Support for boosting health in new treaty

Date: 05/06/1997

By Michael Mann

EU GOVERNMENTS look set to agree to the European Commission's request to move a major slab of health legislation out of the agricultural sphere and into the realm of public health in the revised EU treaty due to be finalised at this month's summit in Amsterdam.

But member states are still divided over just how far the proposed changes should go.

Negotiators preparing the final draft of the new treaty in advance of the 16-17 June summit are considering expanding the article dealing with public health to cover a number of animal and plant health proposals.

The move comes in the wake of the BSE débâcle and follows Commission President Jacques Santer's pledge to MEPs in February to ensure that potential health disasters could no longer be hidden from public view by falling outside the remit of anyone with a direct interest in human health.

The latest draft to emerge from the Intergovernmental Conference talks would require any plant or animal health measure with a potentially direct effect on human well-being to be agreed under Article 129 of the treaty, giving the European Parliament equal decision-making powers with EU governments.

“The change is in the text at the moment, but it has not been definitely agreed yet. There are still some countries with a strong agricultural interest who think these measures should stay elsewhere,” said a close observer.

All veterinary and phytosanitary measures currently fall under Article 43, covering farming policy, where the role of MEPs is extremely limited. Until now, most member states have proved loath to see the Parliament gaining more of a hold over agricultural policy.

“Everyone is obsessed with health at the moment. Attitudes have changed because both the Commission and certain governments are feeling pretty battered after the mistakes made on BSE,” said a member state official.

The newly drafted article begins with a much clearer commitment to the preservation of health than in the existing treaty, stating: “A high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities.”

Beyond this, efforts will be made to introduce minimum standards across the Union for the quality and safety of organs and other substances of human origin, including blood and blood derivatives. Officials stress that as there is theoretically a single market in organs, it makes sense to ensure that certain minimum safety requirements are respected by all.

But even this has generated divisions between governments. “Some, particularly the Nordics, wanted an undertaking to a 'high level of protection' rather than merely minimum requirements. Some wanted control over genetically-modified products to be added in as well,” said an official.

Commission officials have expressed satisfaction that some of their proposals have been taken on board, despite member states' caution over surrendering too much of their sovereignty.

Health Commissioner Pádraig Flynn has been frustrated by the tendency of some governments to interpret the treaty's existing health provisions as narrowly as possible. EU research and health programmes have often been hamstrung by lack of funding.