Brussels, 17/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - Over ten member states, with Poland at their head, are opposing the drawing up of standards for health services. On Friday 17 June at the Health Council, these member states called on the European Commission to support them in their approach.
This is only one “miscellaneous” point on the agenda. Several weeks ago, Poland said it wanted to discuss the issue of health service standardisation. Warsaw was concerned that the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) 2016 work programme mentioned health services as a possible area for standardisation. It considers that such an approach could impact on the ability of health professionals to make their own decisions in their own national regulatory system. At the Health Council, around ten member states, including Germany and the United Kingdom, also expressed similar concerns. By way of response, Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis indicated that the Commission did not have any say on the matter. Nonetheless, during the press conference, he was less clear. “The Commission has never asked the CEN to undertake standardisation. (…) Nevertheless, we have to understand the question involving the interoperability of different health systems. Interoperability requires a standardised approach in IT instruments and medical devices, etc.”, he said.
Leadership of WHO. The French candidate for the post of Director General at the World Health Organisation (WHO), Philippe Douste-Blazy, took the opportunity of this ministerial meeting to introduce himself. Each state party to the WHO has one vote and, currently, the former health minister under Jacques Chirac, is the only European candidate. The Dutch minister, Edith Schippers, said: “Each country will make its decision but it is always good to have a European candidate”. According to our information, if there is still no vote held (in January the WHO must come up with a list of candidates for election in May 2017), all member states, with the exception of Sweden, more circumspect, would be in favour of such a European candidacy.
Three conclusions. Ministers also found it easy to adopt the conclusions on antimicrobial resistance, improved food products and access to medicines (see EUROPE 11574). On this last point, Germany did, however, indicate that it would have preferred less critical conclusions with regard to the pharmaceutical industry. It also pointed out that it did not want a new working body set up. This view was shared by Spain. Finally, Austria used this meeting to announce its intention to join the Benelux country partnership on orphan medicines. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)