Gesundheitspolitische Handlungsspielräume der Mitgliedstaaten im Europäischen Gemeinschaftsrecht

In its rulings, the ECJ has emphasized the application of the fundamental economic freedoms of the EC Treaty, especially of the provisions relating to the free movement of goods and the freedom to provide medical services within the social security systems of the Member States. Community law does however not detract from the powers of the Member States to organize their own social security systems. Since Community law provisions on social security and public health do not permit the European Community to decide on far-reaching regulations which affect the national social security systems of the Member States, they have the exclusive competence to regulate social security and public health law under the EC Treaty. In this work, Sibylle Dünnes-Zimmermann analyzes the relationship between the fundamental economic freedoms and the competence for legislation in social security and public health law. As the rulings of the ECJ suggest, the Court dissolves this conflict by cautiously verifying the proportionality of the national measure in issue. The author shows that this concept not only has its basis in the EC treaty but is determined in the structure of the economic basic freedoms themselves as they have been developed by the Court.