Influencing the IGC debate on public health
On 6 October 2003, the IGC Secretariat (consisting of the European Council legal staff) published their Editoral and legal comments on the draft Constitution text. A few days later, on 9 October 2003, the expert group on technical issues (which includes all Member States and Accession Countries) began its work.
This is now a key moment to influence the debate on the technical and legal changes to the treaty text.
There is also an updated timetable, which schedules all non-institutional debates (for example public health policy and Article III-179) for 27 October 2003.
A reminder of EPHA’s key demands:
Inclusion of ’a high level of health protection’ into Article I-3, as recommended by the Convention working group on Social Europe.
Public health as an area of shared competence (Art I-13) between the EU and Member States.
Article III-179, paragraph 4, deletion of the phrase "excluding any harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the Member States".
Suggested lobby action
Write a letter to the Head of State, Foreign Minister and Health Minister re-iterating the key demands of the health community and requesting clarification on what is the difference between ’common safety concerns in public health matters’ (shared EU-Member State competence) and ’protection and improvement of human health’ (EU supporting competence).
IGC toolkit
The European Platform of Social NGOs has published a toolkit to help NGOs on their lobbying strategy for the IGC.
It includes a sample letter that you can adapt according to your organisation interest.
The Social Platform IGC toolkit is available in English, French, Spanish and German.
EPHA’s related article: "IGC secretariat issues amended version of draft Constitution"
