Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-18-Speech-4-148"
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"en.20031218.4.4-148"2
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".
I also received a disappointing answer from the European Commission on the sensitive issue of health, when I asked about the possibility of introducing a European charter for children in hospital.
This is a thorny issue: the principle of subsidiarity can only be called into question by a revision of the Treaties. Any increase in the social duties and responsibilities that the EU wishes to impose on the Member States must be accompanied by an increase in the Community resources allocated, which raises issues and problems that are far from easy to resolve and which are quite serious.
Having said that, the European Union must come up with appropriate instruments for promoting greater protection of those who are most helpless and most in need. There are ways of achieving this that do not involve riding roughshod over subsidiarity. It will be hard to explain why lamps should be standardised and why we produce initiatives and legislation on the matter when, at the same time, we are too busy to look after our own citizens. What is even worse, this need is felt most powerfully in childhood, in sickness and in old age.
Commissioner Byrne once again informed a fellow Member that the Commission is sensitive to ‘greater interaction between health systems’. This is precisely the Europe that the citizens wish to see
a Europe with or without a Constitution but one with real heart. A Europe that promotes ‘best practice’, starting by responding to the citizens’ greatest needs.
I supported this balanced and appropriate proposal, in the hope that it might represent a turning point. The plenary has spoken.
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