The meeting with Annika Nowak from the cabinet of Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis was attended by the President and Secretary General of the CSI-F, the Spanish public officials’ independent trade union, Miguel Borra Izquierdo and Eliseo Moreno Burriel, as well as by CESI’s Secretary General Klaus Heeger and health policy advisor Agathe Smyth.

The aim of the meeting was to bring to the agenda recent cuts in the financing of the Spanish state’s civil servants health mutuality. CESI and the CSI-F stressed that the cuts have resulted in a deterioration of social protection and sanitary supply in more than 20 Spanish provinces.

Speaking to Ms Nowak, the CESI/CSI-F delegation acknowledged that certain budgetary adjustments in the Spanish public administrations are justified to overcome the effects of the recent economic crisis in the country. However, they also stressed that recent changes made in the Spanish health care system have already had dramatic consequences for public health care employees, leaving many of them without adequate medical assistance coverage.

CSI-F and CESI therefore sought a meeting with the cabinet of Commissioner Andriukaitis in order to discuss how the Spanish government can be encouraged to refrain from further financial cuts in the Spanish health care sector.