Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-14-Speech-2-276"
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"en.20030114.8.2-276"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by congratulating Mr Mantovani on his excellent report, which highlights the need to guarantee people's right to high-quality protection against health risks and loss of independence, and the importance of ensuring that that right reflects the challenges of our times, and in particular the demographic trend towards an ageing population.
That phenomenon is the result of low birth rates and increased life expectancy, especially amongst women. In less than one decade, between 1990 and 1999, the number of women over 65 has increased by nearly 3%. The effects of an ageing population are being felt at various levels. In Portugal, for example, if we consider the population of working age, greater longevity amongst women means that since 1995 the number of elderly women has been greater than that of young women. At the same time, the increase in the number of elderly persons is imposing a greater burden on health care and social services.
The issue we face is a simple and intuitive one. Society cannot be said to be progressing if greater life expectancy is not matched by improvements in quality of life. So the great challenge for us is to achieve a high level of satisfaction amongst the elderly with their quality of life, while keeping the costs that this involves in check. This will inevitably make demands on public finance, which plays a key part in expenditure on health in all the Member States. Even in Greece, the country where public finance makes the lowest contribution to health services, the figure is about 56%, rising to 84% in the United Kingdom. An ageing population will have a considerable impact on budgets, which will in turn increase public expenditure. Health care systems in the European Union should therefore be pursuing the objective of being simultaneously accessible, high in quality and financially viable. Each Member State is responsible for the organisation and financing of its own social protection system. Nevertheless, this responsibility is increasingly being exercised in an overall context that affects various Community policies.
For this reason, as has already been mentioned, the Barcelona European Council stressed the need to establish and develop closer cooperation between the Member States as regards social protection, exchanges of good practice and information, research, establishing common indicators and standards and the development of health and social services for the elderly.
Lastly, I believe that the Greek Presidency should examine the European Community strategy and action programme in the field of public health, with a view to the next European Council in the spring adopting the use of the open method of coordination and a precise timetable for cooperation between the Member States."@en1
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