WRITTEN QUESTION E-2654/99 by Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN) to the Commission. Prevention of infectious diseases among immigrants.
Date: 2000-01-12
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European social policy, competence of the Member States, disease prevention, foreign national, health control

24.10.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 303 E/89

the problems of harmonisation of terminology between the institutions and the elimination of redundancy
in both data content and human and financial resources employed. The feasibility study on the creation of
an interinstitutional database initiated by the interinstitutional translation committee concluded that only
an interinstitutional base can really offer a solution to the content redundancy problem and meet the
normative objectives linked with terminology.

In reply to the specific questions:

1. The project in question is intended to replace the current multiplicity of databases with a single,
central and jointly-managed terminology database for the Community. So it is meant to reduce the
current parallel structures and resources in the institutions and avoids the creation of such structures
in the smaller institutions and agencies of the Community. The project has been adopted by the
interinstitutional translation committee and therefore enjoys the support of the translation services of
all the Community institutions. No decision has, however, yet been taken on the location and
management of the planned joint terminology data base.

The initiative is therefore in keeping with the Translation centre(cid:146)s mission, set out in Council
Regulation (EC) No 2610/95 of 30 October 1995 amending Regulation (EC) No 2965/94 setting up
(cid:145)to strengthen administrative collaboration
a Translation centre for bodies of the European Union,
between the institutions and bodies of the Union with a view to rationalising working methods and
making overall savings by avoiding superfluous work and the creation of expensive parallel structures(cid:146).

2. The technical implementation of the project will be guided by an interinstitutional steering group
composed of expert representatives from the Translation centre, the Parliament, the Council, the
Translation service of the Commission and the Directorate general enterprise. The contract has been
awarded to a firm with considerable experience in the area of database implementation and the
linguistic and terminological expertise is provided by a government research institute with a world-
wide reputation in the language technology field. Furthermore, the project is supervised by an expert
group composed of terminology and informatics specialists from each of the Community institutions,
the decentralised agencies and Member States.

(2000/C 303 E/081)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2654/99

by Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN) to the Commission

Subject: Prevention of infectious diseases among immigrants

(12 January 2000)

At the Sixth International Workshop on (cid:145)Culture, Health and Immigration(cid:146), held in Rome, the latest
statistics from the preventative medicine section for migration, tourism and tropical dermatology of the
San Gallicano Institute in Italy were issued. These show that among immigrants living in Italy infectious
diseases have increased from 7 % to 11 %.

Of the pathologies found among immigrants the increase in infectious diseases is particularly worrying,
notably viral hepatitis A, B and C, AIDS and cases of leprosy, which had previously been fairly rare.

In the light of the above:

1. Does the Commission not think it would be possible to finance ad hoc structures with the aim of
carrying out health checks at the larger border crossings, in view of the growing influx of immigrants
from outside the Community into the EU Member States?

2. Has the Commission undertaken or is it planning any initiatives designed to prevent the occurrence of
infectious diseases among non-Community nationals in the European Union countries and their
possible spread to the European population?

3. Does it intend to set up specific measures to guarantee the immigrant population access to national

health services?

C 303 E/90

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

24.10.2000

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(27 March 2000)

The Commission recalls that the special meeting of the European Council held at Tampere on 15 and
16 October 1999 declared that (cid:145)the European Union must ensure fair treatment of third-country nationals
who reside legally on the territory of its Member States. A more vigorous integration policy should aim at
granting them rights and obligations comparable to those of EU citizens. It should also enhance non-
discrimination in economic, social and cultural life and develop measures against racism and xenopho-
bia.(cid:146) (1)

The Commission would point out that when referring to third-country nationals one should bear in mind
that immigrants do not constitute a homogeneous group. There are differences in their legal status, length
of stay in the Union and country of origin and in their economic and social situation. Any bundling
together of (cid:145)immigrants(cid:146) as a group at risk from the spread infectious diseases must be firmly rejected.

During the year the Commission plans to present a report on the health of immigrants. This will be one of
the reports prepared on the state of health in the Community and relating either to the health of the
population as a whole or to that of specific sections of the population. The aim of the report will be to
identify general trends in the health of non-Community nationals resident in the Member States.

At present health checks on third-country immigrants legally entering the Member States are governed by
national legislation. The Commission does not envisage financing ad hoc arrangements for health checks at
border crossings.

Regarding access to national health services, the Commission would point out that it put forward a
proposal for a Regulation (2) to extend to third-country nationals Council Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 of
14 June 1971 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons and their families moving
within the Community (3). The aim of the proposal was to ensure that, like Community nationals, third-
country nationals legally resident in the Union and covered by the social security scheme of a Member State
would not lose their entitlement when they moved within the Union and that they should also be covered
by the Community rules on the coordination of social security schemes with specific provision for health
and maternity benefits.

The Commission would also call the Honourable Member(cid:146)s attention to its proposal for a Council Directive
implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin (4).
Under this measure no direct or indirect discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin could be
applied by the Member States in any field, including social protection and social security. This proposal
comes under the general framework of implementing Article 13 (formerly Article 6a) of the EC Treaty and
is currently under discussion in the Council and Parliament.

(1) Point 18 of the Conclusions of the European Council.
(2) OJ C 6, 10.1.1998.
(3) OJ L 149, 5.7.1971.
(4) COM(1999) 566 final.

(2000/C 303 E/082)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2688/99

by Wolfgang Kreissl-D(cid:246)rfler (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(11 January 2000)

Subject: Preferential agreements between the EU and ACP States and their acceptability to the WTO

According to an Agence Europe report published on 1 December 1999, the new WTO Deputy Director-
General, Miguel Rodr(cid:237)guez Mendoza, has contradicted the Commission(cid:146)s assertion that a LomØ waiver will
have no prospect of success unless the ACP States agree to the regional economic partnership agreements
(REPAs) being proposed by the EU.