Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-25-Speech-4-060"
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"en.20080925.4.4-060"2
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"Mr President, this has been a very interesting discussion.
Indeed, we have had encouragement from the European Court of Justice to legislate. We cannot leave it all the time to the Court to decide about the rights of the patient case by case. This is not just. How many European citizens can afford a lawyer and can afford to go to court? Only a very few. Therefore, we must offer solutions to all the patients, give them the right information and let them decide for themselves what they need.
This is a time for all of us to work together – the Council, the Commission and Members of Parliament – to find the best possible solutions for patients.
Let me say that very often we hear the question: how can we bring the citizen nearer to the European Union?
This is one example of how we can make the citizen feel that the European Union is doing something for him or her. Under the present system, there are many inequalities. With the clear legal framework provided by the draft directive concerning citizens and the various issues we are trying to give clear information to the citizen about their rights and how they can exercise them.
It is true that there are concerns. I listened very carefully to your concerns, and I am sure that during the course of the debate and the deliberations we shall have, we have to address these concerns so that the end result will be something which is really of benefit to the citizen.
This is not a Bolkestein Directive II – far from it – and we should never think that this is so. It is about patients’ rights and how to exercise those rights.
We are not trying to harmonise health systems. Member States can continue to exercise and regulate their health systems, and they can decide for themselves what benefits they want to offer to their citizens, and to what extent.
We are not trying to encourage health tourism. We are not trying to give citizens the chance to have their faces and their bodies fixed; rather, we are trying to give citizens the right to have proper health care when they are sick and they need it.
Nor do we expect a big exodus of European citizens from their home state to another Member State. According to the calculations and to the impact assessment that we have, only a very small percentage of citizens wish to go abroad. Why? Because they want to have the care that they need nearer to their families, they want to speak their own language and to be in a familiar environment.
However, there are cases when they need some extra health care which their home state cannot provide. This is a right that we give them – this extra right to have an informed choice and decide for themselves where they go for their health treatment."@en1
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