Brussels, 23/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Greece's Minister for Health Spyridon-Adonis Georgiadis set out the Greek Presidency's health priorities for the members of the committee on the environment, public health and food safety of the European Parliament (ENVI) on 23 January. Good health is a prerequisite for economic growth and prosperity. More effective health systems are needed and the Greek Presidency will press on with its work for reform to ensure effective and sustainable healthcare, he said. In April, Greece will be holding an informal meeting in Athens, which will tackle this challenge and in particular the impact that budgetary restrictions have on healthcare. Furthermore, the Presidency hopes to move forward with several initiatives: 1) proposals on medical devices and in vitro diagnostic devices (a trialogue is to begin in February); 2) the proposal concerning pharmacovigilance fees; and 3) the directive on transparency (transparency of measures governing the pricing of medicines for human use and their inclusion in the scope of national health insurance schemes). The Greek Presidency also plans to tackle the issue of public health in the context of migration, as well as the impact that nutrition and physical activity have on health, e-health and innovation related to health.
Several MEPs - Nikos Chrysogelos (Greens/EFA, Greece), Edite Estrela (S&D, Portugal) - expressed concern that the most disadvantaged people find access to healthcare and to medicines difficult further to budgetary restrictions. Peter Liese (EPP, Germany) trusts that Greece will move forward on in vitro diagnostics and Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (S&D, Germany) is hoping for progress on medical devices. Roth-Behrendt would like Greece to be a “little less kind” than Lithuania and to show proof of ambition when it comes to taking matters forward. The spread of diseases linked to migratory flows aroused the interest of Georgios Koumoutsakos (EPP, Greece), who said that all countries are concerned, not just the member states in the south, and that more solidarity is needed. Other MEPs brought up points that were not mentioned by the Greek minister. Jolanta Emilia Hibner (EPP, Poland) spoke of the impact that an ageing population has on healthcare, while Rebecca Taylor (ALDE, UK) commented on the impact that excessive alcohol consumption has on health. (IL/transl.jl)