Dear trESS friends,

It is with great pleasure that I present to you our final trESS e-Newsletter of the year 2013. At the same time, I present this newsletter with a mixed feeling of great pride and some sadness, as it also announces the end of an era. Indeed, this newsletter will be the last one labelled under the ‘trESS network’. As our project comes to an end in 2013 after an interesting and inspiring journey of as much as nine years, the trESS newsletter will as such disappear. However, as of January 2014, trESS will be replaced by a broader project called ‘FreSsco’. FreSsco will be a completely ‘fresh’ project, merging content-wise the trESS network on EU social security coordination with the Free Movement of Workers network. According to a common saying, one plus one often equals three. This new project therefore promises to bring us very challenging and stimulating times. We already warmly invite you to continue following our activities.

As to the last activities of the trESS project, we can announce that our analytical work will be available on the trESS website within the coming days. It is our pleasure to publish our European report (on the implementation of Regulations 883/2004 and 987/2009 in the Member States), our Think Tank report (on the future of social security coordination) and our Analytical study (an assessment of specific proposals for amendment of the Regulations) for your information. In addition, we considered it the appropriate time to present to you some of the network’s achievements from the very beginning in 2005 until now. This newsletter also features news from the European Commission. We would like to draw your attention to the publication of a policy paper from the Commission on the free movement of persons within the EU and the actions that need to be taken going forward. As to the activities of the European Court of Justice, no new cases on EU social security coordination were decided since our last newsletter. Interacting with the European Commission, Mr Albrecht Otting and Mr Andrea Pontiroli were prepared to share some thoughts on the impact of mobile economically non-active EU citizens on the Member States’ social security systems. They have been enthused by recent case law and by the latest public debate on this politically sensitive topic, which led them to a thought-provoking interview with trESS. Finally, we present to you an EU wide selection of academic publications on EU social security coordination in our ‘SSC Literature Corner’.

I wish you a very pleasant read and I’m looking forward to addressing you again under the new FreSsco project.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Kind regards, Yves Jorens Project Director