Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-18-Speech-4-008"
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"en.20031218.1.4-008"2
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".
Mr President, honourable Members, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Commission, I warmly welcome your report. It provides an extensive survey of the complex and complicated issue of multiple sclerosis and sheds light on a broad spectrum of related issues on which further action is needed, and I welcome those affected by them who are present with us today. I can understand the frustration of those who have to live with this illness. The health care available can vary widely, as can the way in which they are treated by their neighbours from day to day. It is bad enough to have to face being diagnosed with an illness as serious as this one, but it is even worse to realise that, although there is help to which you are entitled, you cannot access it, or that an employer is not prepared to take reasonable steps to enable you to carry on an active working life.
I would therefore like to thank the petitioner, Mrs McVay, for raising these issues and, likewise, the rapporteur, Mrs Aaltonen, for drafting such a comprehensive report in order to deal with them.
Although it lies within the competence of the Member States to ensure that health care is provided and to organise it, this does not mean that we at the European level have no contribution to make to dealing with the problems that this report raises. Many of the differences in provision in Europe could be adjusted simply by exchanging information and best practice. In order to make it easier to cooperate in this general area, the Commission has brought together health ministers, patients, staff from the health services and providers of services to them, as well as insurers, to join in a high-level process of reflection on patient mobility and developments in health provision in the European Union. At the concluding session at the beginning of last week, agreement was reached on a report containing 19 recommendations for action on a variety of issues, including the exchange of information and best practice. This would facilitate the promotion of ideas such as the development of European reference centres, which could in their turn develop professional excellence and training that would benefit both patients and those who work in the health field. The Commission is planning to issue a communication in March 2004, which will submit proposals for responses to these recommendations.
Mrs Aaltonen also discusses the problem of discrimination against people with multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is regarded as a disability under Directive 2000/78 prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of age, a disability, religion or belief, or of sexual orientation. Sufferers from multiple sclerosis are thereby protected from discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of this illness. Employers must take reasonable steps to enable disabled employees to do their jobs. The Commission has mounted a wide information campaign in all the Member States to accompany this legislation and to inform employers and workers of these rights. Furthermore, the Commission intends to hold, in early 2004, a public consultation on its future strategy to combat discrimination, which may also include the adoption of anti-discrimination legislation outside the spheres of work and employment.
The report lays stress, moreover, on the need for greater scientific knowledge about multiple sclerosis. At the European level, the Research Framework Programmes are making a contribution to this. Projects in these areas are already being promoted under the Fifth Research Framework Programme, and the topic of neuro-immune dysfunction can also be included in future invitations to tender under the current Sixth Framework Programme.
We may note, in conclusion, that the report calls on individual states and the European level to raise awareness of multiple sclerosis. As has already been said, the problem of inequality in health provision is primarily a matter for which the Member States must accept responsibility, but I very much hope that they will take note of this report and of today’s debate. As far as the Commission is concerned, I have named a number of areas in which action at the European level can help to raise the issues we have mentioned. Let me close by again praising the outstanding work that the rapporteur has done in drafting this wide-ranging and useful report, which will itself help to make society more aware of multiple sclerosis and of the problems associated with it."@en1
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