COUNCIL RESOLUTION of 12 November 1996 on the integration of health protection requirements into Community policies (96/C 374/03)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Drawing attention to the acts adopted by the Community in the field of public health or which have an impact on public health,

Pointing out that the health protection requirement of any proposal must be identified sufficiently early to enable the European Parliament and the Council to take it into account when adopting the proposal,

Noting that the Commission, in its first report of 29 May 1995 on the integration of health protection requirements in Community policies, which identifies which Community policies are directly relevant to health and shows that the multiplicity of policies and measures having an effect on health creates difficulties for a coherent overview of their repercussions for people's health, points to the need to achieve coherent, balanced and effective policies, from a health point of view, which must be supplementary, within the framework of Community action, to the social and economic aspects,

Noting that the Council, in its resolution of 20 December 1995 on the integration of health protection requirements in Community policies (1), in which it welcomed that Commission report, agreed that better information and coordination mechanisms would be put in place to ensure that the Council can be informed of the health repercussions of proposals for Community action so that it could take appropriate steps and called upon the Commission to achieve early and transparent evaluation of the impact of Community policies on human health, to identify in its annual work programme all proposals which may have an impact on health protection and to produce further reports annually on the integration of health protection requirements in Community policies giving consideration inter alia to initiatives taken in the following policy fields: economic policy, in particular taxation; social policy, including questions of employment; free movement of goods and persons; agricultural and food policy; consumer protection, research and technological development; environment and transport,

WELCOMES the Commission's second annual report of 4 September 1996 on the integration of health protection requirements in Community policies as a further step towards giving full effect to the provisions of Article 129 of the Treaty;

NOTES that the report focuses on a number of key areas in which the most important developments concerning health have occurred, namely social policy, the internal market, agriculture, food and fisheries, research and development, environment and energy and transport and international cooperation;

NOTES also that in addition to comprehensive interdepartmental consultation on its proposals the Commission has put in place new coordination mechanisms including the examination of questions linked to health within the Commission departments through the Interservice Group on Health and the setting up of ad hoc groups for the more detailed examination, from the health point of view, of individual problems or specific policies;

NOTES, moreover, that in the report the Commission concludes that it is not always straightforward to determine the best way of integrating health requirements into policies or to judge the success achieved in the matter, and states that by publishing the report it wishes to foster public debate on those issues and to promote transparency and discussion on health questions within the Community;

REAFFIRMS that, in order to contribute to achieving a high level of health protection for the citizens of the European Union, the Community should continue to pay particular attention to the health requirements involved in other Community policies;

REAFFIRMS the need for coordination, consistency and complementarity for all Community activities with a health dimension and for coordination within Member States;

CALLS UPON the Commission to continue its efforts to give effect to the Council resolution of 20 December 1995 and to take the following measures, which will fuel and support the debate amongst and within Member States and further promote transparency and the discussion on health questions within the Community:

- drawing up appropriate methods and criteria as a basis for the integration of health requirements into other Community policies,

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

- submitting a report on the preparation of methods, criteria and mechanisms for integrating health requirements into other Community policies and evaluating the impact of Community policies on health and on the degree to which those requirements are taken into consideration in the annual report on the matter,

- ensuring that health considerations are taken into account at every stage in the definition of proposals and that proposals containing health requirements are clearly defined as such.

(1) OJ No C 350, 30. 12. 1995, p. 2.