At the European Council on 25/26 March 2004, the Irish Presidency provided a Report CIG 70/04 with the result of bilateral meetings with the EU 25 countries, the Commission and the Parliament.
The latest IGC discussions were based on the Italian Presidency proposals for the Brussels summit on 12-13 December 2003 which ended without agreement.
The UK, France and Germany held a trilateral summit on 16 February 2004 and set out their vision of Europe’s role in health.
The Irish Presidency report states:
The Presidency was able to confirm that the great bulk of the provisions of the draft Constitutional Treaty prepared by the Convention are not in dispute. Moreover, it also ascertained that many of the proposals made by the Italian Presidency, as set out in the document it presented to the December European Council (CIG 60 ADD 1 and ADD2), would be the subject of a broad positive consensus in the context of an overall agreement.
The most difficult issues remain the size and composition of the Commission and, in particular, the definition and scope of qualified majority voting. The minimum seat threshold in the European Parliament also remains to be settled.
However, there are still a number of key issues or importance for the health community, specifically linked to the encroachment of the internal market into healthcare systems and the impact of liberalisation measure on public health. A closer coherence is also needed between external and internal EU policies, linking the debate on maintaining quality public services Services of General Interest within the EU with the international trade discussions at the WTO on GATS.
In terms of the draft Treaty, a point of concern is Article III-6 which deals with Services, but needs to explicitly state the internal market rules must not interfere with national legislation and policy to protect solidarity, equity and the social value of core public services.
More background on the way that the internal market interacts with health and social services in the EU treaties.
