The end of eastern territoriality? CJEU compliance in the new member states

Abstract:

How does compliance with Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rulings on patient mobility in the new Member States compare with the old Member States? Studying new Member States’ compliance practices would highlight the state of territoriality, the CJEU’s effective influence and the European healthcare union’s strength among the new Members.

To provide a structured analysis and transferrable results, we compare Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria with France and Germany. These countries are selected on the basis of commonalities in their systems’ organization. For the results for the old Member States, we rely on Obermaier’s 2009 ‘The End of Territoriality’.

This study is qualitative in nature and relies mostly on qualitative semi-structured interviews with experts from ministries of health, health insurers and legal experts from all three countries. We distinguish between formal and informal compliance and based on this, we advance an analytical framework for a systematic study of CJEU compliance across the EU. Our findings produce a heterogeneous picture of these countries, with all three of them demonstrating different modes of compliance.

This is because of distinct domestic conditions, ranging from insurance fund amenability and national court complaisance to state administration obstinacy.