Brussels, 10/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the Romanian parliament's health and family committee in Bucharest on Thursday 10 September, European Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis called on member states to work more closely together in the health sector, since most face the same major challenges.
The key challenge facing all is how to put in place sustainable, high-performance national health systems and that is one of the ten priorities set out by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Andriukaitis stated. “We need strong, well-performing health systems as a key component to move Europe from the crisis”, he commented.
On Thursday, the commissioner met Romanian Ministers of Health, Nicolae Banicioiu, and Agriculture, Daniel Constantin, as part of a dialogue he wishes to engage directly with the member states. He has already carried out official visits to Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovakia.
Commissioner Andriukaitis argued that member states have much to gain from cooperating on areas such as tobacco, cross-border health care, joint procurement of medical countermeasures cross-border health threats, and antimicrobial resistance as well as in promoting e-health. He also underlined the need to work together to combat unexpected illnesses and dangers to health, such as the Ebola pandemic and, currently, the Xylella Fastidiosa bacterium, which is a threat to olive trees in Italy and Corsica.
A further urgent challenge for member states is the current refugee crisis and the commissioner argued that health must be a component of any coherent response.
Addressing inequalities in health is another challenge to be met and Andriukaitis deplored the huge differences in life expectancy from one member state to another, with a disparity of nine years between the member state with highest life expectancy and the one with the lowest. He noted the particularly high rate of infant mortality in Romania (three times higher than the European average). He is concerned, too, by the high number of cases of tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Romania, the highest in the EU, and the weak enforcement of the smoking ban in Romanian bars and restaurants. The level of prescription of antibiotics in Romania is among the highest in Europe and the commissioner called on the country's authorities to lower consumption of antimicrobials. (Isabelle Lamberty)