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European Citizens´ Initiative Forum

Allow EU citizen to keep their car plates and health insurance accross all EU countries

Author: Inactive user |
Updated on: 04/03/2019 |
Number of views: 534

At present the law of the EU allows a EU citizen to buy a product or service in any country of the Union. Some countries are in breach of this law by forcing the EU citizen moving from one EU country to another to change:

1- car plates and pay an extra tax related to this change
2- private and complementary health insurance although the one from the originating covers whole Europe.

Most EU citizen are reluctant to move and keep their national admin because of the extra coming from changing the plate and tax on their vehicles and from having to cancel their original health and car insurance (losing the ancienity and accrued benefits)

At present it makes EU higher cost for the EU citizen compared to Great Britain even after Brexit (!). Which shows a failure in terms of benefits from being in the EU.

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Inactive user | 24/08/2018

typo, instead of 

"Most EU citizen are reluctant to move and keep their national admin because of the extra coming"

read

"Most EU citizen are reluctant to move and keep their national admin because of the extra costs"

Inactive user | 25/10/2018

It is their job to make it work after all. So far the UK does not have enough doctors and nurse, but the system overall is better than the EU one. 

Inactive user | 27/10/2020

I agree. We shouldn't be fined based on the license plate we have. You must able to travel problem free within the EU.


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In countries like the Netherlands, healthcare is privatised. Depending on the insurances healthcare is available.


In other EU countries, for example in Germany and Belgium, healthcare is available for everyone and the quality doesn't depend on your budget.


By forcing EU citizens that work in the Netherlands to have a Dutch health insurance, you're downgrading their healthcare and upgrading the health insurance premium. 


This should not be the case. In the Netherlands you have a huge group of people called 'zorgmijders'. Those are citizens who avoid healthcare because of financial reasons. The bar is too high many people. The deductible is too high.


In some EU countries you have access to medical specialists without any issue. For instance in the Netherlands, you only have access if your GP sends a referral. 


In many cases a GP is not able to help you and because the GP needs to keep the privatised health insurance happy, not going to send referrals. As a result, people that don't have the finances to get healthcare in other EU countries, are stuck with the local one and often time get help when the condition is already in an advanced stadium. (Too late)


So if you allow EU to keep their health insurance and car license plate, not matter what EU country, it would be great!

Inactive user | 19/07/2021

The "Committee on Petitions" sent an email the 7th of July 2021 with an attachment. See below the comments to this attachement including some quotes from the Committee on Petitions:

 

The attachment listed the exact exception, rules:

"The maximum surcharge

an operator could charge is EUR 0.032/minute for voice, EUR 0.01/short message service

(SMS) and currently EUR 3 per gigabyte (GB) used (this will be lowered to 2.5 GB on 1 January

2022).
"  This forces a EU citizen to change contract. But if the contract is recent then the EU citizen either pay a penalty or surcharges as above. The petition demands to remove these unfair costs. The improperly called fair policy is therefore indeed unfair as 4 months is too short for 2 years contracts.

 

"However, when the validity period of the driving licence

expires, the licence should be renewed in the Member State of residence...The new Member State of residence may require the

holder of the licence to renew it two years after taking residence, provided this Member State

applies a shorter validity period for its own driving licences.
". The French driving license does not expires. But French still have to exchange for a license that expires as all other states have shorter validity: losing a non-expiring license to one requiring to be paid every two years. "...guarantees that driving licences do not need to be changed

when a citizen moves to another Member State, except when the driving licence expires or the

new Member State of residence applies a shorter validity period to its own driving licences.
" here the exception becomes the rule for all the citizen of a EU member state with the highest validity as it uses the shorter validity rules. This is unjust to some member of the EU compared to other. For fairness, minimum loss of benefits and improve freedom of mouvement, the driving license with the LONGER validity should be allowed to be kept. The petitions demands this loss of benefit to be suppressed, also to be suppressed retro-actively.

"EU law does not harmonise national social security legislation,

moving from one Member State to another can have consequences for an insured person in

terms of entitlements and contributions in any particular case.
" The response misses the point of private (health, auto, home) insurances. The petition demands that private insurances which are of more value and more importance than the national social securities are harmonised and accepted across EU members. 

"workers and self-employed persons are not requested to provide documents regarding

their health insurance in order to establish their residence beyond three months in another

Member State. Unlike economically inactive EU citizens or students, they do not have to prove

that they are covered by a comprehensive sickness insurance valid in the host Member State.
" This is incorrect. In the Netherlands contracting a Dutch private health insurance with a minimum of 120 euros per months on top of the national social security is mandatory therefore forcing a citizen moving to a new EU state to lose years of accumulated benefits and loyalty with their private insurance. The worker not moving country keeps the benefits from loyalty to the initial private insurance. The private health insurances from other EU countries should be allowed to be in accord with the freedom of purchase of goods/service in the EU. Imposing private insurance should not be accepted. The petition demands this type of constraints to be suppressed.

In the current status the accumulated points: phone, private insurance, driving licences add up to demoting and discouraging the freedom of mouvement within the EU.

The "Committee on Petitions" have repeated, confirmed and seems to condone the current accumulation of impediments to the freedom of mouvement for the EU citizens this petition requires to be worked on dilligently.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on the ECI Forum reflect solely the point of view of their authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the position of the European Commission or of the European Union.