Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Decision adopting a programme of Community action from 1999 to 2003 on injury prevention in the context of the framework for action in the field of public health (97/C 202/11) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(97) 178 final - 97/0132(COD)

(Submitted by the Commission on 14 May 1997)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular the first indent of Article 129 (4) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189b of the Treaty,

(1) Whereas injuries should be considered one of the major health scourges referred to in Article 129 throughout the Community and are a cause of substantial public concern;

(2) Whereas, in accordance with point (o) of Article 3 of the Treaty, Community action shall include a contribution to the attainment of a high level of health protection;

(3) Whereas Article 129 expressly provides for Community competence in this field, by encouraging cooperation between the Member States and, if necessary, lending support to their action, promoting coordination of their policies and programmes, and fostering cooperation with third countries and international organizations competent in the sphere of public health; whereas Community should be directed towards the prevention of diseases, and the promotion of health education and information;

(4) Whereas the resolution of the Council and the Ministers for Health, meeting within the Council of 27 May 1993 on future action in the field of public health (1), affirmed the need for Community action aiming at adding life to years and years to life and selection of areas for such action with regard to their amenability to preventive action;

(5) Whereas the European Parliament in its resolution on public health policy after Maastricht of 19 November 1993 (2) called on the Commission to develop and execute activities on accident prevention;

(6) Whereas the Commission, in its communication of 24 November 1993 on the framework for action in the field of public health (3), identified intentional and unintentional injuries and accidents as a priority area for action in the public health field;

(7) Whereas the European Parliament and the Council, in their Decision No 3092/94/EC (4), introduced a Community system of information in home and leisure accidents with which this Decision should be closely coordinated;

(8) Whereas, in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality laid down in Article 3b of the Treaty, action on injury prevention should be undertaken by the Community only if and in so far as, by reason of its scale of effects, it may be better achieved at Community level; whereas this programme will yield a Community added-value by bringing together activities already undertaken in relative isolation at national level and by complementing one another with significant results for the Community as a whole, by contributing to the strengthening of solidarity and cohesion in the Community and by leasing, where the need is recognized, to the establishment of best-practice norms and standards;

(9) Whereas cooperation with the international organizations competent in the field of public health and with third countries should be fostered;

(10) Whereas, by providing support for acquiring better knowledge and understanding of, and wider dissemination of information about, injury prevention, ensuring improved comparability of information in this field and by developing actions complementary to existing Community programmes and actions, while avoiding unnecessary duplication, the programme will contribute to the achievement of the Community objectives set out in Article 129;

(11) Whereas, in order to increase the value and impact of the programme, a continuous assessment of the actions undertaken should be carried out, with particular regard to their effectiveness and the achievement of the objectives set and with a view, where appropriate, to making the necessary adjustments;

(12) Whereas this Decision lays down a financial framework constituting the principal point of reference, within the meaning of point 1 of the declaration of the European Parliament, the Council and Commission of 6 March 1995 (5), for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure;

(13) Whereas the Community's financial perspective is valid up to 1999 and will have to be revised for the period beyond that date;

(14) Whereas this programme should be of five-year duration in order to allow sufficient time for actions to be implemented to achieve the objectives set,

HAVE DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Establishment of the programme

1. A programme of Community action on injury prevention, hereinafter referred to as 'the Programme`, is hereby adopted for the period 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2003 in the context of the framework for action in the field of public health.

2. The aim of the Programme is to contribute to public health activities which seek to reduce the incidence of injury, by promoting the more effective dissemination and application of prevention techniques whose worth is widely accepted by experts, and by helping to strengthen the general capacity of public health bodies to mount effective injury prevention activities.

3. The actions to be implemented within the meaning of the Programme and their specific objectives are set out in the Annex.

Article 2

Implementation

1. The Commission shall ensure implementation, in close cooperation with the Member States, of the actions set out in the Annex.

2. The Commission shall cooperate with institutions and organizations active in the field of injury prevention.

Article 3

Budget

1. The financial framework for the implementation of the Programme for the year 1999 shall be ECU 1,3 million, in keeping with current financial perspectives. The financial framework for the final four years of the programme (2000 to 2003) shall be determinated in detail after the establishment of the future perspectives.

2. The annual appropriations shall be established by the Budgetary Authority in accordance with the current financial perspectives.

Article 4

Consistency and complementarity

The Commission shall ensure that there is consistency and complementarity between the Community actions to be implemented within the meaning of the Programme and those implemented within the meaning of other relevant Community programmes and actions.

Article 5

Committee

1. The Commission shall be assisted by and advisory committee, hereinafter referred to as 'the Committee`, consisting of representatives of the Member States, and chaired by the Commission representative.

