New EU health commissioner grilled on cross-border health rights

New EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou came under pressure from lawmakers during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday to present rules setting out clear rights for Europeans seeking health care in EU countries other than their own.

The former Cypriot first lady who was nominated to her job only a month ago, said she would to present draft rules setting out such rights in June.

A previous plan was shelved by the European Commission in December due to widespread concerns it could derail attempts to ratify the EU's new governing treaty and reopen a touchy debate over opening up national health services to cross-border competition.

Drafting such rules is a sensitive issue touching on key national health care policies and could give the EU a new and influential role in deciding on how patients can seek treatment for their ailments in other European nations.

Vassiliou was pressed on the matter during her confirmation hearing and ensured critics of such new rules that they would not lead to deterioration of national health care systems.

"The intention is not to damage the existing health systems of the various countries. We want to improve the health system in the European Union," Vassiliou told lawmakers at the European Parliament. She said her plan, which would need the backing of all EU governments, would set out an "exchange of best practices."

Such rights would spell out exactly under what conditions citizens across the 27-nation bloc could use health services in other countries.

EU nations such as Britain, which is facing long waiting times for patients, are keen to get such rules in place. Other smaller and poorer EU nations fear such rights could swamp their national health care systems and are demanding a cap on the current rights to shop around for the best health care across the 27-nation bloc.

Vassiliou said she was including specific "safety valves" to cap the number of people allowed into other health care systems if those national systems were overburdened. She said currently only one percent of European patients go abroad to seek medical treatment or care.

Vassiliou needs the backing from the European Parliament before she can formally take up her job as the EU's new health and food safety chief to replace her predecessor, Markos Kyprianou, who vacated his seat in February to become the new foreign minister of Cyprus.

Each EU nation sends one representative as part of the EU's executive office, which is currently led by President Jose Manuel Barroso.

She said she would make combatting smoking, binge drinking and obesity, and boosting animal welfare rights, top priorities of her 1 1/2 year term, which ends Oct. 31, 2009.