European official commits to safeguarding NHS in EU-US trade deal

A new EU-US trade deal could include an additional £4bn a year into the Uk economic system, but it has prompted fears NHS providers will be threatened by privatisation. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Campaigners for a new EU-US trade deal, which could include an extra £4bn a year to the Uk economic system, have been given a increase right after an undertaking from Europe’s lead negotiator that US healthcare firms will not be allowed to run NHS services.

Amid trade union fears that the proposed deal could act as a cover to privatise the NHS, the primary European commission negotiator has mentioned that the NHS would be “fully safeguarded”.

Ignacio Garcia Bercero, director of the USA and Canada division in the European commission, produced the commitment in a letter to the former Labour shadow health secretary John Healey who is chairman of the all-party group on the trade deal. It is recognized as TTIP – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Bercero informed Healey: “Though wellness companies are in principle inside of the scope of these agreements and ongoing negotiations, we are assured that the rights of EU member states to handle their health methods in accordance to their various requirements can be fully safeguarded.”

The intervention by the European commission was welcomed by Healey who is facing a battle in the Labour movement towards the EU-US trade deal. The Unite union published investigation at its latest conference which warned that the proposed partnership locations the NHS at “unique risk” in the face of a “Tory drive in the direction of privatisation”. There are moves to table a vote at the TUC congress in September and there is strain for an emergency movement to be tabled at Labour’s annual conference.

Healey explained the commission letter need to reply fears in the Labour motion about the threat to the NHS. Healey told the Guardian: “This letter confirms that the NHS can be totally exempted in any TTIP deal. Now it is for United kingdom ministers and EU negotiators to make positive that the commitments the lead negotiator is producing are put in area in full. This letter confirms that the biggest risk to the NHS is the Tories not TTIP.”

The former minister spoke out after the European commission moved to allay fears about the effect of the trade deal on the NHS. Bercero wrote that:

• Bilateral agreements produced by the EU exclude or incorporate particular reservations “for publicly funded health providers”. He wrote: “This policy space means that member states do not require to supply accessibility to their markets for foreign organizations and even if they do give accessibility they can discriminate in between foreign organizations and EU / domestic ones.”

• EU member states are entitled to preserve and adopt new measures to handle accessibility to their well being service industry by foreign suppliers. “The EU does not intend to change its technique to health services in trade negotiations for TTIP.”

• EU members states face no restrictions on “liberalising the health sector nor from deliberalising it”. He wrote: “The EU does not intend to modify its method to public procurement for wellness companies in TTIP.”

Bercero also answered critics who warn that the controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) – the dispute mechanism attacked by critics as secretive – could pose a chance to the “existing mix of public and personal well being support delivery”. He mentioned that adjustments to the NHS above the previous two decades have not been affected by EU trade policy.

In an obvious attempt to allay issues in the Labour get together, which programs to repeal Andrew Lansley’s overall health and social care act, the commission official wrote: “If a future Uk government, or a public entire body to which energy has been devolved, had been to reverse choices taken underneath a preceding government, for example by discontinuing companies supplied by a foreign operator, it would be entirely at liberty to do so. However, it would have to respect applicable United kingdom law.”

Bercero concluded: “We can previously state with self-assurance that any ISDS provisions in TTIP could have no influence on the UK’s sovereign proper to make modifications to the NHS. I hope that this details obviously demonstrates that there is no purpose for worry both for the NHS as it stands right now, or for modifications to the NHS in potential, as a outcome of TTIP.”

The Huffington Submit reported Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, as telling his conference: “David Cameron … have to use his powers to defend our cherished NHS. US health businesses will even have the right to sue a long term United kingdom government in secret courts if politicians try out to reverse privatisation.

“The most considerable effect will be felt in wellness, enabling US healthcare multinationals and Wall Street traders to sue the Uk government in secret courts if it attempts to reverse privatisation. David Cameron can exempt the NHS from these trade negotiations. Except if the prime minister acts, bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington will make the sell-off of our NHS irreversible.”

Healey mentioned of the transatlantic deal: “Even on the most measured assessment it could be really worth an further £4bn a yr to Britain’s GDP.”

European official commits to safeguarding NHS in EU-US trade deal