14/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - Catherine Stihler (PES, United Kingdom), Avril Doyle (EPP-ED, Ireland), Paulo Casaca (PES, Portugal), Gérard Onesta (Greens/EFA, France) and Jerzy Buzek (EPP-ED, Poland) announced, on Wednesday 14 November in Strasbourg, that they had drafted a written declaration from the EP calling on member states to take measures for better diagnosing and treating patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This disease groups together a number of chronic respiratory illnesses: chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema and those causing an obstruction of the respiratory tracts preventing more or less air getting through. The authors of the text (which must be signed by a majority of members to have the strength of an EP resolution) say that COPD causes approximately 200,000-3000 EU deaths yearly, and is projected to move from the sixth to third most common cause of death worldwide by 2020. (L.C.)