CROSS-BORDER HEALTH CARE : PROPOSAL TAKEN OFF AGENDA UNTIL JANUARY.

• Position: Brief article

The draft directive on patients' rights in cross-border health care, which was on the European Commission's agenda for 19 December, has been postponed to a later date, at some point in January. According to the Commission spokesman, the postponement is due solely to the "very heavy agenda" ofathe college of commissioners, which includes a difficult issue, namely CO2 emissions from vehicles.

In fact, the postponement is also due to reasons related to the drafting of the proposal. The reservation was expressed by Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, backed by several other commissioners, who maintained that adoption was neither advisable nor entirely justified, obliged the EU's Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou to back down at the last minute. Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso considered that several points needed further "attentive" discussion...