Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-25-Speech-2-054"
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"en.20051025.4.2-054"2
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"Mr President, the European Parliament should back the measures and decisions taken by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The adoption of a resolution on the strategy against an avian influenza pandemic will provide us with an excellent opportunity to take appropriate action in this regard.
I am quite sure that we will be able to take more effective measures to prevent any epidemic spreading if we implement the following suggestions. Cooperation should be established with pharmaceutical companies with the aim of taking special measures to produce new and effective vaccines as rapidly as possible, and equal access to vaccines should become a reality for everyone. Poorer countries should be offered financial assistance to buy medicines, efforts should be made to place infected areas under quarantine and risk assessment methods should be improved. Inspections, tests and analyses of avian diseases should be carried out, and restrictions imposed on international travel.
One of the key measures that should be taken by the European Union is to step up the activities of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in the fight against infectious diseases. These activities should involve the deployment of expert missions and EU representatives to those regions, mainly in Africa and Eurasia, where the risk is greatest. In its present form the virus does not represent a threat to humans, and unless further mutations occur there is no possibility of it causing a pandemic that would paralyse Europe and the world. Consequently, we should on the one hand take steps to prevent public panic, and on the other bear in mind that the sooner we start to take action, the greater our chances of bringing the situation under control.
The problem of avian influenza also serves as a good illustration of the way in which the EU institutions should communicate with the citizens. I would remind the Commissioner that the Commission needs a special communications strategy, drawn up under his supervision. Furthermore, I would call on the Commission and the Council to act responsibly when issuing statements on the matter. These institutions also have a duty to assess the risk of the disease spreading and being transmitted to humans. It goes without saying that they should not underestimate the current threat, as happened in the case of mad cow disease, but they should also avoid scare-mongering.
I would stress once again that Brussels must act with the utmost responsibility when issuing assessments of the real risk posed. Assessments of the opportunities available to us to combat the avian influenza virus should also be realistic. The Commission should lend its backing only to those medicines that are genuinely effective against the disease."@en1
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