ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a much more serious challenge from EU law to national health systems, that of economic governance within the Eurozone. It outlines the evolution of EU law on cross-border healthcare. Cross-border healthcare is a classic example of the tight relationship between market and social rights within European Union (EU) law, and the sometimes contradictory tensions involved in these two areas of EU action. The logic of the EU's internal market law, as applied in the context of healthcare, potentially has significant implications for the EU's 'social market economy', and for matters which belong within national competence, such as public health ethics. The 'European Pillar of Social Rights' includes among its key principles equality of opportunities and instruments for a basic social protection. The chapter concludes with some reflections on how the lessons learned from embodying the EU's 'social market economy' in EU law on cross-border healthcare could be applied in the EU's economic governance competences.
