Council resolution

of 18 November 1999

on ensuring health protection in all Community policies and activities

(2000/C 86/02)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

1. EMPHASISES that Article 152 of the Treaty establishing the European Community stipulates that a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities;

2. RECALLS that the Council resolution of 8 June 1999 on the future Community action in the field of public health(1) underlined the concerns of the Community's citizens about risks to their health and their expectations for a high level of health, the need for a high degree of visibility and transparency on health-related activities in the Community, as well as the health challenges faced by the Member States and the European Union at the start of the new Millenium;

3. CONSIDERS therefore that a high level of political commitment is necessary in order to secure that health protection is ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities;

4. WELCOMES the initial reorganisation of the Commission's internal structures that reflects the significance of public health in the Community;

5. TAKES NOTE of the Commission's fourth report on the integration of health protection requirements in Community policies;

6. TAKES NOTE of the work on health impact assessment which has been done at national and international level as well as the experience gained in the field of environmental impact assessment;

7. REAFFIRMS that a high level of health protection in the Community needs coordination, consistency and complementarity within the Member States and the Community Institutions;

8. REAFFIRMS the previous invitations to the Commission regarding the protection of health in Community policies and activities, in particular:

- to draw up appropriate methods and criteria and a formal mechanism for evaluating the effects of Community policies on human health,

- to carry out early and transparent evaluation of the impact of Community policies on human health,

- to identify in its annual working programme all proposals which may have an impact on health protection,

- to follow a problem-oriented approach and focus on issues of imminent importance in future reports, while taking into account the priorities of the new public health programme;

9. FURTHER INVITES the Commission:

- to draw up a strategy and include appropriate elements into the proposal for the action programme on public health as well as provide for appropriate structures, in order to implement the obligation on health protection in all Community policies,

- to develop further the assessment of the health impact of Community policies and activities and to set up a network of experts, with a view to advancing methods, skills and common terminology applicable at Community level,

- to identify, with a problem-oriented approach in mind, appropriate Community measures to assess their impact on health and use them as pilots for wider application across Community policies;

10. URGES Member States:

- to take health impact into account in the coordination of their own policies and in their input to the development of Community policies,

- to contribute to the Community-wide work by assessing the health impact of Community policies and activities at national level, and

- to inform the Commission about the development of intersectoral policy at national level, including the impact of Community policies and activities.

(1) OJ C 200, 15.7.1999, p. 1.