“It’s hard to see how the EU can legally do what these people are requesting,” Nick Fahy, director of health and well-being research at the RAND Europe Institute, told POLITICO. “This is money, not law, but at the same time it will directly influence the EU’s allocation of resources to health care, and this is clearly not allowed under Article 168 of the Treaty.”
Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union states that the EU may provide support to Member States, but its actions must “respect the responsibilities of Member States for the definition of their health policy and the organization and delivery of health”. Services and medical care.
Funding a country to allow women in other member states to have abortions “would not be a neutral act by the European Commission; This is the European Commission directly intervening in a very politically sensitive matter,” Fahy said.
“From a purely legal point of view and from a kind of political point of view between the EU and the member states, I don’t think it’s happening legally or politically,” he said.
the commission wrote in your decision It appears that “there is no direct targeted intervention in the capabilities of Member States,” but “such intervention could nevertheless result in the solid establishment of financial support mechanisms.”
Therefore, it concluded that initiatives can be registered “insofar as the proposed financial support mechanism has the purpose or effect of undermining the public order law of the Member States or generally reducing the health care and ethical choices made by the Member States.” Not there.” “States are exercising their capacity in health matters.”
The campaign gained nearly 100,000 signatures within its first week; Activists are hoping to collect 1 million in the next seven weeks, forcing the commission to consider the proposal.