance to preserve the right of migrant workers to receive social security benefits and guarantee that their acquired rights are safeguarded by adding up the total insurance periods covered;

       As a result, at the Andean level, migrant workers and their beneficiaries shall be acknowledged in any of the Member Countries to possess the same social security rights and obligations as the nationals of those countries;

       It is the obligation of the Member Countries to promote dignified employment and to improve and make efficient use of the investment in health benefits, in an effort to ensure good use of the services, upgrading of the institutions, the system’s administration and a safe and reliable pension system;

       That frame of reference should be interpreted and applied in keeping with the social security legislation in effect in each of the Member Countries, in the form and conditions and with the benefits and extension it establishes;

       It is essential to maintain appropriate harmony between Andean Community provisions on social security and on labor migration;

       The Andean Labor Advisory Council, in Opinion 009 of June 2000 expressed to the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the Andean Community General Secretariat, stated that it backed the comprehensive revision of Decisions 113 "Andean Social Security Instrument" and 148 "Regulations for the Andean Social Security Instrument," so that the basic social security benefits may be made fully available to Member Country migrant workers;

       To approve the following "Andean Social Security Instrument"

a)    To guarantee the full application to migrant workers and their beneficiaries of the principle of equal or national treatment within the subregion and the elimination of all forms of discrimination;

b)    To guarantee the right of migrant workers and their beneficiaries to receive social security benefits during their residence in another Member Country;

c)    To guarantee to migrant workers the conservation of their acquired rights and the continuity of their affiliation to Member Country social security systems; and

d)    To recognize the right of migrant workers and their beneficiaries to receive the health and economic benefits to which they are entitled during their residence or stay in the territory of another Member Country, in keeping with the legislation of the recipient country. 

a)    Health benefits: these encompass promotional, preventive, recuperative and rehabilitative medical services, as well as therapeutic and pharmaceutical services that are aimed at maintaining or reestablishing health in the cases of common or occupational illnesses, childbirth or accident, whatever the cause. 

b)     Competent authority: The government agency or agencies that are responsible for the social security systems in each Member Country, according to its domestic legislation. 

d)    Medical emergency: a sudden alteration in the state of health of a migrant worker or his or her beneficiaries that puts their lives at risk and that requires immediate medical attention. 

e)    Urgent medical need: an alteration in the state of health of a migrant worker or his or her beneficiaries that does not pose a risk to their lives, but that could, if timely attention is not received, worsen or have permanent anatomical and/or functional consequences and even occasionally result in death. 

f)     Competent Institution: the bodies and institutions that are responsible for the administration and supervision of the social security systems in each Member Country. 

g)    Liaison institution: the body that coordinates matters among the agencies involved in applying this Decision. The Member Countries shall appoint and report the names of their respective liaison institutions.

h)     Legislation: laws, regulations and other provisions on social security matters that are in effect in the territory of each Member Country. 

i)     Member Country: each of the countries that belong to the Andean Community

j)     Insurance period: each period for which compulsory and/or voluntary contributions are made to receive health and economic benefits that is recognized as such by the legislation under which those payments are made, as well as any period considered by that legislation to be equivalent to an insurance period. 

k)     Economic benefits: any cash, income, subsidy or compensation benefit provided for by law, including any complement, supplement or revaluation, as a result of maternity, temporary disability, breastfeeding, retirement, employment injuries, occupational diseases, invalidity or death. 

l)     Migrant worker: anyone who moves from the territory of one Member Country to that of another, irrespective or his or her nationality and status of wage-earner or independent worker.

m)   Territory: geographic sphere of application of national legislation in each of the Member Countries.

n)    Country of origin: country from which the migrant came.

o)    Recipient country: any Member Country that receives the migrant workers.  .

p)    Social Security: social protection system intended for migrant workers and their beneficiaries, whose coverage includes health benefits and economic benefits financed through payments or contributions. 

q)     Payments and/or contributions: compulsory or voluntary payments made by migrant workers to obtain health and economic benefits, under the considerations envisaged in each Member Country’s applicable legislation. 

       All other terms and expressions used in this Decision have the meanings they are given in the applicable legislation. 

