Brussels, 15/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - In a letter to British Labour Party MP John Healey, who chairs the multi-party group in the British House of Commons on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP), the European chief negotiator, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, last week sought to be reassuring as regards the Labour Party's qualms about the impact of TTIP on the British National Health Service (NHS). “Although health services are in principle within the scope of these [TTIP] agreements and ongoing negotiations, we are confident that the rights of EU member states to manage their health systems according to their various needs can be fully safeguarded”, says Bercero.
According to the European Commission, the EU member state governments will still be free to choose whether (1) foreign suppliers could bid for contracts, and if so, whether on the same terms as EU or domestic ones; (2) foreign doctors could work in the system; (3) private firms could help deliver public health services; (4) parts of the service privatised in the past should return to public ownership. Lastly, the EU proposals on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in TTIP will in no way impinge on governments' right to regulate public health care. (EH)