Exactly a year after its introduction, there are now over 30 million European Health Cards regularly in circulation among European citizens. In a progressive manner, the Commission and the national authorities are planning to reach a total 50 million cards within a few months, and to exceed the 100 million mark (approximately a third of the EU population) by 2006. The European Card the first real tangible sign of European citizenship after the Euro enables citizens to benefit freely from medical assistance abroad in the countries of the Union without any longer having to fill out the form E111. According to the Commissioner for social affairs Vladimir Spidla, the Card is in fact a project “at the service of the Europe of citizens”, a kind of “test-bed of the services necessary for mobility”. The member states that have distributed the largest number of Health Cards are Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden and Norway. http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/healthcard/index_en.htm
