The Chairman of the Social Fund of Russia, Sergey Chirkov, and the Head of the Social Insurance Institute of Serbia, Zoran Panović, have signed a package of documents to develop cooperation between the two countries in the field of social welfare. The signing ceremony took place during a visit of the Social Fund' mission to Belgrade.
The key innovation was an agreement on the procedure for electronic interagency data exchange. It will allow the agencies to exchange information required for the assignment and payment of pensions and allowances digitally: faster, more reliably, and with minimal reliance on paper documents.
"We value the constructive approach of our Serbian peers. The agreements we have reached will allow us to promptly verify track record and eligibility for payments, and to jointly find a way out of the technical difficulties caused by sanctions. It is fundamentally important for us that every person who has a legal entitlement to welfare receives it on time and in full," emphasized Sergey Chirkov.
The parties also signed a protocol on updating the forms used in their work, and a memorandum of cooperation with the Social Insurance Institute and the National Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance of Serbia. In essence, that means a practical fine-tuning of the international treaty currently in force between the countries.
Remember that the social security treaty came into effect on March 1, 2019. It covers old-age, disability, and loss of breadwinner pensions, as well as supplements, social pensions, burial allowances and pension savings.
Today, 736 Russian nationals who have relocated to Serbia receive benefits under the treaty. Ruble transfers reach the recipients without interruptions, whereas payments in foreign currency are effectively frozen due to sanctions against Russian banks. To resolve this issue, Russia and Serbia are jointly seeking new pathways for cross-border transfers and are modifying the regulations in force.
In Belgrade, the Social Fund mission led by Sergey Chirkov also met with the Russian Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko, to discuss the current status of the social security agreement in detail, and visited the Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance of Serbia to learn about the work of their Serbian peers firsthand and share their own experience in providing pension and social welfare to citizens.