Brussels, 09/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has adopted, by rather narrow margins, several amendments to the own initiative report by French Socialist MEP Bernadette Vergnaud on the impact and consequences of excluding healthcare services from the services directive. Following the vote, the report invites the European Commission to submit a proposal to the Parliament to re-insert healthcare services in the services directive and a proposal to codify Court of Justice case law on patients' rights. This call seems all the more strange since the exclusion of healthcare was largely down to the Parliament. The plenary session, which will vote on the matter in its May session in Strasbourg, now has the choice between confirming its position or adopting the stance of the internal market committee.
The vote provoked a bit of a storm. Ms Vergnaud said she was “deeply shocked by the attitude and the inconsistent vote of those right wing MEPs, and French UMP MEP Jacques Toubon was critical that the compromise, which meant that the internal market directive could be adopted, was being challenged. Part of the EPP-ED group was, along with Mr Toubon, shocked, while the other part, led by Swedish MEP Charlotte Cederschiöld, hailed a victory for the free movement of patients in the EU. Part of the EPP-ED group having allied itself with the ALDE and UEN groups to achieve this outcome, the leader of the Socialist group, German MEP Martin Schulz contacted the leader of the EPP-ED group, Frenchman Joseph Daul, to ask him to clarify the situation before the plenary session vote. “Mr Daul told me that his group did not support his members' vote. He remains faithful to the agreement concluded with the Socialist group, excluding healthcare services from the scope of the services directive,” said Mr Schulz in a press release published on Wednesday morning. According to this press release, Mr Schulz has asked Deputy Chairman Harlem Désir and spokeswoman on internal market issues Evelyne Gebhardt to closely monitor preparation for the vote at the Strasbourg plenary session.
This is not the first time a Parliamentary committee has departed from the opinion of the majority of the Parliament. The report by Evelyne Gebhardt had a similar adventure. This own initiative report is part of a wide-ranging debate on healthcare services, initiated by the European Commission in the second half of 2006 (see, among others, EUROPE 9411). Commissioner Markos Kyprianou is currently drawing up a draft directive and other measures to guarantee patients' access to high quality healthcare, which respect Court of Justice judgments on healthcare and patient mobility. (oj)