Judgment_paragraph 59 · European Commission v Kingdom of Spain (C-211/08)

59First of all, it should be noted that scheduled hospital treatment is received in another Member State under Article 22(1)(c) of Regulation No 1408/71 where – as is clear from the second subparagraph of Article 22(2) of that regulation – an objective finding has been made that the treatment in question, or treatment which is comparable in terms of effectiveness, is not available in the Member State of affiliation within a medically acceptable length of time (see, to that effect, Watts, paragraphs 57 and 59). In such circumstances, as the Court held in Vanbraekel and Others, the Member State of affiliation must, if it is not to find itself in breach of the rules on freedom to provide services, ensure – in addition to meeting its obligations under Articles 22(1)(c) of Regulation No 1408/71, read in conjunction with Article 36 thereof – that, should the case arise, the insured person has a level of cover which is equally as advantageous as the level of cover which would have been recognised if that treatment had been available under its own national health system within a medically acceptable length of time.