INTERVIEW WITH BERNADETTE VERGNAUD, EP RAPPORTEUR : HEALTH SERVICES: "A LEGISLATIVE INSTRUMENT IS NEEDED".

• Position: Interview

Bernadette Vergnaud (PES, France) is rapporteur on health services for the European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO). Her report on the impact and consequences of leaving health services out of the services directive in the internal market is set to be reviewed by IMCO in April and in plenary in May.

Is it really useful for the Commission and Parliament to study health services, which is essentially a member state responsibility?

It is a fact that it is not Europe's role to harmonise health services. But we cannot disregard the rulings handed down by the Court of Justice (based on freedom to provide services). The judges currently rule on a case-by-case basis, which is creating considerable legal uncertainty as to which rules apply. That is not good for either patients or professionals. The fact that these services have been left out of the Bolkestein Directive' does not solve everything. And we cannot ignore that mobility - for both patients and professionals - will be increasing in the coming years and will have to be regulated.

Why regulate? What are your concerns?

For patients, we need to avoid creating a two-tier system where only the wealthiest, those in the know, will have access to mobility in health care and be reimbursed. For professionals in the sector, we need to keep good medical care available throughout the country - with doctors in rural areas, for example - and remedy the insufficient numbers of recognised specialists - surgeons, etc. We also have to avoid a brain drain from some countries and keep a certain level of access to care: for example German dentists suffering from the competition of their Polish counterparts, with patients travelling to Poland for care. Prices are rising in Poland and the Poles are starting to have a tough time getting dental care. We also have to facilitate in cross-border regions the pooling of human and material means, for instance so that hospitals can be funded by two or three countries. There is a huge amount of work to be done.

So you recommend a legislative initiative?

Yes. I don't see how we can do without it. A legislative instrument is needed to provide for these different types of mobility, to contribute to...