”By ordering Socialist EU Commissioners around, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has tried to politicise the Commission at the cost of European citizens. The Commission is supposed to be independent and to serve the interests of all Europeans and the greater good. It is not supposed to give in to pressure from specific interests and definitely not from individual politicians,” Gunnar Hökmark said today commenting on efforts by the leader of the European Socialists to block a directive on cross border healthcare.
By pulling strings, former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, MEP and President of the Party of European Socialists, lobbied against a proposal on cross border healthcare which was supposed to have been adopted by the European Commission last month. In a letter to Socialist EU Commissioners, he warned of the ”political chaos” the proposal could cause in some EU Member States if presented ahead of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
”Such chaos could only be initiated by Poul Nyrup Rasmussen himself and his European Socialists, but this attempt at political extortion persuaded the Commission to drop its proposal for the time being. Nyrup Rasmussen managed to delay a directive that would have given Europeans a sought-after possibility to opt for healthcare in any Member State,” Gunnar Hökmark said. Under the plans EU citizens would be entitled to healthcare anywhere in the Union if the treatment is allowed in their own country.
”European Socialists, keen to keep the supply of healthcare a prerogative of politically-controlled monopolies, cannot accept such a reform. Patients’ right to choose and their right to be provided with healthcare without delay just does not matter if these systems revered by the Socialists risk facing competition.”
”The political family represented by Nyrup Rasmussen might be influential, but it is not the only one, and neither the biggest nor strongest in Europe. If political pressure and the language of force is allowed to determine the European Commission’s agenda, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and his Socialists might find themselves in a less than favourable position,” Gunnar Hökmark said.