Reporting on the implementation of the Coordination Regulations at national level continues to be one of the most important activities of trESS. In the trESS III project, this yearly reporting can take two forms: either a general legal report, taking stock of the problems and issues arising in the Member States with regard to the application of the Coordination Regulations as a whole; or a thematic report on issues and problems arising in the Member States with regard to a specific EU social security coordination topic. In either case, the reports are based on input from the national experts (‘national reports’). In 2013, trESS will again deliver a European report, so you will be provided with the most recent overview of implementation problems in the field of EU coordination. The national report, and consequently also the European report, will put particular focus on very recent developments, e.g. the implementation or follow-up of decisions in preliminary rulings by the ECJ.

The trESS Think Tank will carry out its usual legal strategic long-term analysis and will reflect upon the most important challenges for EU social security coordination in the next decade. In its analysis, this group will dedicate particular attention to the issues with regard to EU mobility and societal changes.

Furthermore, trESS will contribute to an impact assessment with regard to the possible revision of several provisions of both Regulation 883/2004 and Regulation 987/2009, as selected by the European Commission. The selection is the result of a collection of requests for revision of the Articles concerned by delegations of the Member States and a specific request for revision from the Commission. The envisaged provisions are Article 13 (applicable legislation when unemployed in one Member State and pursuing an economic activity in another) and Article 32 (prioritising of rights to sickness benefits in kind) of Regulation 883/2004 as well as Article 65 (notification of annual average costs for reimbursement on the basis of fixed amounts) and Article 87 (medical examination and administrative checks) of Regulation 987/2009.

Finally, trESS will produce a report on monitoring the use of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) in the EU/EEA/Switzerland in 2012. The report will be based on an analysis of Member States’ replies to a questionnaire drawn up by the Secretariat of the Administrative Commission. The report will be written in Spring and presented at the AC meeting in June.

Our statistical team will further provide support to the Administrative Commission with a view to investigating the type of statistical data that should be collected in accordance with Article 91 of Regulation 987/2009 as well as to selecting a limited set of key indicators and a statistical methodology for each of those indicators. The final report will be presented at the AC meeting of June 2013.

To conclude, as announced in our 2012 December newsletter, we enthusiastically welcome a new member to the trESS network, as Professor Nada Bodiroga-Vukobrat (University of Rijeka) has joined the project as the national expert for Croatia. As Croatia is set to become the 28th Member State of the European Union on 1 July 2013, our new expert has already been introduced in the network as from the start of the working year. She will immediately buckle down to it and organise a trESS seminar in 2013, as you will notice in the trESS seminar calendar in this newsletter.

Of course, we will keep you in the loop on the result of all these activities via our various – traditional and new – communication channels.