       A Member Country shall give the migrant workers and their beneficiaries from the other Member Countries treatment equal to that of its own nationals in regard to social security benefits.   

       Each Member Country shall grant the health and economic benefits in keeping with its own legislation.   The provisions on lapsing and expiration that are in effect in each Member Country shall be applied as provided for in this article.  Furthermore, this Decision shall be applicable to any legislation that in the future may complement or amend that which is stipulated in the previous paragraph.

a)    Traveling personnel in the service of air carriers who perform their work in the territories of two or more Member Countries shall be subject to the legislation of the Member Country where the company’s main headquarters are located.  

b)     Independent workers who do their work on board a vessel shall be subject to the legislation of the Member Country whose flag the vessel flies. 

c)     Personnel assigned to Diplomatic Missions and Consular Offices and the employees of international organizations shall be governed by the provisions that are applicable to them.  

d)    Public employees of a Member Country other than those referred to in the previous paragraph, who are assigned to the territory of another Member Country, shall be subject to the legislation of the Member Country to which the Administration for which they work belongs. 

e)    The administrative and technical personnel, together with the service personnel, of Diplomatic Missions and Consular Offices of each of the Member Countries, who are nationals of the accrediting Member Country, shall be subject to their country’s legislation, in keeping with the stipulations of the Conventions that are in effect on the subject.

f)     Persons sent by a Member Country on cooperation missions to the territory of another Member Country shall be subject to the social security of the country that sends them, unless the cooperation agreements stipulate otherwise.

       The Regulations for this instrument shall mention the cases where the exceptions stipulated in the previous paragraphs can be amended in the interest of specified migrant workers. 

       The cited benefits may be granted on behalf of any other Member Country to beneficiaries who do not move together with the migrant worker, on the basis of the mechanism provided for in the Regulations for this Instrument. 

       When an insurance period that is compulsory or legally recognized as such coincides with a voluntary or optional period, only the insurance period that is compulsory or is legally recognized as such shall be considered. 

       Insurance periods for which the payments or contributions were made before this Decision entered into effect may be added up, when necessary, provided that they were not considered earlier for the recognition of economic benefits in another Member Country.  

       If a prior period of payment is required for the recognition of health benefits, the periods established in each Member Country’s legislation shall be considered, after certification by the competent institution of the workers’ country of origin.

TITLE VII
Provisions applicable to distributional, individual capitalization and mixed pension systems

       Member Countries that possess individual capitalization systems may establish mechanisms to transfer the accumulated capital in the individual accounts. 

       In countries where there are individual capital pension fund administration companies, the insurance companies may establish equalization mechanisms to balance the accounts they maintain between themselves, provided that this does not violate the provisions of the pertinent national legislation.

       The Competent Institutions of the Member Countries shall establish transfer mechanisms to pay the economic benefits of migrant workers or their beneficiaries who live in the territory of another country. 

a)    To assist in the application of this Decision, its Administrative Regulations and other complementary instruments; 

b)    To advise the Competent Authorities and to express to the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, the Commission or the Andean Community General Secretariat a non-binding technical opinion on issues referring to the "Andean Social Security Instrument";

c)    To propose possible amendments, amplifications and complementary provisions to this "Andean Social Security Instrument;"

d)    To facilitate technical criteria that may make it possible to overcome any differences that could arise over the interpretation or application of this Decision.  If they continue to persist, however, it will be possible to resort to the mechanisms provided for in the Treaty creating the Andean Community Court of Justice.

       The Committee shall meet at least once a year or whenever asked to do so by its Chairperson, the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, the Andean Community General Secretariat or at least two Member Countries. 

       The Committee shall act as stipulated in applicable Community law, including the Regulations of the Andean Community Commission. 

1.    By December 31, 2006, in the case of migrant workers who are already in Venezuelan territory by that date;

2.    Subject to the fulfillment of the special liberalization program for its case approved in the temporary provisions of the Andean Labor Migration Instrument, in the case of migrant workers who migrate to Venezuelan territory after the date on which this Decision comes into effect. 

       Signed in the Quirama Recinto, Department of Antioquia, of the Republic of Colombia, on the twenty-fifth of June of two thousand three.