Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-12-Speech-2-322"
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"en.20050412.30.2-322"2
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".
Madam President, I think we all see eye to eye on this and that is very encouraging. However, Member States have now come to realise the problem. When I went to my first Health Council as a Commissioner and I presented this problem, not all shared the concerns or the sense of urgency that existed at that moment. Sometimes that is one of the realities of life: however much we rang the alarm bell, it was not taken seriously, but when WHO rang it, it was. However, what counts is the fact that the message got through. In the ensuing meetings with ministers they showed that they had already taken steps.
Tomorrow I will be going to Paris, where the French Government is organising a conference on three major problems: Aids, cancer and influenza. We now have the commitment on the part of the Member States. It is true that we do not yet have the legal competence, but we will get it, to a certain extent, with the Constitution, because that will give the Commission, the Community and Parliament the authority to act when there is a cross-border threat to health. Therefore, we will be able to take some of the measures that Mr Maaten said I, not Mrs Fischer Boel, can take in the case of animal health. We can currently take emergency measures, but not for humans. The Constitution will at least allow us to do this.
It is right that even though we do not have the legal competence at the moment, we cannot underestimate the fact that these diseases know no borders and that there is therefore a need for coordinated action by all Member States, plus those outside the European Union. The Commission can offer this coordination and representation when we talk with countries outside the Union.
I should like to say two things on the issue of poor countries. Firstly, there was the Vietnam Conference on avian flu. The WHO, the FAO, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the European Union will deal with avian flu. For the time being it is an animal health problem but we all know that it is a major possible pandemic. We will take measures and find ways to help the countries involved. Toward the end of the year I plan to visit the area to see how we can work with those governments. My colleague, Mr Michel, is preparing a communication on this issue. It will not be the one we approved today but a new one that will also cover the issue of health threats. This is a brief reference today but there will be more coming soon.
Research on vaccines is going well. The private sector can handle the matter from that point of view. The question is about building capacity. It is an investment that has to be made by the Member States and it will be a kind of private and public partnership. It is an investment that will also be of benefit to today’s population because investments are being made to purchase more vaccines to treat the groups at risk now. That will benefit the population and will at the same time be an investment in building future capacity for manufacturing sufficient quantities of vaccines.
I can assure you that this is one of my main concerns. It is an issue I keep raising in all international fora, but mostly now within the Council. It is an issue taken up by the health ministers. Perhaps the next time it will the finance ministers who will have to pay for this investment. I am optimistic, however, that under the circumstances we are on the right track. We have not solved the problem, but we have started the procedure. We are getting there, but we still have a long way to go. Time is running out. That is why all the efforts are concentrated. We will take every step possible before the next influenza season next winter."@en1
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