Ukrainian citizens should be given full access to healthcare services across the European Union, Health Minister Chris Fearne has argued. 

“We should afford EU healthcare services to Ukrainian citizens to the same extent as we do to European citizens,” Fearne said on the fringes of an EU health council meeting taking place in Luxembourg. 

“This will enable EU countries to offer humanitarian aid in an expedient and efficient way to Ukrainian citizens,” he added. 

EU countries should make the healthcare offer irrespective of how discussions with Ukraine about an EU accession bid pan out, Fearne said. 

Chris Fearne speaks in Luxembourg. Video: European Council

At least one other minister present for the meeting, Fearne’s counterpart from Czechia Vlastimil Valek, spoke similarly. Valek argued that there is a moral imperative for the EU to offer high-quality healthcare to all Ukrainian refugees. 

“Ukrainian men are fighting for all of us,” he said. 

The Luxembourg ESRO council meeting will see ministers from member states discuss a range of issues, from a draft directive on platform, or gig work, to national targets for social rights. 

Around 500 patients in Ukraine have been transferred to hospitals in EU member states so far, the European Commission said earlier this month. Some hospitals in Ukraine have been destroyed while others face supply and staffing shortages. 

Malta had said shortly after the start of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine that it would be providing cancer treatment to Ukrainian patients, up to a maximum of five at any one time.  

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