Brussels, 19/09/2006          14244
EMPL E/3/EV/ek CI (Burrage) D(2006) 18203
Please mention this reference

Dear Mr Burrage.

Thank you for your e-mail of 26 August 2006.

I regret to hear that Mrs Wendy Winter de Garcia passed away. I understand from her numerous letters to my unit that she was very concerned with the situation of British expatriates in Spain.

The first point of your above mentioned e-mail concerns the refusal of the Spanish regional sickness insurance institutions to register the E121 form of EU-pensioners who are not yet in possession of a residence card. You mention that there is a waiting period of 12 months for the receipt of the "residence card". The practice of the Spanish regional sickness insurance institution to refuse automatically to register the E121 form in cases, where a person has not yet received his residence card, without evaluating the personal situation of the person concerned seems to be contrary to Regulation1408/71 and 574/72.

I will contact the Spanish authorities on this issue and keep you informed about the result of my intervention.
As regards your comments on the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), I would like to inform you that Regulation 631/04 amended Regulation 1408/71 so that from 1 June 2004 all different categories of insured persons (workers, self-employed workers, pensioners, students, …) have the same entitlements to necessary health care during a temporary stay in another Member State. As a result, it is no longer necessary to indicate on the EHIC "E111" (emergency care) or "E111+" (necessary care).

The Administrative Commission on Social Security for Migrant Workers adopted an interpretative decision on the notion "necessary care" (Decision 194). You can find more information about this subject on the EHIC website
(http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/healthcard/casstm_en.htm)
and on the web pages on co-ordination of social security (http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/social_security_schemes/list_march_2005_fr.htm).

I hope this information is useful.

Yours sincerely,
Rob Cornelissen
Head of unit
(signed)