The representative of the Commission shall submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to be taken.

The Committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft, within a time limit which the chairperson may lay down according to the urgency of the matter, if necessary by taking a vote.

The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes, in addition, each Member States shall have the right to ask to have its position recorded in the minutes.

The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by the Committee. It shall inform the Committee on the manner in which its opinion has been taken into account.

2. The Committee shall be consulted, in particular on:

(a) the criteria and procedures for selecting and financing projects pursuant to this Programme;

(b) the evaluation procedure.

3. The representative of the Commission shall keep the Committee regularly informed about Commission proposals or Community initiatives and the implementation of programmes in other policy areas which are relevant to the achievement of the objectives of this Programme.

Article 6

International cooperation

1. In the course of implementing the Programme, cooperation with third countries and with international organizations competent in the field of public health shall be fostered.

2. The Programme shall be open to participation by the associated countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Association Agreements or additional Protocols related thereto concerning participation in Community programmes. The Programme shall be open to participation by Cyprus and Malta on the basis of additional appropriations in accordance with the same rules as those applied to the EFTA countries, in accordance with procedures to be agreed with those countries.

Article 7

Monitoring and evaluation

1. In the implementation of this Decision, the Commission shall take the necessary measures to ensure the monitoring and continuous evaluation of the Programme, taking account of the general and specific objectives referred to in Article 1 and in the Annex.

2. During the third year of the Programme, the Commission shall present an evaluation report to the European Parliament and the Council.

3. The Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council a final report on completion of the Programme.

4. The Commission shall incorporate into those two reports information on Community financing in the various fields of action and on complementarity with the other actions referred to in Article 4, as well as the results of the evaluations. It shall also send them to the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

(1) OJ No C 174, 25. 6. 1993, p. 1.

(2) OJ No C 329, 6. 12. 1993, p. 375.

(3) COM(93) 559 final of 24 November 1993.

(4) OJ No L 331, 21. 12. 1994, p. 1.

(5) OJ No C 102, 4. 4. 1996, p. 4.

ANNEX

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES AND ACTIONS

I. Accidents to children, young adults and elderly people (1)

Objective: to contribute to public health activities which aim at reducing the incidence of injury from home, leisure and school accidents, by promoting the more effective dissemination and application of prevention techniques whose worth is widely accepted by experts.

II. Suicide

Objective: to contribute to public health activities which aim at reducing the incidence of injury from deliberate self-harm, by promoting the more effective dissemination and application of prevention techniques whose worth is widely accepted by experts.

III. Injury prevention capacity

Objective: to contribute to the strengthening of public health bodies' capacity to mount effective injury prevention activities.

Actions to be undertaken in support of each of these objectives

(Actions may relate to more than one objective: for example a project on safety in sport might affect children, young adults and older people).

1. Networks: encouraging and assisting the creation of networks, dedicated in particular to: development of new approaches or innovative methods of tackling common problems, exchanges of materials, guidelines and handbooks, organization of training activities.

2. Campaigns: supporting the dissemination of information about campaigns; including the development of a bank of information on the campaigns that have been carried out, with, if possible assessments of their value, effects and transferability, and organization of competitions to identify the best injury prevention campaigns; promoting where appropriate the organization of parallel campaigns in a number of Member States; assisting the development of basic materials and publicity.

3. Data about injuries: in conjunction with Ehlass promoting agreed approaches to coding, data definitions, better recording of place of occurrence, as well as on behavioural aspects and on chain of events, more precision in cause of death certification, the use of relevant results of the international collaborative effort on injury statistics; examination of the coverage of existing data collection system and where necessary development of measures to improve such coverage inclusion of additional questions or modules in existing Community-wide surveys; assistance in identifying the need for surveys, promoting the creation of a database of known surveys.

4. Technical investigations of injury risk factors: Promoting collaboration between institutions with specialized knowledge and facilities able to undertake such activities; supporting the development of an inventory of institutions and their projects, and evaluation of prevention projects and campaigns.

5. Consultation and cooperation: support for formal and informal meetings at different levels of government, conferences and seminars, working groups and advisory groups.

In addition, the following actions will support Objective III

6. Activities to increase the use which public health bodies can make of other Community policies for injury prevention: raising awareness of Community programmes and the conditions for participation in them, helping to set up consortia across national boundaries and helping groups with a particular interest to discover the most useful interlocutors in Community institutions.

(1) The Community action in the field of civil protection is excluded from this programme (see in particular the proposal for a Council Decision establishing a Community action programme in the field of civil protection COM(95) 155 final).