IGC secretariat issues comments on the draft Constitution

The Secretariat of the IGC issued on 6th October 2003 a 553 page document which suggests legal and linguistic amendments to the Draft Constitution.

This document will be the basis of the negotiations in the IGC. The Secretariat draft has deleted, merged and created new articles articles in order to clarify the text produced by the Convention.

Each suggestion has an explanatory statement to provide the justification for the changes.

Article I-3, EU Objectives

The IGC Secretariat draft makes no suggestion to add a ’high level of human health’ to Article I-3. The reason for lobbying for health to be listed in Article I-3 is highlighed in Article I-5 which states that the Member States will "refrain from any measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the Union’s objectives."

EU competences on public health

Page 47 of the IGC Secretariat document notes that Public Health is listed as a policy area where the EU can only take supporting action and legislation to harmonise Member State laws is specifically excluded. But paragraph 4 Art 179 foresees the possibility of EU legislation. Therefore the IGC Secretariat suggests that to clarify this question, the article on supporting competence (I-11) should have a derogation to allow EU legislation according to the Article I-13 on shared competence which includes "common safety concerns in public health matters".

The right to health care

As part of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article II-35 establishes "a high level of human health protection (...) in the definition and implementation of all Union policies".

The IGC Secretariat notes that this is a duplication of Article III-179 and they suggest keeping the sentence in II-35 and deleting it from III-179.

Requirements of the Union

The new document contains an introductory article for Part III (policies of the Union) that lists "provisions of general application" (also known as provisions of horizontal scope). Public health is included as one of them:

"The Union shall integrate the following "requirements" into the definition and implementation of its policies and activities: (...) a high level of protection of human health" .

Health scourges affecting more than one Member State

Article 152 of the Amsterdam Treaty states that the Union’s action "shall cover the fight against the major health scourges".

However, the Convention’s re-draft of this article (Art III-179) limited the scope of the Union competence to "the major cross-border health scourges".

The legal advisers of the IGC secretariat recommend changing "cross-border" for "affecting more than one Member State".

"Cross-border" is specifically linked with "communicable diseases", but the major health threats to Europeans are non communicable diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. The IGC Secretariat point out that the proposed more restrictive text would not permit the EU to organise an initiative similar to the ’European against Cancer’ programme which was implemented under the previous Article 152. As a non-communicable disease, cancer cannot be considered as a "cross-border health scourge".

06/10/2003 CIG 4/03 Editorial and legal comments on the draft treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe - basic document.