The European Commission is to announce plans to ensure everyone in the EU will have the right to free medical care by 2005.
Under the plan a "health insurance card" is to be introduced in all 15 member states. The Commission said it will help allow all citizens to move around the EU freely and without red tape and paperwork.
The health card is among new proposals being put forward to help foster job and geographical mobility which will be presented to EU leaders at a summit in Barcelona next month.
The electronic health card - the size and format of a credit card - will replace the current E111 form which people fill in to qualify for subsidised medical help if needed when they travel abroad.
The new card will create no new rights and will not contain information on the holder's medical condition, the Commission said.
But it would guarantee hospitals and doctors abroad that costs of treating visitors will be met by the issuing authority - a guarantee currently requiring the need to fill in the E111 which, in many EU countries, has to be renewed for every trip abroad.
PA