Arlene McCarthy (PSE). - Mr President, many speakers stress the fact that all patients, whether they travel or stay at home, are entitled to high-quality, safe health care. Let us not forget that one of the biggest demographic challenges we have is an ageing population who will inevitably want health care in their own locality. So we need clarity to respect the right of patients to access health services, and at the same time we need to respect the Treaty provision stating that the organisation of health services, especially financing, is a competence of the Member States. We must recognise that 27 states have different systems, different funding systems. I regret that the directive is not clear on this point, but I have confidence that our rapporteurs can clarify these issues: if we want to keep out the lawyers we must have clarity, not just to avoid patients going to court, but to avoid them going to court on cross-border medical negligence issues.

So we need to have more innovation in our approach. The ideal mix, I believe, is to have patient mobility and to encourage Member States to buy in expert services, not just to treat one patient but to treat groups suffering from the same condition. This could be more cost-efficient, and could enable patients to stay close to family and friends.