State Aid Rules Applicable to Health and Social Services SGEI in a Post Pandemic Scenario. Thoughts and Proposals on the Commission Evaluation to Amend the 2012 Legislative Package

Key points

The EESC:

• considers that various health and social services such as care, helping disadvantaged individuals and those with disabilities to break back into the labour market, childcare and social housing are fundamental when it comes to guaranteeing social cohesion in the ongoing period of post-pandemic recovery, humanitarian crisis and international tensions. European rules on state aid for these services are therefore fundamental;

• would point out that within individual Member States, health services and almost all social care services are organised by region, county, town or even by group of towns in the case of larger urban areas. This means that user mobility between regions or counties in a given country is very limited; cross-border mobility of users is therefore a non-factor;

• encourages the Commission to set up a portal giving access to examples of legitimate entrustment acts for the various types of health and social services;

• encourages the exchange of good practices between Member States with similar legal traditions on the application of state aid rules to health and social services, with a view to encouraging more effective use of the discretion that Protocol No 26 to the TFEU accords to national administrations when it comes to establishing and implementing SGEI at local level.

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