WRITTEN QUESTION E-1511/96 by Glenys Kinnock (PSE) to the Commission (17 June 1996)

Subject: Administration of Item B7-6212 (maternal and child health care)

The item covering maternal and child health care (B7-6212) provides up to 100% support for projects which aim to reduce maternal and child mortality and morbidity in developing countries. This item, against which ECU 5m was entered in commitment appropriations in the 1996 budget, has to date been administered by the Health and AIDS Unit. This support is particularly important in the context of EU implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development.

However, no Commission unit has assumed responsibility for the administration of this item in 1996, in spite of frequent enquiries by many NGOs who would like to submit proposals for support from this item.

Could the Commission therefore clarify as a matter of urgency the confusion regarding the administration of Item B7-6212?

Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission (15 July 1996)

Parliament created the 'maternal and child health care' budget heading in 1994, with an appropriation of ECU 2 million. The Commission did not request appropriations for the item for 1995 or 1996.

While the Commission agrees with Parliament that the promotion of mother and child health in developing countries is a crucial public health objective, it regards it as an integral part of general health-sector financial and technical cooperation, for which appropriate financial instruments already exist (the Lomé Convention for the ACP countries and the various budget appropriations for financial and technical cooperation with Latin America, Asia and Mediterranean countries). Under the seventh European Development Fund, for example, ECU 300 million had been committed for health-related projects and ECU 460 million for structural adjustment support for the health sector at end 1995. Mother and child health, as a key component of primary health care, was one crucial objective of these programmes. Considerable sums have also been mobilized under the heading of financial and technical cooperation with Latin America, Asia and the Mediterranean countries to promote mother and child health care, with ECU 17 million allocated in 1995 to a maternal health project in the Philippines, to take but one example.

While Parliament's aim in using this item is to enable the Commission to finance innovatory mother and child health schemes, the instruments necessary for this purpose already exist, including budget heading B7-631 ('aid for population policies and programmes in developing countries and follow-up to the conference on population and development') with an appropriation of ECU 7 million. Article 2 of the draft regulation creating a legal basis for this heading, currently before the Council and Parliament, explicitly includes among its priorities 'helping develop or reform health systems in order to improve the accessibility and quality of reproductive health care, thereby appreciably reducing the risks to the health of women and children'. ((OJ C 310, 22 November 1995. )) Improvements in reproductive health care and mother and child health are among the recommendations emerging from the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development.

In the light of these considerations, and of the considerable administrative constraints, the Commission decided for 1996 to use ECU 500 000 of the ECU 5 million appropriation to finance a study and evaluation of pilot projects financed from the 1994 budget with the aim of deriving guidelines and avenues of approach for the formulation of innovative schemes in this sector. As regards the balance of the appropriation, it plans to look at ways of using it for health programmes and projects currently being appraised.

As soon as the legal basis has been adopted heading B7-631 can be used to finance studies, research and other measures aimed at devising innovatory approaches to mother and child health care. This means the appropriation would need to be no more than ECU 1 million, enough to finance two or three studies, research projects or pilot schemes a year, with actual capital projects, including those undertaken jointly with non-governmental organizations, financed under the heading of general financial and technical cooperation or, in appropriate cases, under the budget item for cofinancing with NGOs, in accordance with the relevant conditions.