Today begins the week of European action for the right to people’s health and against the dismantling of public services and the privatization of health, organized by a European network of dozens of organizations, health care unions, associations and citizen's struggling against privatization. The week will be concluded with a European conference in Warsaw this weekend.

The Party of the European Left strongly supports these initiatives full of hope, to which many of its member parties will take part in their country. The EL will also contribute by organizing a conference in Barcelona on October 5 and 6, where the issue of inequalities in Europe within the access to care for all will be discussed.

European treaties do not provide for direct powers of EU institutions in the field of health protection. But the choice of austerity, the dismantling of public services and cuts in funding of social protection systems, have a direct and very serious impact on the access to care for European people, and the working conditions of health professionals.

We now speak of "humanitarian crisis" in Greece. In Spain, the attacks began targeting foreigners who must now pay the full price for their care. In France, the government has already announced that it will undertake "courageous reforms" on social protection. Enough is enough. Sick people and health professionals must not pay the banks crisis.

Europe of the 21st century should not be built on social regression but harmonization of laws from the top, in order to protect Europeans in their life path. The Party of the European Left calls for the creation of a European front against austerity and for the rebuilding of the Union on the basis of solidarity.Party of the European Left

October 1, 2012