Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-04-Speech-4-023"
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"en.20080904.4.4-023"2
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"Madam President, while this review is very welcome, I think we also need more frankness in the debate, and we must accept that we cannot protect people – our citizens – from themselves, nor should we try to legislate for all life’s risks. Popular support for the EU project is actually at risk if we give the impression that we are on a mission to regulate every aspect of our lives – and that is the interpretation on the ground at the moment. We must be very careful to communicate exactly what the EU project is all about.
I would also like reassurance that the majority of this plan is not just repackaging and rebranding of projects already planned. We need better implementation of existing EU legislation at Member State level, and better monitoring and enforcement by the Commission. Greater assessment and, indeed, debate on the roll-out and effectiveness of the existing legislation is a priority as far as I am concerned.
The priority concern in terms of new legislation in this House has to be the climate and energy package. Climate change will impact on health in many ways, including malnutrition resulting from food scarcity in parts of the world; deaths and injuries as a result of extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, storms, and fires and the consequent social problems therefrom; the increased burden of a range of diarrhoeal diseases; increased frequency of cardio-respiratory diseases; serious problems with water scarcity – over 40% of the world will, in part, actually have water scarcity problems within 10 years – and drinking water. It is very welcome that this resolution on the mid-term review recognises the health impacts of climate change, and I applaud it for that.
On another point, a very serious issue – which really is still a Cinderella issue in terms of how we treat it at European and Member State level – is the whole area around European mental health. One in four Europeans suffers from mental health problems at least once during their life. In Ireland alone, the cost of mental ill health is estimated at up to 4% of our GDP and, tragically, there were over 460 suicides last year alone – recorded suicides. That was an increase of 12% on the previous year, in 2006 – in Ireland, a country which, on the best-place-to-live barometers, comes way up there, I think after Luxembourg. (I do not know who draws up the criteria for these barometers.) But we have to question this.
This problem with mental health in Europe, and the projected problems, deserves attention and adequate prevention strategies in this most important area. The rapporteur’s prognosis that the action plan is bound to fail, in all or part, is worrying, and I would like to hear reassurances from the Commission – but also from the presidency – that this will not be the case."@en1
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