Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-06-Speech-3-268"
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"en.20101006.18.3-268"2
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"Madam President, my colleague, Mr Piebalgs, could not be here in person, and it is on his behalf that I shall make a number of comments and remarks. To speak quite truthfully, once again, the Commission is always at the disposal of Parliament, and I am very pleased to have heard Mrs De Keyser and the other speakers on a subject that has been a personal interest of mine for a long time. Besides, Mrs De Keyser, in my office as Commissioner for the Internal Market and Financial Services, it is not by chance that, in addition to the visits that I now make every week to each of the capitals of the Union and after the first visit that I had to make to the United States, since almost all of our transactions are transatlantic ones, I was anxious to make my second visit outside the Union to Addis Ababa, at the end of July, to meet the leaders of the African Union. This is because our fates are bound up one with the other, and for many years now, I have been arguing for a new policy of partnership between our two great continents.
Next, there is a second area that concerns me just now, in fact, and that is counterfeiting. In the plan that I shall be presenting to you in the autumn, on fighting piracy and counterfeiting, I have provided for several sections that we shall be financing and supporting; on technology for detecting counterfeit goods, on communicating with the European public, and on training personnel in customs or at the external frontiers of the Union.
However, I should also like to have a section – and I have asked my colleagues for this – on cooperation with the countries where these counterfeit goods originate and where they could cause considerable harm to health, particularly if they are counterfeit medicines. We shall be returning to this subject in due course.
On the basis of the analysis that I have quickly outlined for you, the Union has adopted the conclusions on the Union’s role in global health. They are our reference point when intervening in matters of health. As I said, the resources for official development aid are not sufficient, and there is one point on which the analysis in your report proves just how pertinent it is. In Europe, we have numerous ways of financing health services, and each one has its strengths and weaknesses. There is no single, perfect solution to fit all local circumstances. It is clear that a purely voluntary insurance scheme, based on private finance mechanisms, would not be sufficient to provide equal and universal access to health care, either. Hence, the essential role that public authorities must play in regulating and financing health services in order to establish or ensure principles of fairness and inclusion.
We are very much relying on Parliament’s contribution to this effort in order to strengthen and enhance the solidarity of the people of the European Union and of the other Union players in this area, notably the NGOs. I believe that our Union has much to learn, but also much to share with the rest of the world, and that we can provide added value in this area. We must clearly translate all this into the approach that we take to health policy in developing countries, and I, for my part, am pleased to be able to reply to you and to take advantage of this opportunity to express my personal commitment to these issues.
With respect to many subjects linked to the crisis, which in any case concern or relate to our own preoccupations – for example, cooperation between our markets, the fight against money laundering, financial regulation, the fight I want to wage remorselessly against excessive speculation in agricultural commodities, notably in Africa where many countries depend on imports for their food – I and my colleagues decided, following that visit, to take up and intensify our cooperation.
While I congratulate you on behalf of Mr Piebalgs and for my own part on the quality of your report, in which you describe the health care situation in developing countries, I should add that we are not talking about Africa alone. A few weeks ago, I was in Haiti to follow up the visits made by my colleagues Baroness Ashton, Mrs Georgieva and Mr Piebalgs, and it was clear that, even outside Africa, there are challenges to be overcome in disease prevention and public health in the poorest countries.
As Mr Rinaldi said, there is the fact that nearly 30 million people die prematurely every year in developing countries from causes that could be treated with the amount of money devoted in the European Union or the United States to pet food alone, or, if we are looking for another comparison, with about 2% of global military spending. I find that situation quite simply unacceptable.
Viable social policies, including for health, should be at the heart of a state’s basic functions, within a framework of sustainable and inclusive growth. Health is not only a universal right, but also a part of economic development. Health systems based on per capita expenditure of less than EUR 30 per year, which is 50 times less than the EU average, will never be sufficient to keep health professionals in post, ensure the availability of essential medicines or offer people equal access to care.
On this point, I should like to tell you, on behalf of Mr Piebalgs, that we shall continue to insist that the European Union honour its commitments in terms of the level and quality of public development aid to those third countries that most need it. As far as the Commission is concerned, support for health systems remains a priority commitment of our foreign policy and a strong component of our political dialogue with third countries. Echoing Mrs Záborská’s concern, third countries are not, in fact, all in the same boat. There is a great difference, as you said, between the developing countries and the less-developed countries in Africa, for example.
Moreover, we are trying to promote this concept through the Commission’s active participation in global initiatives such as the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as by interacting with other public and private players active in this field. Mrs De Keyser, you have rightly paid tribute to the work of the NGOs, which I consider to be exemplary. Again, a few days ago in Haiti, I saw that they play a remarkable as well as a decisive role in the administrative or public aspects of the various actions undertaken by the Union, fund sponsors or the World Bank.
Adequate social and health policies are essential in order to achieve concrete results in Europe as much as in developing countries. Merely ensuring that a substantial amount of resources are dedicated to supporting our European partners cannot be enough. We must also make sure that our internal policies are consistent, for instance, the policy on migration of health professionals or on the trade in medicines, in such a way that the global impact of internal policies can also be of benefit, or at least cause no harm, to those most in need of them in the world.
In my own sphere of competence, I should like to make two points that may be of interest to you, Mrs De Keyser. Firstly, in the draft Single Market Act, which we are getting ready for 27 October, I intend to give priority to the major sector of social business and to work towards a statute for the European Foundation. In amongst all that, there is encouragement that we should be giving, here at home in Europe, to structures, to NGOs, to social enterprises, which could be supported in their work to help the poorest countries or developing countries, notably in this sphere of health."@en1
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