91998E0322

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0322/98 by Riitta Myller (PSE) to the Commission (17 February 1998)

Subject: The EU's new public health programme

A new public health programme for the EU is in preparation. The need for this programme is indisputable and it needs to come about as soon as possible.

I should like to ask the Commissioner responsible whether the aim is to retain the current disease-centred approach, or whether a new strategy is being developed taking a wider, holistic approach which promotes general health. Among other things, such an approach would be in the interests of equality and of avoiding social marginalization, and would permit demographic changes to be taken into account.

When will the new public health programme be adopted, will its criteria and the direction taken by the European Union's health policy be debated openly with the Member States and how will the feedback from the Member States be taken into account?

Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission (13 March 1998)

The Commission fully agrees with the Honourable Member that a new public health policy has to be developed in order to respond to a number of important developments, such as emerging threats to health from new and resurgent diseases and increasing pressure on health systems, the enlargement of the Community, and the new public health provisions in the Treaty of Amsterdam. Moreover, as most of the current public health programmes expire around the year 2000, a new policy will need to be in place by then.

Detailed policy proposals cannot, however, be presented until after the new EC Treaty has been ratified, since it includes significant changes to the existing legal competence on public health. In the meantime the Commission intends to put forward shortly a preparatory communication which will set out the possible lines of a new policy. The new policy would be broad and flexible enough to accommodate side by side actions directed at particular diseases and initiatives in relation to the socio-economic determinants of health, such as the important areas of health inequalities, social exclusion and demographic developments, mentioned by the Honourable Member.

This forthcoming communication should stimulate a wide-ranging debate on the future of Community public health policy. The Commission will take full account of the reactions to the ideas presented in the communication in drawing up its detailed policy proposals.