WRITTEN QUESTION E-0844/01

by Malcolm Harbour (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(22 March 2001)

Subject: National insurance contributions in EU Member States

Is the Commission aware that, should a UK citizen travel to another EU country, he/she is not entitled to reciprocal healthcare as in the UK without proof of payment of UK National Insurance? Consequently, a different form is required for every country visited by a UK citizen that creates a situation of excessive bureaucracy.

Could the Commission indicate:

1. Why this situation has been allowed to occur?

2. Whether, in future, British citizens may expect to be able to travel on business with a single document within the single market?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(18 May 2001)

The Honourable Member raises a question concerning the right to health care for residents of the United Kingdom while on a temporary stay in another Member State. The question implies that the right to receive benefits would depend on the payment of National Insurance Contributions and that a different form is required for every Member State visited.

The role of Community law in the field of social security and more precisely the right to health care is as follows. Under Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 and (EEC) No 574/72(1), which are the Community's legal instruments for the co-ordination of Member States' social security systems, the main principle is that a person covered by the provisions of these regulations is entitled to receive medical care in the Member State where he or she resides in accordance with the provisions of the legislation in that Member State. However, if during a temporary stay in another Member State the need for treatment arises, persons covered by the above-mentioned regulations as employed or self-employed persons have a right to receive emergency care as necessary while pensioners have a right to receive treatment appropriate to their condition without this limitation.

The Community provisions on social security offer significant protection to European citizens moving within the Community, in particular to persons staying temporarily outside the Member State where they are insured. Normally it is the Member State where the person is insured which has to bear the cost of the treatment and reimburse the institution of the place of stay.

To ensure these rights the Union citizen should obtain a form E111 (available from the Post Office in the United Kingdom) before going abroad and submit it to the institution of the place of stay as these forms are designed to ensure rapid and efficient cross-border communication between the social security institutions and to avoid lengthy procedures.

Insofar as the question implies that Member States are not implementing these provisions properly, the Commission is not aware of the problems mentioned in the Honourable Member's question, and more information is needed in order for the Commission to determine whether Community law has not been properly respected in any particular case.

Therefore, the Commission would invite the Honourable Member to submit more details so that it may examine them in the light of Community law.

(1) Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 of the Council of 14 June 1971 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community (OJ L 149, 5.7.1971), and Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 of the Council, of 21 March 1972, fixing the procedure for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 (OJ L 74, 27.3.1972) as updated by Regulation (EC) No 118/97 of 2 December 1996 (OJ L 28, 30.1.1997).