Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-16-Speech-4-053"
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"en.20060316.5.4-053"2
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"Mr President, I would like to add my thanks to those already expressed to Mr Trakatellis, he has really worked very hard. I would also like to express my thanks to the Commissioner, however, because the Commission is also working very hard, especially in the closely related field of bird flu.
Health is certainly the field of greatest interest to us all and of course also to our citizens. We do of course find that life expectancy has risen tremendously over the years. There are figures to show that life expectancy has been increasing steadily by two and a half years per decade since 1840. That of course also brings new challenges for our health and social systems. It means that while we are living longer, we also need to ensure – especially from the political and medical side – that the expectancy of a healthy life becomes longer and that people do not only get older but also healthier.
We are faced with new challenges. Some of them have already been mentioned, such as bird flu, which could mutate into a pandemic and present Europe with problems such as it has not experienced before. We need to be well prepared for this if we are to be able to take the right action in good time. I would also like to point out that problems surrounding Aids, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease must remain on the agenda because they still represent major risks for our citizens.
We must also be clear that the Member States are of course basically responsible for health. We on the European side need to think, however, where we can actually contribute this much vaunted European added value, where we can do something from Europe that will help our citizens to live longer healthy lives. This cross-border factor is certainly one area. Diseases do not stop at borders.
Knowledge is certainly another factor. I would like to mention another figure here. Medical knowledge in particular has increased tremendously, and it does of course entail costs. If we were to take the level of knowledge of Bismarck’s day and apply it to our own, then only 1% of our health budgets would be taken up. The remaining 99% relates to knowledge that was gained later. That also means, of course, that health costs money. I therefore back the rapporteur’s call for EUR 1.5 billion from the European Union very strongly. We cannot adopt lavish health programmes and not make the necessary money available.
Another point is the whole area of provision. As I have already said, people are getting older. That also means that healthy lifestyles and provision will increase. More importantly, a lot of research needs to be done here in order to put our health budgets on a sound footing in the long term.
Over all, we are on the right road, but we must not close our eyes to the challenges that lie ahead."@en1
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