Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-16-Speech-4-024"
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"en.20060316.5.4-024"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, health policy falls essentially within the competence of the Member States. There is a good reason for that. Health systems are paid for out of contributions and taxes, and the various systems are geared to specific needs. Moreover, the principle of subsidiarity applies for the field of health services and medical care.
Article 152 of the EU Treaty requires Member States to ensure a high level of health protection. The EU can also take measures in support of Member States’ policies. I sometimes get the impression that the Commission and some of our fellow Members, too, would prefer to compete with national policies on health. We have the same problem with health policy as also constantly recurs in other fields: Europe is suffering from being unable to do the important things it ought to be concerned with. The upshot is that the EU embraces many areas of policy which, if in doubt, would be better dealt with by the Member States and interferes assiduously in their affairs.
That does not of course mean that Europe should keep its hands off health policy. Rather, the EU must concentrate on things that have real European added value, and here I can pick up directly what the previous speaker was saying: Europe should take action primarily on cross-border questions that one Member State is unable to deal with alone. Top priority must be given to improving the exchange of information and to closer cooperation in coordinating the fight against epidemics and infectious diseases. The health risks resulting from bird flu show the urgency of cross-border coordination of measures.
The same goes for HIV and Aids, a major problem in the new Member States in particular, and one which is increasingly being forgotten and neglected even though infection rates are rising.
The EU should set stronger priorities for fighting disease. My group has tabled amendments on this, for which I would again like to canvas your support. The focus should be on the most important widespread diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases; that is where the EU’s measures and scarce resources must be concentrated.
We should not take it upon ourselves to make a shopping list. In Committee, we discussed at length what diseases and what preventive measures should have priority in the action programme. Let us be consistent in our demands here. Parliament’s December 2005 resolution on the work programme calls explicitly for measures to combat diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The terms of the proposal for the Commission action programme were too general, too broad. It is time for us to set political priorities and concentrate on the most widespread diseases.
I would also like to say a few words about the budget and the funding of NGOs. My Group supports the rapporteur’s proposal that the budget for the action programme be increased to EUR 1.2 billion. If we are serious about the priorities we are setting with this programme, we will of course need the resources to match. Patients’ associations and non-governmental organisations are playing an increasingly important role, which justifies them receiving EU support. When funding NGOs, however, we must ensure there are strict criteria and transparency. It cannot be acceptable that some organisations – as happens in the environmental field – are so lavishly endowed that they can pay for Brussels offices as though they were subsidiaries of the EU Commission."@en1
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