Promoting entrepreneurship and self-employment: social security measures. Legal analysis and critical points

Abstract

The promotion of self-employment in our country has become particularly important in recent decades, given the structural impact of unemployment and the need to create sustainable self-employment alternatives. The legal reforms regarding the capitalization of unemployment, the flat rate of social security for new RETA contributors and the possibility of combining unemployment benefits with self-employment, among other measures, constitute a body of regulations aimed at facilitating the transition of the unemployed towards entrepreneurship. However, the effectiveness of these instruments has given rise to a broad legal debate. The restrictions regarding the receipt of the single payment or the limits on the compatibility of the benefit with self-employment show the tensions between the incentive to self-employment, financial sustainability and the safeguarding of social protection. In this context, the regulatory evolution, especially since Law 31/2015 and subsequent reforms, is a reflection of the challenges of our labor law in its attempt to adapt to the new realities of the labor market and its needs for flexibility, security and protection.