The European Union Directive on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare. Could it be part of the Global Health Summit strategy?

BACKGROUND: Member States (MSs) retain the powers to arrange their own national health care systems. However, EU has progressively developed an important co-ordination role. Such an institutional and legal framework has had a significant impact on how citizens' right to health is dealt with at the European level. OBJECTIVE: The article intends to prove that the greater the cooperation among MSs the better for citizens' right to health. METHODS: EU law – Directive 2011/24/EU. RESULTS: The Rome Declaration highlights the importance of all-of-society and health-in-all-policies approach. This underlines the "strategic" importance of the right to health. CONCLUSIONS: The Rome Declaration may contribute to identifying public health not only as an individual, fundamental right but also as an obligation on both EU and Member States to ensure that right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]