MEPs examined in plenary, on Tuesday 15 February, the own-initiative report by Véronique Trillet-Lenoir (Renew Europe, France) entitled “For a stronger EU role in the fight against cancer”.
This report will form the European Parliament’s position on the ‘Beating Cancer Plan’ proposed by the European Commission on 3 February 2021.
On 9 December 2021, the text was adopted in the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Beating Cancer “BECA” (see EUROPE 12850/12).
The motion for a resolution includes 196 proposals for a strategy that should be applied horizontally to several areas of European and national public policy: taxation, internal market, etc.
The report is organised along four axes.
Firstly: prevention, to act on individual and social risk factors.
Thus, several proposals aim to reduce exposure to various products: pesticides, environmental pollution, tobacco, electronic cigarettes (especially for flavours that appeal to young people and non-smokers), alcohol consumption (through the supervision of alcohol advertising, the revision of taxation on alcoholic beverages, consumer information or a ‘zero alcohol’ strategy for minors).
The report also proposes strengthening worker protection and promoting vaccination against HPV. Obesity prevention is addressed as well as the promotion of healthy eating.
The second part is about improving screening, including in cross-border or remote areas.
The third axis concerns equitable access to affordable care across the European Union (e.g. through joint European procurement).
The report takes up the idea of an inequality register, proposed by the European Commission.
Support for patients and their quality of life is a fourth axis (development of ambulatory care, improvement of palliative care, etc.)
The report recommends a charter of rights for cancer patients and the right to be forgotten in all EU countries.
A strengthening of European Reference Networks or European Hospitals would improve the sharing of knowledge and good practice.
These four axes mobilise three levers of action: education, accurate and clear information and existing fiscal mechanisms.
The focus is on the prevention and care of paediatric and adolescent cancers.
On the budgetary front, the report recommends a 20% increase in funding for research into diagnostic and therapeutic innovations.
A European financial contribution of €4 billion is requested to support the strategy. This funding would come from various European programmes and would be coupled with cooperation from national cancer plans.
The vote will take place on Wednesday 16 February and 38 amendments divided into six packages have been tabled. Most focus on the prevention aspect, specifically the proposals on alcohol consumption, tobacco and meat products.
Amendments signed by MEPs from different political groups seek to delete from the report references in paragraph 15 to a study published in the Lancet, which found that there is no safe minimum level of alcohol consumption. An amendment aims to replace warnings against alcohol abuse with warnings against its simple consumption.
Three S&D MEPs have tabled a series of amendments to remove references to the SCHEER and WHO warning of the addictive risks of e-cigarettes. Four ID MEPs want to change references to the consumption of meat and highly processed products and reject joint procurement of medicines. They want to reassess the cooperation with the WHO.
The Left has tabled amendments for better funding of research on inequalities in access to care, support for low-income parents for care-related travel and on intellectual property rights issues.
During the debates, the report received a lot of support. MEPs emphasised the impact of Covid-19 on the postponement of care.
Bronis Ropé (Greens/EFA, Lithuania) said: “We have improved the Commission’s plan, but for Simona Baldassarre and Stefania Zambelli (ID, Italy), the plan puts the ‘made in Italy’ at risk.
Peter Liese (EPP, Germany) stressed the importance of research and added that scientific facts should not be ignored.
Pietro Fiocchi (ECR, Italy) said the report was “well drafted” but regretted some of the proposals on alcohol and cigarette taxation.
Nicolae Ştefanuta (Renew Europe, Romania) highlighted the extent of inequalities between Member States, particularly in the East.
For Leftéris Nikoláou-Alavános (Non-attached Member, Greece), the proposal follows a logic of commercialisation of health.
Tiemo Wölken (S&D, German) called for the report not to be watered down. “Alcohol is toxic, it is scientifically proven. A certain lobby wants to put an end to scientific evidence, it's shameful”.
Gheorghe Falcă (EPP, Romania) spoke about the illness he had faced.
Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides welcomed the report and appreciated the cooperation with the Parliament. “We don’t want to target a food culture; we want to base our work on science”, she added.
“To confuse scientific, validated information with a blinkered, non-pragmatic policy is to distort the message of the report”, stressed Véronique Trillet-Lenoir.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/ca
Link to the study: https://aeur.eu/f/cd (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)