A crazy day today, with the announcement about the proposal to clarify an individual’s rights to get healthcare in another country. We came in this morning to find it was front page of the Daily Mail – positive EU coverage on the front page of the Mail!! An expert in the issue had come over from Luxembourg – an old friend, Nick Fahy – who did a great briefing for the press. We had quite a few people there, from the big papers, BBC Online and a specialist journal. It was very helpful for me if I end up having to answer any questions about it, as he really covered chapter and verse. The thing to remember if you are reading this is that these are rights that exist already – the directive will just codify and clarify them as set out in a series of European Court of Justice judgements since 1998. So you don’t have to wait the three years or whatever for it to come into force, if you want to exercise your right to go elsewhere (though you might have a bit of a tussle with your healthcare system!).
Off to Liverpool this afternoon, which will be my first “representational” trip. Quite looking forward to it, particularly as it is so focused on media and culture (European City of Culture!) so right up my street.
Got the new housemate coming in to sign his lease as well; I signed mine last night. I also found out yesterday that I will complete my house purchase in France on Tuesday – had to do a power of attorney for my father to sign the “acte authentique” as it is called because I wasn’t going to be able to get away. So home-ownership is but a few days away.
And if you’re wondering where all the hayfever whinging has gone, I have fabulous new pills which actually WORK! They’re called Aerius, prescription only and I cannot recommend them highly enough. The beneficial side-effect is that they really don’t mix with alcohol, so I’ve stopped drinking. It’s worth it to be able to function as a human being for most of the week!
This post originally appeared on my euonym blog which has now been merged into this site.