The European Union has a current and enduring problem. Put simply, this problem is: how can we create, through binding and individually enforceable EU law, a single internal market, based on the free movement of factors of production, and free competition within a level legislative playing field, without undermining nationally determined, solidarity-based commitments to welfare? There are many examples of this problem (the ‘problem of social Europe’). One, from the healthcare arena, is the case of Mrs Watts. 1 Rather than waiting to have her operation in England, Mrs Watts had a hip replacement operation in France. She successfully challenged national policy that prevented her from having the operation paid for by the English national health system, on the basis that the policy breached EU law on free movement of services in the internal market. A single cross-border patient (Mrs Watts) did not upset the financial equilibrium of the English...
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Tamara Hervey (2010) studied this question.