GERMANY – ECJ
March 1st, 2005
BY KEITH NUTHALLTHE GERMAN government is being taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by the European Commission for insisting that hospitals may only be supplied medicines by pharmacies in the same or neighbouring districts. Brussels calls this an illegal obstacle to European Union (EU) free trade, because it blocks medicine imports. The Schröeder administration is trying to liberalise the system, but proposals are stuck in Germany's upper parliamentary house, the Bundesrat, sparking the Commission legal action. Meanwhile, Brussels is taking Germany to ...
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