Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-01-18-Speech-2-432-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20110118.19.2-432-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this legislation is actually superfluous. I hope that it will continue to be superfluous because patients will not need to make use of it. In an ideal world, patients would receive the best healthcare most quickly in the country of their birth or the country where they live.
The fact that we are discussing this today and adopting the legislation tomorrow is, as Mr Liese has rightly said, indicative of a cynical approach among the Member States. It means that the Member States have not recognised what they owe to their citizens, in other words, rapid, effective and high quality healthcare. It also shows that they would rather invest in other things than in these areas which provide services for their citizens and that is a disgrace. In addition, the negotiations in the Council on this subject are not something to be proud of. However, if this legislation is actually applied at some point, because patients need it, and that is not a good thing, I will be very pleased about what we have achieved. I am grateful to the rapporteur, Mrs Grossetête, and to my fellow Members for their cooperation.
We have achieved a great deal. We have succeeded finally in putting the focus on rare diseases. People with these illnesses have always been sidelined and have found it difficult to obtain any treatment at all. We have at last managed to establish information points in the Member States which will inform people about their rights. There has been nothing of this kind available in the past. If reference networks are set up in future, it will finally be possible for the Member States to share best practices, information about gold and platinum standards and scientific progress. This has not been coordinated until now. There are some individual beacons of excellence, but no coordination.
All of these things represent major successes, together with outpatient care and other areas which I will not go into now. Of course, there are also things that make me feel sad. I would have preferred not to have had the fuss and squabbling about prior authorisation, which simply shows that the Member States have not recognised the things that are really important. Fortunately, however, there are some Member States with which we can work well and we have demonstrated that today. Our objective must be to ensure that the healthcare system in every country is so good that no one wants to travel to another country whose language they do not speak. If what we are doing today and tomorrow is a small step towards this, because it will become clearer which countries have good services and which have poor services, which are doing something for their citizens and which are not, then we will have achieved a great deal.
I hope that one of the minor side-effects of this will be transparency. We need to know which Member States have high standards and which are at a low level. I come from a country where I can feel relatively relaxed. However, I am aware of the problems of people in many other Member States and I feel ashamed about this, because it is not worthy of the European Union.
I would like to thank the rapporteur for her hard work and, in particular, the Commission, Mr Dalli and his team, who have given the European Parliament and the father of this legislation in the previous parliamentary term, Mr Bowis, as much support as we could have wished for. I would also like to thank particularly the Belgian Presidency, which is not present today, but which has done everything possible to ensure that this process was successful. Although the Belgian Presidency did everything in its power, it could not always achieve a great deal, because of the sometimes stubborn, antediluvian attitudes of other Member States. However, something has been done and I believe that we will be able to vote in favour of this legislation tomorrow with a clear conscience."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples