COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 8 June 1999

on the future Community action in the field of public health

(1999/C 200/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

1. RECALLING the Commission's communication of 15 April 1998 on the development of public health policy in the European Community which was intended to stimulate a broad discussion at Community and national levels;

2. RECALLING its Conclusions of 26 November 1998 on the future framework for Community action in the field of public health(1) in which general principles were established;

3. TAKING NOTE of the Resolution on 10 March 1999 of the European Parliament on the communication from the Commission on the development of health policy in the European Community;

4. TAKING NOTE of the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee of 9 September 1998 and of the Committee of the Regions of 19 November 1998 on the communication from the Commission on the development of public health policy in the European Community;

5. TAKING NOTE of the results of the Conference on the new public health policy of the European Union held at Potsdam on 27 to 29 January 1999 as a positive contribution to the debate on the development of the future Community action in the field of public health;

6. STRESSES that the future Community action - directed towards improving public health, preventing human illness and diseases and obviating sources of danger to human health - must address in a coordinated an coherent way the concerns of the Community's citizens about risks to their health and their expectations for a high level of health;

7. CONSIDERS it necessary that all health-related activities in the Community have a high degree of visibility and transparency, in order to promote a better knowledge and thus enable a larger involvement of citizens;

8. EMPHASISES that a high level of human health protection is increasingly important in view of the health challenges the Member States and the European Union will face in the forthcoming millennium;

9. CONSIDERS that key challenges include emerging and re-emerging threats to health; major health scourges; genetic, behavioural and environmental determinants of health; growing health inequalities; quality assurance; demographic changes and the impact of ageing; social, economic and political factors; the advances in research and the application and proliferation of new technologies, in particular biotechnology;

10. UNDERLINES that the Community should be properly equipped to meet these challenges; this requires both developing, specifically within the three strands as indicated in the Council's Conclusions of 26 November 1998, appropriate action and measures of added Community value, as well as appropriate scientific and administrative structures;

11. STRESSES the importance that the new programme will encourage and, if necessary, support the cooperation between Member States on appropriate issues on the key challenges and in other fields where they wish to cooperate insofar as the public health objectives of the Treaty allow;

12. CONSIDERS that over the long term, the effectiveness of Community public health action will depend to a very large degree on the availability of adequate Community resources to meet priorities and the engagement of relevant authorities in the Member States on a continuing basis;

13. UNDERLINES that existing Community networks should be evaluated as to whether they are suitable to meet the key challenges;

14. REITERATES that the development of measures in all three strands as indicated in the Council's Conclusions of 26 November 1998, should take into account the needs arising from the future enlargement of the European Union and the work of international organisations competent in the sphere of health;

15. UNDERLINES that, in order to strengthen the scientific basis, research must have an essential role in underpinning the Community's future public health action. Public health-related research at Community level, in order to be relevant for Community public health, has to respond to the specific research needs and issues identified by the public health sector whose access to research programmes should be facilitated;

16. UNDERLINES the need to establish procedures through which the Community and the Member States can monitor the impact of Community policies and activities, especially those relating to the internal market, on public health and health care, in order to facilitate an adequate balance between the impact of the internal market and the unchanged responsibilities of Member States for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care;

17. CONSIDERS IT APPROPRIATE that, following the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam on 1 May 1999, internal organisation, cooperation and working methods at Community level should be reviewed with a view to achieving a better coordination of health-related issues so as to ensure a high level of human health protection in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities;

18. INVITES the Commission, as a matter of urgency and in order to ensure continuity in the light of the expiration of existing programmes, to make a proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and the Council on a programme of action in the field of public health, in time for the next Council meeting devoted to health questions.

(1) OJ C 390, 15.12.1998, p. 1.