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.

Today's vote is the culmination of a long campaign to clarify patients' rights and responsibilities. Healthcare systems were unfortunately removed from the EU's Services Directive in 2006. The European Commission first made a separate proposal on the matter over two and half years ago.

Mr Cabrnoch said:

"European health care systems are based on similar values but they are organised very differently. This proposal is a small but important step towards clarifying, albeit not perfectly, the rights of patients in receiving care and in gaining access to information.

"This proposal ensures that national governments remain responsible for funding and organising their healthcare systems. This is particularly ensured in the rules requiring prior authorisation of in-patient care abroad.

"We hope that this directive's adoption will enable us to continue to develop patients' rights across the EU, without unnecessary harmonisation of healthcare systems, in the future."