Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-04-04-Speech-3-069"
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"en.20010404.3.3-069"2
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".
Following recent events and their serious impact on public health and the food chain, such as “mad cows”, dioxin, the depleted uranium bombs dropped on Yugoslavia and a host of other incidents, we find it very hard to believe the EU's professed interest in, or the sincerity of, its declarations of good intent regarding public health. The EU has confirmed beyond all doubt that any intervention on its part is designed mainly to allay fears, not deal with the problems which its very policies are creating for large swathes of the population.
The EU's intentions in the particularly sensitive area of public health are clearly set out in the conclusions of the recent Council summit in Stockholm. Thus, it declares war on much that the workers have fought for (by calling for spending cuts, budgetary discipline, personal responsibility etc.) and, in the same breath, announces that it intends to “modernise the European social model” which, in the health sector, translates into more private health services and greater personal responsibility for individual needs, thereby benefiting private-sector initiative and the huge economic interests at work in the health sector and social systems.
In its specific action plan in the public health sector for 2001-2006, the ΕU caters to the aims and needs of big business and the monopolies in the health sector. It is no accident that there is no mention or specification whatsoever of the state’s obligation in any area or for any aspect of these issues. This strategy on the part of the ΕU makes health totally dependent on the laws of the market, cost considerations, profits and returns. Health systems are now seen as a drain on public funds – rather than an investment in human resources – which need to adhere to the terms of budgetary discipline. In Community-speak, this means cutting back on health spending, shifting the responsibility and the cost on to the people, strengthening private initiative and turning health care into a profit-making activity, the aim being to convert the health sector into a ‘competitive market’ and secure the best possible terms for the powerful monopolies to win market shares and achieve market penetration while, at the same time, reducing employment and social rights and everything the workers have fought for in the health sector to the lowest common denominator and cutting back on public spending in this sector.
The European Parliament’s rapporteur takes the same line as the Commission. Thus, despite quite rightly referring to serious and persistent health problems, he makes no mention of the real social causes of or the circumstances which aggravate the health and threaten the lives of our citizens, such as deteriorating working conditions, alternating and night shifts, the dramatic drop in the standard of living of large swathes of the population, the spread of poverty and unemployment, the repercussions of unbridled, profit-driven liberalisation of the market on the food chain, the deterioration in the environment etc.
In the rapporteur’s own words, “health should not be considered as a commodity, which can be the subject of political or financial compromises” and on this we are in perfect agreement. Unfortunately, he then contradicts his good intentions by using his report to commend and back the EU's aggressive, anti-grass roots policy in the public health sector.
This is why we shall not be voting for the report, preferring instead to stand by the workers and help them organise their resistance movement and fight for a proper, high-quality public health service which benefits the people."@en1
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