Serbia and Canada sign Social Security Agreement

Roman Waschuk, ambassador of Canada to the Republic of Serbia, and Jovan Krkobabic, Serbian deputy prime minister and minister of labor, employment and social policy, signed Friday (12 April 2013) a social security agreement between Canada and the Republic of Serbia.

The Social Security Agreement allows for pension benefits to be coordinated between both countries and will continue to make it easier for people who have lived and worked in Canada or Serbia to qualify for benefits from either or both countries.

The Agreement between Canada and Serbia will enter into force once both countries have completed the approval procedures specified in their respective legislation.

The Social Security Agreement will enable Canada to coordinate the operation of its Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan programs with the comparable pension programs of Serbia.

The Agreement will also benefit Canada by helping eligible individuals qualify for old age, disability and survivor benefits, enabling employees from Canada who are sent to work temporarily in Serbia to continue to contribute to the Canada Pension Plan and be exempt from contributing to Serbia's pension system, and exempting Canadian businesses from paying Serbian pension plan contributions for their employees sent to work temporarily in Serbia, thus resulting in savings.

Serbia has so far signed social security agreements with 27 countries, most of which are members of the European Union where a large number of people from Serbia live and work.

Krkobabic said that over the previous two years, such agreements had been signed with Slovenia, Turkey, Cyprus, Switzerland, Belgium, Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, adding that our country was also expected to sign social security agreements with Romania, Russia, Ukraine, France and Hungary.

According to him, an initiative has been launched to also sign these agreements with Austalia, New Zealand and the United States of America.