EU law promises cross-border care, but families still face a maze, says MEP Vlad Voiculescu

Romanian MEP Vlad Vasile-Voiculescu (Renew) has called for a new EU pilot scheme to guide families of children with cancer and rare diseases through Europe’s complex cross-border healthcare system, warning that existing rules “work on paper” but often fail in practice.

Pilot proposal

Speaking at a high-level working group on cross-border healthcare (26 March), Voiculescu set out a proposal for a “navigator” mechanism, a dedicated guide for families seeking treatment in another member state.

“The proposal is for a pilot mechanism designed to ensure that when a child… needs treatment in another member state, there is a dedicated person to guide that family through every step of the process,” he said. “Not a new bureaucracy, not a new legal regime - a navigator.”

The role would connect families to appropriate treatment centres, help secure authorisation under existing routes, coordinate with hospitals and insurers, and accompany patients from referral through treatment and return home.

“This is feasible,” he added, stressing it would build on existing structures such as European Reference Networks (ERNs) and could evolve into a permanent system.

Voiculescu praised the ERNs, saying they had improved cross-border medical collaboration, but practical access remains fragmented.

A gap between rights and reality

Vasile-Voiculescu framed the proposal against what he described as the lived reality of patients across Europe. “I don’t necessarily need to read a report by the Commission,” he said. “I just need to make a phone call back home.” Families are often told they have the right to seek care abroad, but receive little practical support.

“No one tells them where to go, no one helps them apply for authorisation,” he said. “They are many times left alone with a sick child, navigating a system that they do not understand.” These delays can be deadly: “For a child with an aggressive cancer, months can mean the difference between a cure and a funeral,” he said.

Barriers built into the system

Upfront costs of “tens and hundreds of thousands of euros” under the directive “effectively exclude” many families. The result, he argued, is unequal access to care: “A child’s access to the best available care depends not on medical needs, but on the country they were born in… and their ability to navigate bureaucracy.”

“What is missing is the bridge between the right on paper and the treatment in practice,” he said. “A navigator is that bridge.”