Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-20-Speech-3-427"
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"en.20080220.17.3-427"2
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"Mr President, I am addressing you now on behalf of a region in demographic crisis and one of the sickest nations in that region. As a Member responsible for public health, I cannot emphasise strongly enough how closely our demographic problems are linked to public health problems. In my homeland, Hungary, more people die from cancer than anywhere else in Europe, and this too is contributing to the fact that each year 50% more people die than are born.
The Castex report on the demographic future of Europe rightly points out that a new policy must be drawn up in the interests of renewal. Allow me to give just one example: whilst the population of Islamic countries will grow to 1 300 million by 2050, Europe will fall from 495 to 400 million.
This new demographic policy must be built on two bases: the family, as the most important basic unit of society, and healthy people. Families must be guaranteed a system that encourages them effectively, and protection. Today, in many Member States, having children is equal to having poverty. But there are many good examples too. There are some countries where the state takes the additional burden from the shoulders of large families. This good example must be implemented everywhere.
Health is a condition for quality of life. Citizens must be made interested in preserving their own state of health. They will obtain the state support necessary for this in every material area, such as compulsory screening tests and free sports opportunities, and all along intellectual lines, that is, with education in health and demographic knowledge.
It is in the fundamental interests of every Member State to improve its demographic and health situation. This is particularly important in Hungary, where the population might fall below 10 million in future, and where the average life expectancy is ten years lower than the European average. The future of Europe depends on the demographic performance of the generations living now. What a government fails to do today with a bad policy will be difficult to rectify later."@en1
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