Question écrite de
Mme Rosa D'AMATO
-
Commission européenne
Subject: Basic care standards in Italy
The European Pillar of Social Rights sets out the principles and fundamental rights that are the prerequisites for fair and well-functioning welfare systems.
‘Chapter III – Social protection and inclusion’ reads as follows:
Healthcare
Everyone has the right to timely access to affordable, preventive and curative health care of good quality.
Long-term care
Everyone has the right to affordable long-term care services of good quality, in particular home-care and community-based services.
Access to essential services
Everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality, including water, sanitation, energy, transport, financial services and digital communications.
The 2019 review of basic care standards in Italy revealed a gap between the north and south and flagged many concerns in the southern regions. Calabria and Molise were deemed non-compliant.
Can the Commission say:
1. whether it believes that Italy is failing to apply the principles and rights set out in Chapter III of the European Pillar of Social Rights uniformly for all citizens;
2. what EU instruments should Italy use to provide all its citizens with the same quality of health care?
Answer given by Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission
(21 March 2022)
Most of the competences and tools required to deliver on the European Pillar of Social Rights are in the hands of national authorities, who primarly hold repsonsibility for employment, education and social policies.
EU level actions complement national efforts and the action plan (1) adopted in 2021 outlines the Commission’s contribution to the implementation of the Pillar.
The Social Scoreboard tracks the Member States’ trends and performance enabling the Commission to monitor progress towards the implementation of the Pillar principles in the well-established policy coordination framework of the European Semester.
The financing, organisation and delivery of health and care services is the responsibility of Member States, according to Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (2).
The 2020 European Semester report for Italy (3) highlighted challenges and shortcomings of the Italian healthcare system and the Council Recommendation mentioned the needs for investments in healthcare (Recital 16) (4).
The State of Health — Country profile Italy 2021 report (5) highlights significant regional disparities in health outcomes and access and quality of healthcare.
⋅1∙ https://op.europa.eu/webpub/empl/european-pillar-of-social-rights/en/
⋅2∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A12012E%2FTXT
⋅3∙ Country Report 2020: Italy https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/2020-european-semester-country-reports_en
⋅4∙ 2020 CSR’s Italy: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1591720698631&uri=CELEX%3A52020DC0512
⋅5∙ State of Health Country profile Italy: https://ec.europa.eu/health/system/files/2021-12/2021_chp_it_english.pdf
| | )Italy can certainly use EU Funds to invest in its health system. It has already done so with the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan (6) with EUR 15 billion earmarked for health-related reforms and investments to improve access to quality healthcare, strengthen local health networks, tele-medicine, homecare and foster the integration between social and health services.
Italy can also continue making use of Cohesion Policy Funds to improve accessibility and quality of services, including healthcare.
⋅6∙ Recovery and Resilience Plan Italy ‐adopted June 2021 https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/recovery-coronavirus/recovery-and-resilience-facility/italys-
recovery-and-resilience-plan_en