For Europeans, the entitlement to good health care is a basic human right, as enshrined in Article 33 of the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights: 'everyone has the right of access to preventive health care and the right to benefit from medical treatment'. The major long-term social...

The Lisbon Summit highlighted social policy as a core element in Europe's strategy for becoming 'the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with better jobs and greater social cohesion' by 2010. The present report, a joint...