ABSTRACT
The role and relevance of the European Union to health systems and their functioning has changed over the last ten years. When the European Union was established its relevance was not generally anticipated, and indeed even when Finland and Sweden joined the European Union it was with public and policy assumptions that the European Union would have little impact on health and social services. The subsidiarity principle that governs European Union functions was understood to ensure that decision making in these fields would be done on the basis of national policy priorities with no European Union influence. While the concerns of the Nordic countries over joining the European Union were more related to the worries over its impact on welfare states, the situation for the United Kingdom was different. The United Kingdom was one of the founding members of the European steel community and a participant in the Rome Treaty at the beginning of the integration process. The problem for the United Kingdom was not that Europe would affect the welfare state but, particularly apparent during the Thatcher era, that new European social regulations would be imposed on the United Kingdom. Europe was considered too social and insufficiently free-market oriented and this is still reflected in some United Kingdom positions concerning the European Union.
