EU Plans Cross-border Healthcare

Under the proposals, patients would not have to get their doctor's approval for non-hospital care abroad.

The European Parliament and EU governments must approve the rules for them to take effect.

Patients would be able to claim up to the amount their treatment would have cost in their home country.

The Commission's draft directive is part of a wider "renewed social agenda" package aimed at clarifying citizens' rights in line with European Court of Justice rulings. The package also includes measures to improve access to jobs and fight discrimination and poverty.

In recent years the court's judges have ruled that freedom to cross EU borders for the best and quickest treatment is a right for all.

A Commission healthcare spokesman, Nicholas Fahy, said the aim was to clarify patients' rights to treatment abroad, and the Commission was not introducing new rights.

In a landmark ruling in 2006, the European Court said the UK's National Health Service should reimburse a woman for a hip replacement operation she had in France.

The woman, Yvonne Watts, won the argument that patients facing "undue delays" in the queue for operations should be entitled to treatment in other EU countries. She paid £3,900 for the operation.