The EU’s health plan should be finally agreed during the first half of 2002. Originally intended to cover 2001-2006, the Second Reading took place in December 2001 and more delays are likely since the legislative process now looks set to go to conciliation. However, health NGOs working at the European level have welcomed the likelihood that the health budget will rise and will continue to lobby to achieve a more secure financial base.
"Health is a major concern of Europe’s citizens": so claimed Frédérique Ries, MEP (ELDR, B) in the debate on the Trakatellis report, during the December Plenary Session in Strasbourg. She was arguing in support of an increased budget, from 300 to 380 million Euros over six years, for the new public health programme; this despite an earlier Council decision to reduce the amount to 280 million Euros.
However, Ms Ries was not alone in advocating an increase. She was supported by most other speakers; and then by a majority of members when the vote was taken the next day. This difference of opinion effectively triggered the conciliation process, which now has to be played out between Parliament and Council over the next three months.
Other speakers in the debate stressed that the EU had a major role in protecting people’s health, and in gathering and sharing information about health trends and models of good practice. Commissioner David Byrne welcomed the support of the Parliament; although he rejected amendments referring to specific diseases or treatments, or seeking to establish a co-ordinating centre for the programme.
NGO funding
For many years the professional advice and active support of NGO networks, rooted in local communities throughout the EU, has been critical to the delivery of the existing health programmes. In advance of the new programme, EPHA and many of its member organisations had been lobbying for a secure legal base for future NGO funding. They were delighted when three key amendments succeeded in the Environment Committee in November. However, only one of these - and not the most crucial one - was subsequently adopted in Plenary.
The failure came as a surprise. At the last moment, Rapporteur Antonios Trakatellis (PPE, Greece) admitted that he did not believe in core funding for NGO networks. Although he had conceded the point during the debate in the Environment Committee, he then managed to persuade members of his political group (PPE) to vote against in Plenary. The amendment adopted refers to the activities of non-profit making European NGO networks; but this is not sufficiently concisely worded, nor in the right part of the text, to guarantee NGO funding in support of the programme objectives. EPHA and other health NGO’s will continue to campaign on this issue prior to the conciliation negotiations.
EU Health Programme
The new approach will unite the eight existing health programmes in a single, integrated horizontal scheme along three strands:
improving health information to citizens, professionals and policymakers
strengthening the rapid response capacity for co-ordinated reactions to major public health threats
targeting actions to promote health and prevent disease.
The new public health programme moves away from the fragmented, disease-oriented approach of the past, where resources were spread thinly over a large number of one-off projects.
Info:
Details of the new EU public health strategy are available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph/eu_action/eu_action01_en.html
