Dr. Vytenis Andriukaitis:

-----transpose the directive into national law. We are ready to be very tough on the issue of control.

I was asked about the provision of reference centres and the cross-border directive. The last call for entry will be in 2016. I checked the position today and discussed the directive with Ministers and my message is that we have the instruments. If we are not ready to introduce all obligatory measures, we will start with the infringement procedures. It is a very sensitive issue. Senator John Crown raised the question of rare diseases and specialised treatments. Of course, one needs to have reference centres, but one must also speak about accident centres. Reference centres deal with rare diseases, while accident centres have competencies in some areas.

I ask the committee to help me on the issue of e-health and e-health technologists and the possibility of using such services, especially where people live a long way from centres. It would be excellent to have prevention and-or professional problems solved through the use of mobile phones throughout the European Union.

Some scientists have programmes, under which a patient types on the phone and has a cardiogram. The centre will then tell him or her that it is ok, that he or she should not worry, or that he or she should go to the doctor or to the centre because it is an emergency. It is about the prevention of stroke and cardiovascular diseases. We speak about digital Europe, but we must speak about digital health. I know how important sovereignty and subsidiarity are, but I would like to speak only about treaties which I will follow strictly. There is a discussion about the cross-border initiative on rare diseases and the possibilities in this regard. We are ready to continue this year and into the middle of the year to the summer recess. I encourage some regions to be pioneers because the differences are huge. Health systems are of different type - the Mediterranean model, the Beveridge model, the Bismarck model, the Scandinavian model and central European models - but we must create a pilot project between regions.

I am sorry to be so general in my responses to the questions asked and, in the same way, ask my colleagues to expand on their positions.