Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-14-Speech-2-260"
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".
Mr President, I should like to start by thanking Mr Mantovani and the honourable Members for their report. The Commission will be taking account of the proposals and recommendations made in it.
The fact that the report is in favour of Community cooperation to improve health care in the European Union is very important. The information provided by Mr Mantovani, which illustrates that the viability of social systems, especially care services for the elderly, has deteriorated dramatically and that we really do need cooperation at Community level, is equally important. The ageing population, the increasingly technological nature of services for the elderly, the special programme needed and the increase in the prosperity index are creating huge problems which need to be addressed. As you know, the Barcelona European Council called on the Commission and the Member States to work together in this sector. The Commission presented its first communication in December 2001 and this parliamentary report is in response to it. A series of questionnaires was sent to the Member States in the autumn. They have now been returned and the Commission is working on a new report which will be presented to the Employment Council and then to the European Council in 2003.
I should like to point out that this whole procedure centres around social protection rather than care issues. Our aim is to make sure that citizens, especially elderly citizens, have access to a high standard of affordable care and long-term care services, which is what the elderly generally require, and to address the question of cost, which often exceeds the financial resources of both the patients and their families. Another important objective is the economic viability of care services faced with an ageing population which, as I said earlier, is one of the main causes of the crises in a number of Member States and will be one of the main causes of future crises in others. This entire process forms part of a coordinated strategy to modernise social protection systems. The Commission proposed this strategy in 1999 as part of the social agenda under the Lisbon strategy.
Of course, this report will influence our work throughout 2003 and I think that both Parliament and the Commission will be formulating the same urgent request to the Member States to cooperate and teach each other so that three basic objectives can be achieved: access to these systems for the elderly, the provision of quality services and economic viability. We are working constantly on the comparability of the data and indices needed to facilitate cooperation between the Member States. The Commission will issue a new communication on measures which need to be taken during the current year on the basis of this experience and the work I referred to earlier. Obviously, the entire procedure comes under the Community strategy on public health and the Community action programme which has finally been approved and to which Mr Berend referred.
Mr Mantovani’s report also examines a whole series of other issues relating to public health and the free movement of people and services on the internal market. These are important issues which we shall continue to work on, using appropriate political tools and bearing in mind that they need to be complementary and cohesive.
I should like to finish with the candidate countries. Last year, my services started a series of studies into the social protection systems in the 13 candidate countries and they are currently examining health care systems. The conclusions of these studies, which were discussed in Brussels on 5 and 6 December, will be available to you shortly."@en1
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