The new patient mobility directive (COM(2008)0414), scheduled to be debated by Parliament in April, will lay down common provisions on the reimbursement of health care received abroad. Members of the European Parliament are seeking to ensure that patients from EU countries have every opportunity to receive treatment abroad (such as through the reimbursement in advance of expensive health-care services so that they are not only available to the wealthy), while the Council is proposing that such rights be limited and that the Member States themselves decide what health care received by their citizens abroad would qualify for reimbursement.

In the Council’s view, how can these opposing positions of Parliament and the Council be reconciled? What possible compromise proposals does the Council envisage?