17/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Italian regions of Venetia, Lombardy, and Liguria, together with Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, held a meeting last week in Brussels on public health and the role of the regions, which was attended by "health assessors" (healthcare is very much regionally based in Italy: Ed), the Italian Health Minister Girolama Sirchia, and the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi. Discussions focused on the role of the regions in state healthcare in an enlarged Europe, and the level of health protection to be guaranteed to European citizens under patient mobility, as laid down in recent Court of Justice rulings. With no real European response, speakers pleaded in favour of bilateral agreement on taking responsibility for patients.