Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-18-Speech-1-217"
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"en.20070618.19.1-217"2
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".
Madam President, I would like very briefly to thank the Members for this interesting and very useful debate. It will give us ideas and inspirations on how we can proceed with this important issue in the future.
I should like to give some information on the questions that have been posed. First of all, creating the link to the health portal is already under way; as we speak, it may have been done already. So, access to this information through the health portal will be made available to all citizens very soon, if it is not already available.
The Commission will support the creation of a European register on multiple sclerosis, which will mostly be based on the existing registers in some Member States and expanded to include the other Member States. More importantly – because we have to be practical as well –funds to support this initiative will be provided under the seventh Framework Programme.
On other issues, of course, many pieces of legislation are already in place, such as the issue of discrimination and access to work. However, based on the outcome of the conference which will take place in the future, which I mentioned in my opening speech, and on the discussion with the stakeholders, we will see if there is also a need for new legislative initiatives and consider what steps have to be taken. We will then, of course, be ready to proceed with new initiatives.
Overall, as you know, we are dealing with inequality; it is a difficult issue. It was a priority of the UK Presidency and has been taken over by the Commission and the other Presidencies as well. But we have to live within the realities – the existing legal and Treaty realities of the European Union, the issue of competences, how much the Commission can oblige Member States in certain areas of health. Most is done through guidelines and recommendations. Even under the proposed Constitution as it stands, provision of health care remains the sole competence of the Member States. So, we try to encourage, coordinate with and support the Member States, and we will raise this issue with them whenever possible but, at the end of the day, this specific area of health care provision is the responsibility of the Member States. That does not mean that we will not continue encouraging them to proceed, to follow the code that has been mentioned and to take other steps, but I believe that, through our health service initiatives (we will be presenting a proposal before the end of the year), we will be able to tackle some of these aspects and, of course, I will be happy to continue discussing these with you."@en1
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