Transcript The EU Directive on 'Services in the internal market', COM
European Public Health Alliance The EU Directive on "Services in the internal market", COM(2004) 2 final/3
Agnese Knabe Project coordinator European Public Health Alliance Civic Alliance – Latvia
The Citizen in the centre in EU, Bratislava 25-26 November,2005
Background (1/2)
As part of the completion of the internal market, on
13 January 2004
the European Commission adopted a draft
Directive on Services in the internal market
.
This Directive will establish a
general legal framework
applicable to all economic activities involving services with some exceptions, such as financial, electronic communications and transport services (which are already regulated by other EU legislation).
Background (2/2)
The
main goal
of the proposal is to
eliminate all obstacles to the free movement of services and to the establishment for service providers
.
The Directive is
horizonta
l in nature, which means that it
covers everything that is not explicitly excluded
health related services.
. As such, the original text also includes the provision of healthcare services and other
Content
In terms of
content
, the Directive on Services: ·
country of origin principle
: service providers could be subject to the laws of their country of origin rather than of the country where the service is provided ·
Improved national co-operation:
national authorities to exchange information and work together more closely to replace the current duplication of national regulations and controls with a more coherent and business-friendly system. (single contact points, electronic procedures, requirement to justify authorisation systems, no obligation to translate documents) ·
Basic common rules:
in order to increase trust and confidence in crossborder services (appropriate professional indemnity insurance for services giving rise to particular risks, information to consumers, codes of conduct)
Content
Rights of service users:
the right of consumers to use services across the EU prevents member states from imposing restrictions on such services. This includes specific authorisations to use a service (for example architects or builders) or discriminatory tax rules.
Health care:
security systems must reimburse the costs of medical care received in other member states.
the directive clarifies the conditions under which national social
European Health Policy Forum (EHPF) recommendations
Ensuring that the specificity of health services is adequately reflected in any EU initiative Ensuring that sustainability and long-term objectives of health services are reflected in EU initiatives with an impact on health Ensuring that adequate consultation takes place in EU initiatives: who is consulted and how the comments are taken into account depending on the representativeness and the weight of the respondent Ensuring that a proper health impact assessment including health system impact assessment is performed prior to any legislative initiative Coordination between Commission services to ensure consistency of initiatives Exclusion of health services from the scope of the proposed Directive in view of examining these services within the framework of separate debate
Recent developments
The Directive has to pass through both the European Parliament and the European Council.
The lead Committee was the Internal Market and Legal Affairs Committee The Committee just voted: healthcare
services have been excluded
from the scope of the text, but the country of origin principle remains The European Parliament will vote the text in Plenary in January or February 2006