Press release
MEPs urge EU action on health services
Free movement of services - 23-05-2007 - 14:49
Plenary sessions
Plenary sessions
The European Parliament adopted a report on the consequences of excluding health services from the Services Directive, urging the Commission to propose "an appropriate instrument" to codify the case law of the Court of Justice, but stopping short of calling for separate legislation on health services. The own-initiative report, as amended, was backed by 514 votes in favour to 132 against with 8 abstentions.
Anticipating possible legislation on patients' mobility in the EU and reacting to a Commission consultation document on "Community action in the field of health care services", MEPs voted on a series of recommendations on EU action in the health sector.
Bearing in mind the progressive increase in cross-border mobility of patients and health professionals, MEPs agree that - with regard to access to health services - Member States should treat all EU residents on an equal basis, "regardless of whether they are private or public patients".
Noting how difficult it is to obtain clear and precise information on health care, the Parliament called for the creation of "single points of contact" for patients, health professionals and healthcare institutions.
Since "Treaty rules [...], as well as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), apply to health services, health service providers are fully entitled to establish and provide services in any Member State, following national and EU rules" says the report.
In the same vein, the EP turned down the rapporteur's call for a separate directive on health services, choosing instead to ask the Commission to propose "an appropriate instrument with a view, in particular, to codifying the [pertinent] case law of the ECJ". "Given that the Commission proposal to deal with health issues in the Services Directive was not accepted by the European Parliament and the Council", says the text, the EP "insists that further action is now required to preserve existing rights [and] calls on the Commission [...] to guarantee the safeguarding of those rights:" MEPs, in that vein, also call "for the adoption of a European charter of patients' rights."
REF.: 20070516IPR06770