Mr President, I welcome the opportunity for debate on this report, on what is an important issue for all our countries. I am grateful to Mr Mantovani for his work. Caring for the ageing population throughout Europe will be one of the biggest challenges facing the Member States in the future. Although, as has already been said, the organisation of health care is a matter reserved for Member States, they cannot do this in isolation. That is why my group welcomes the cooperation suggested by the Commission, in terms of exchanging information and best practice and developing common quality standards. The current provision and funding systems for care of the elderly vary greatly throughout Europe, from comprehensive free care with financial risks spread throughout the population to state funding as a last resort safety net. Drawing comparisons and exploring the care systems within Member States could be a valuable way of highlighting successful solutions. I welcome the reference in Mr Mantovani's report to social care as well as health care, as the combination of both is an essential element in the welfare of older people. If those responsible for health and social policy took a real life-long approach to preventing disease and disability and viewed health promotion and prevention as the cornerstone of a 'foresighted policy', in the words of the report, this would not only improve health but would also cut costs. The reduction in costs would not be temporary or short term, but long term. For example, we know that older women and people in rural areas experience greater levels of poverty. In my constituency in Wales, three out of five older people live in poverty. Most pensioners depend entirely on their state pension or other state benefits as their only income. More people have long-term illnesses in Wales than in England or Scotland. These facts are not unrelated. Some methods of health prevention and early detection of illness are essential. Hand-in-hand with this is the importance of a multi-agency approach to coordinating care and a multi-sectoral approach to policy-making, to include social, employment, environmental and economic considerations as well as the need to involve users and their families. The elderly play a very valuable role in our society. Life-long learning, communication between the generations, voluntary work and similar issues on which the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs has done a lot of work are intrinsically related to this discussion. Trying to establish a free market of care and treatment and harmonising health care systems has its dangers. Meeting the Stability Pact requirements, whilst providing the necessary funding for health, welfare and social services, is a major challenge. Health care, as I said earlier, is the responsibility of the Member States. The references in this report to an internal market in health services and products reflects the move towards liberalisation. As has been seen time after time and as we see in the private finance initiative in health services in the UK, privatisation does not improve services or reduce costs, but leads to longer waiting lists, worse levels of care and staff shortages. My group believes that health care and the care of the elderly is too important to be put at risk by privatisation and the GATS Agreement. The focus of this report and one of the main issues in this debate must be equality of access. This means access to care for everyone and securing a local supply of services. GATS threatens this. I would ask, therefore, for support of Amendment No 6, to call for exemption of health and care services from GATS, ensuring that the very good proposals made by Mr Mantovani – which I hope will be adopted by Parliament tomorrow – can be implemented and services to older people secured for the long term.

Political group: Verts-ALE