Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-07-Speech-2-058"
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"en.20050607.5.2-058"2
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"Mr President, I want to speak specifically about the oral question from the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, which concerns bioterrorism. With the anthrax incidents in America, the attacks on the Japanese underground and the chemical attacks on the Kurds, we know that we are vulnerable if we do not take precautions against such bioterrorism.
In 2004, the United States and the European Union agreed to take constructive joint steps to improve our capabilities in this regard. The Americans made a start with Project BioShield, and we want to know what the European Union is doing.
In February, the Worldwide Security Conference said that Europe was woefully unprepared for terrorist attacks. In 2001, Europe began to take steps to make sure that it was prepared. Its aims were to set up a mechanism for information exchange, to develop an EU-wide system for the detection, identification and diagnosis of chemical agents, to build up a stock of medicines and vaccinations, to establish a database of healthcare specialists and to provide guidance for health authorities on how to respond and how to liaise with international bodies. But so far, not so good, because, as far as surveillance is concerned, we have established an early-warning system to detect airborne chemical agents, but its usefulness is limited, since it only operates for certain substances and would not guard against the contamination of water or food supplies. We have no EU-wide stock of vaccines, and in most countries our quarantine laws are outdated.
The European Union has also established the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to, amongst other things, ‘defend Europe against bioterrorism’. It is crucial for the centre to be enhanced and made effective. The current stories about budget cuts for the centre are not acceptable and I hope that a strong message will be sent to the Commission and the Council."@en1
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