Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-13-Speech-2-138"
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"en.20030513.6.2-138"2
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"Mr President, SARS may not be a cause of hype in politics, but it certainly is for our citizens. The response of the Council and the European Commission last week was, I think, adequate. However, those of us who know what possibly should have happened were rightly disappointed. It is true that there have not yet been any deaths attributable to SARS on our European Continent. But I would like to join my fellow Members Mrs Roth-Behrendt, Mr Maaten and Mr Liese in making the point that this does not mean and it seemed rather like this that everything is therefore all right at the moment. We actually know far too little about where it comes from and how it is transmitted. We have no knowledge of any vaccines. All these things were held over at the time at that meeting of the Council. I regret that.
The second thing that I regret is that it has been agreed not to take any additional measures to check everyone leaving an aircraft, because that would be a false security. What do I see? Days later the Italian Government is busy enacting these very measures. What security can I offer citizens now? I think that this is also the background to much of the criticism of my fellow Members.
As a second element I should like to mention the sixth action programme on public health. This programme was based on two things: rapid alert and prevention. What must I now actually conclude? That the Commission points out to us for the first time actually to have done something in the area of health, even though it is not within its competence. In this regard I note that the Commission did in fact already have this competence through that sixth action programme.
Then I come to the remarks of my fellow Member Mr Maaten, Mrs Roth-Behrendt and Mr Trakatellis who ask why no extra money is being released immediately for tracing the connections, for making vaccines, for doing something. Mr President, in my opinion that means we have fallen short and we must now immediately try better to support and to trace the problems and the ignorance, not only with SARS, but everything else that comes our way, to respond more alertly, as we set out in the sixth action programme. But, Mr President, consider also the competences in the area of public health. They are needed more than ever."@en1
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