Congratulations to the the Polish Institutions on the political value of their decision to include the topic of patients' rights in the Programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union - thus putting it at the centre of the European political agenda. As outlined in the recently published White Paper “Healthcare Policy Recommendations”, the willingness to implement concrete measures aimed at the official adoption of the European Charter of Patients' Rights marks a key step.
To be honest, a decision that was not taken for granted, in some ways even unexpected, if we think not only of the unstable global situation we are experiencing but also of the recent European elections where, with some exceptions of course, the subject of the health conditions of European citizens was the great absent in the pre-electoral debate. Coupled with the complete absence of new health initiatives in the State of the Union Address delivered before the EU election by the President of the European Commission.
Above all, this is a very timely and necessary decision: firstly, because we firmly believe in the key role of the European institutions for the well-being of all of us, and this decision goes in the right direction of strengthening the trust between the institutions and the European citizens; secondly, because the political will expressed by the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union gives a response to the request of the civic and patients‘ associations - and more generally of the informal and growing movement born around the European Charter of Patients’ Rights - who have been waiting for a concrete signal on this issue for more than a quarter of a century; thirdly, because without a common and standardised framework of patients' rights at the European level, the European Health Union will never be complete, as it will always lack the “rights leg”.
From the importance that will be given to health issues in this European political framework, we will understand whether the need to create a stronger European Health Union, as emphasised by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, is just a claim or the actual direction taken by the European institutions and the key point by which we will evaluate their work.
Mariano Votta, Director Active Citizenship Network
