Our society is constantly changing. However, modern changes are influenced more than ever by new technologies, including those in information and communication. We are in daily contact with these new technologies at home, at work and when we entertain ourselves. Of cour se, we therefore cannot avoid these technological developments in the health field. On the contrary, the health field is a domain where new technologies find their place rapidly and on a broad scale.

New EU-wide legislation adopted today on cross-border healthcare will give patients a clearer understanding of their rights and responsibilities to seek treatment abroad if there is an unacceptable delay at home, Milan Cabrnoch MEP, European Conservatives and Reformists group shadow rapporteur on the proposal, said today.

Address by Mr Milan CABRNOCH, Chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Armenia, EU-Azerbaijan and EU-Georgia Parliamentary Cooperation Committees for the extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on 23 November 2010 - Strasbourg

Our society is changing. However change is more than ever influenced by new technologies, including information and communication. We are in daily contact with these at home, at work and when we entertain ourselves. Of course we cannot avoid these in the health field. On the contrary, the health field is a domain where new technologies find their place rapidly and on large scale.

Travelling abroad for pleasure, education, or work has become a natural part of life for many European citizens. Products and services can be bought in another member state when required, but obtaining healthcare outside their country of residence still presents a problem to most European citizens.

Several days ago the European Court of Justice issued a precedent ruling in which it addressed the issue of regulation of working time and the remuneration of a Czech doctor. It is a noteworthy text.

Round table on citizens' mobility called "Accessibility of high quality health care as a condition to the free movement of citizens within the European Union" was held on the 14th of June 2007 in the European Parliament under the patronage of MUDr. Milan Cabrnoch.

Experts from the European Union and the United States started an intensive cooperation in the field of health care, concretely eHealth. They met for the first time in history for a one day conference in Brussels on Thursday the 10th of May 2007. I was the only member of the European parliament who had the opportunity to participate at this conference.

The basic building blocks of the European Union are (so some would say) four freedoms: free movement of capital, goods, people and services. A couple of months ago, the European Parliament passed with considerable difficulties and several amendments a directive on the free movement of services in the EU internal market.

The European social model is basically a promise of politicians to their citizens: a promise to protect their citizens from certain problems, "to take care of them". Nowadays, the promise of social security is the most important offer that the politicians have to offer to their citizens in exchange for their support of the project of the European Union.

We are pleased to announce that approximately 40 full scholarships are made available by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the one-year fulltime M.Sc. programme in Public Health as offered by the Faculty of Health Sciences at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, for the coming academic year 2006/2007.