Ulla Neergaard

Health Care and EU law

The EU has only limited competence to regulate national health-care systems but recent developments have shown that health care is not immune from the effects of EU law. As Member States have increasingly experimented with new forms of funding and the delivery of health-care and social welfare services, health-care issues have not escaped scrutiny from the EU internal market and from competition and procurement rules. The market-oriented EU rules now affect these national experiments as patients and health-care providers turn to EU law to assert certain rights. The recent debates on the (draft) Directive on Patients’ Rights further underline the importance, but also the difficulty (and controversy), of allowing EU law to regulate health care. The topicality of the range of issues related to health care and EU law was addressed, in October 2009, at a conference held in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The present volume contains inter alia the proceedings of this conference and invited essays. This volume follows the publication of The Changing Legal Framework for Services of General Interest in Europe. Between Competition and Solidarity (M. Krajewski et al., eds., The Hague, T.M.C. Asser Press 2009) and is the second publication in a new series: Legal Issues of General Interest. The aim of the series is to sketch the framework for services of general interest in the EU and to explore the issues raised by developments related to these services. The book is compulsory reading for everyone who is engaged in issues relating to health care and EU law. Johan van de Gronden is Professor of European law at the Law Faculty of the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Erika Szyszczak is a Jean Monnet Professor of European Law ad personam and Professor of European Competition and Labour Law at the University of Leicester, UK. Ulla Neergaard is Professor of EU law at the Law Faculty of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Markus Krajewski is Professor of International Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

The Concept of SSGI and the Asymmetries Between Free Movement and Competition Law

This chapter critically explains the concept of social service of general interest (SSGI), relating it to two central legal regimes: free movement and competition law. The asymmetries of relevance between these two legal regimes are carefully pointed out. The chapter considers whether it is advisable to understand and use the concept SSGI in a horizontal and universal manner across several areas of EU law, when knowing that there exist significant asymmetries between legal regimes.

EU Health Care Law in a Constitutional Light: Distribution of Competences, Notions of ‘Solidarity’, and ‘Social Europe’

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him’, he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have’.”

‘When Poverty Comes in at the Door, Love Flies Out the Window’ The Influence of Eurozone Reforms Upon The Social Dimension of the EU – And Vice Versa?

The economic crisis has brought the intriguing question of its effects on Social Europe sharply into focus. Th is contribution therefore goes to the heart of the puzzles and explores the mutual influence of Eurozone reforms and broader Union social policies with an additional focus on pointing out the most pertinent challenges in that regard. Thus, the analysis anchors around the following issues: the social dimension of the EU and the Eurozone respectively; comparison; mutual influence; and challenges. A recurring theme is thus the tension between the overall construction of the EU and the internal construction of the Eurozone, which is growing, but not really focused on. It is, inter alia, concluded that the Eurozone reforms bring Social Europe in a new – also viewed by many as a dangerous, illegitimate and undemocratic – direction detached from the prevailing intentions in the EU as such.