Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-16-Speech-4-043"
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"en.20060316.5.4-043"2
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"I warmly applaud the work that Mr Trakatellis, rapporteur and Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats member, has devoted to preparing this report, in which Parliament has had its say. The citizens and healthcare professionals also welcome the new action plan before us in this debate. Most importantly, according to the report, politicians and healthcare managers will work together to mark out the path for solving problems that cut across Member State borders. The report paves the way for a modern strategy, especially as regards the coordination of activities, but unfortunately, after the Council radically amended the EU budget, this is not accompanied by adequate funding from European sources. Much remains for the Union to do, and in particular those tasks that individual Member States are not capable of accomplishing themselves. This is not only a matter of combating serious infectious diseases that cut across borders, such as AIDS and influenza, but also of combating the spread of drug addiction and lifestyle diseases. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control was set up for this very purpose, in conjunction with the national reference laboratories. Budget cuts are not good news and are indicative of shortcomings in the priorities of the EU’s political elite and of some MEPs.
I should at this point like to highlight a further problem. Modern medicine provides people with a longer, higher-quality life, but this comes at an ever-higher cost – some 60 to 90% of the public purse. The higher the proportion of Community funding for healthcare services, the less responsibility individual citizens take for their health. It is also the case that the more the state regulates, the further the law reduces personal responsibility on the part of individuals. Evidence of this can be found in countries that experienced centrally run and completely regulated healthcare, in which decisions on patients’ health, prevention and treatment – and in turn on the cost of that treatment – were taken without the patient being involved. Although specific reforms have been made, they have brought about a less effective system and more expensive services; old ideas and habits die hard among patients, doctors and politicians. I should therefore like to say that programmes intended to help health service clients to be better informed, and to help system compatibility, should not under any circumstances be cut. These resources pay for themselves many times over.
I have further qualms about the effectiveness of certain regulations – supposedly crucial to the protection of health and the environment – that we have foolishly adopted. I fear that sometimes the aim is to please certain industrial pressure groups and not enough money is spent on the citizens’ health. I therefore call on the Commission to devote a larger proportion of the budget to analysis based on empirical evidence. In this way, our decision-making on regulations can be more responsible, and we can become aware of the true impact on public health, the economic cost, and in turn, the impact on the European economy. For this reason I also support Amendment 64."@en1
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