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It's hard to see how the EU could legally do what these people are requesting, Nick Fahy, director of health and wellbeing research at the RAND Europe institute, told POLITICO. It's money, not law, but at the same time it would be the EU directly affecting the allocation of resources to health care, and that's explicitly not allowed under Article 168 of the treaty.

Article 168 of the Treatyon the Functioning of the European Union states that the EU can lend support to member countries, but that its actions shall respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the definition of their health policy and for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care.

Giving funds to a country to allow women from other member states to have abortions there is not going to be a neutral act by the European Commission; that's the European Commission directly interfering in something highly politically sensitive, Fahy said.

Purely from a legal point of view and from a sort of political point of view between the EU and the member states, I don't see this happening either legally or politically, he added.

The Commission wrote in its decision that "there seems to be no straightforward targeted interference with the competences of Member States," but that "the concrete set-up of a financial support mechanism could nonetheless result in such interference."

It concluded, therefore, that the initiative could be registered insofar as the proposed financial support mechanism does not have as its aim or effect the undermining of the public order legislation of the Member States or more generally of the healthcare and ethical choices made by Member States in exercise of their competence in health matters.

The campaign drew close to 100,000 signatures within its first week; activists are hoping to collect 1 million over the next seven weeks, thereby forcing the Commission to consider the proposal.

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Activists press for EU-wide abortion right - POLITICO Europe