Strasbourg, 05/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - Having come to set out the programme of the Spanish Presidency regarding health and consumer protection before the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment and Public Health. Spanish Health Minister Celia Villalobos said that health ministers had to play a greater role in issues like that on the review of pharmaceutical legislation and procedures for approving the placing on the market of medicines, that closely affect citizens' health. The EU Health Council will look into this problem, and I hope that it will not be a purely sporadic task for it, she said, considering that health protection had to have priority in all cases, and that the European Medicine Agency should be "powerful".
In addition, Ms. Villalobos highlighted a Spanish Presidency priority concerning the quality and safety of transplants, while acknowledging that they would doubtless not reach a conclusion in the Spanish Presidency. Same difficulty for the draft directive relating to tobacco advertising: recalling the appeal that Germany made to the Court of Justice against the directive, the Council President hoped to secure the backing of members of the EP's Health and Consumer Committee, which , she remarked, no doubt have the same sensitivity as Health Ministers. As for the public health action programme (running until 2006), Ms. Villalobos recognised the differences that existed over its funding: Spain was among those countries that, like Parliament, wanted to increase the financing, but as President of the Council I shall defend the latter's position, she said.