Strasbourg, 18/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Secretaries of State for Health, Dominique Gillot, and for Consumers, Marylise Lebranchu, have indicated what the French Council Presidency expects from the next ministerial sessions they will chair. After a meeting with the European Parliament's Environment, Public Health and Consumer policy Committees, during a press conference, Mrs Gillot, recognised that only one "Health" Council per quarter (11 December), given the growing importance of the dossier and the Presidency programme, is "maybe a little tight": Commissioner Byrne would have liked to also see one additional meeting, she noted. Before the MEPs, Mrs Lebranchu noted that on the other hand the problem of consumers would be broached twice (28 September and 30 November), "instead of what was previously the case". We have chosen to regroup over these sessions the themes of Internal Market, Consumers and Tourism, and "the hope that the "consumers" approach will directly feed all the works on the Internal market", she asserted.
Mrs Gillot announced that health must gain "a permanent dimension" in Europe and that it is now necessary to develop "public health policies at a Community level": we hope that a Europe of health and the Amsterdam Treaty go in this direction. She outlined four main priorities: (1) the definition of a general strategy in public health, by basing itself on the European Commission action programme from last May. The Health Council President recalled that, on 29 June, the Council had confirmed the following priorities: improve information on health, rapid reaction to health threats (with the implementation of a warning system), action on the "determinants of health"; (2) protection and improvement of the populations health, which means: - first, continue the fight against smoking. Moreover the Directive on the manufacturing, presentation and sale of tobacco products (subject on which, Mrs Gillot had recognised divergences that remain after the first reading, while adding: "we are doing our utmost to reduce them"), the Council President also cited the work to be done to protect public health in candidate countries and developing countries, and the negotiations for the framework Convention on the anti-tobacco fight with the WHO; - improve nutritional health, as a good nutritional balance may distance certain diseases. Nutrition is one of the "determinants of health", and the Presidency hopes to get adopted, during this quarter, a resolution outlining the broad guidelines of a European nutritional health project".
Experts from Member States have been working for one year on this project. (3) strengthening the action by the Member States in the prevention of dependencies linked to the use of drugs, in the face, in particular, of the massive arrival of synthetic drugs and the regular association of several illicit or illicitly consumed products at the same time or successively. There, Mrs Gillot also cited the links between sporting practices and the dangerous consumption of them by youths; (4) the fight against AIDS and other epidemics. Mr Gillot, who in June made a statement in plenary over her participation in the Durban conference, underlined the special need to work with the joint UN programme on AIDS and with the WHO. Among the priorities, she cited the work underway on paediatric medication, a draft Directive on the safety and quality of blood products, a draft recommendation on resistance to antibiotics, the suicide of youths, the consequences of pathological ageing (she announced, for 7 and 8 December, a European colloquium on the state of research into Alzheimer's disease) and, obviously, over the Mad Cow's Disease, the efforts trying to remove the circulation of the infectious agents from circulation in the livestock and to avoid that it enters into the human food chain.
As for Marylise Lebranchu, she emphasised the following priorities: 1) the general safety of products, notably with the definition of a framework for the withdrawal of dangerous products from the market (Mrs Lebranchu told the MEPs that the Presidency hopes to have the EP's opinion in first reading for the November Council); 2) toy safety and notably the "palates" Directive. Mrs Lebranchu, by recalling that France would apply a moratorium on palates, underlined the need to have serious scientific expertise and to reach a result as quickly as possible. She hoped that the September Council "would be the occasion to make a point" on this issue, 3) - GMO. Mrs Lebranchu raised, beyond the environmental problems, the question of tractability and labelling. She foresees an exchange of views on this issue during the Council on 30 November; 4) - the creation of a European Foodstuffs Agency: 5) - mail order sale of financial products.
Mrs Lebranchu also raise other aspects, including the "preparation to the practical Euro" (an exchange of views is planned for the Council on 28 September), the promotion of consumer confidence in e-commerce, the hygiene of foodstuffs and the forum at the end of November on the internal market at the service of citizens and small enterprises.