Health: EU moves up a gear

The high profile issue of health continues to grab the spotlight with the news yesterday that the European Commission is to pour €312m into a new action programme 'to protect and improve the health of Europe's citizens'.

The three key priorities of the programme are: improving health information and knowledge, ensuring rapid reaction to health threats, and addressing health determinants.

Speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday David Byrne, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection said the launch marked "the EU shifting up a gear in its health policy".​

Evolving out of the old, and unsatisfactory, 'issue specific' approach to health that had a series of eight EU programmes, the new programme puts into practice the integrated approach to public health advocated in the European Commission's May 2000 Communication on Health Strategy (see COM (2000) 285 final). According to the Commission, the old 'issue specific' approach led to a fragmentation of effort and could not easily be adapted to respond to emerging health threats.

"Today the EU is shifting up a gear in its health policy,"​ said David Byrne. "This programme will enable the EU to do more to protect and improve our citizens' health. It will allow the public health community to come together on a Europe wide basis in order to pool their expertise and exchange ideas."​

Byrne highlighted the need to respond to health threats as a key priority of the new programme. This part of the programme builds on the "rapid alert" systems already in place at EU level: notably, the European Network on Communicable Diseases (see MEMO/01/370) and the EU's rapid alert system for possible bio-terrorist incidents.

The geographical and disease coverage of the alert system is now expanded, and actions are planned to reinforce Member States' capability to respond to possible bio-terrorism incidents. These include actions on the networking of laboratories and on building expertise in the field of chemical and biological pathogens.

A detailed work plan for actions in these areas in 2003 has already been agreed. As such, the European Commission is currently inviting governmental bodies, academic institutes and European NGOs to send in proposals​ for projects by 16 May.