Rheumatic diseases Declaration of the European Parliament on rheumatic diseases
Date: 2008-06-05
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: chronic illness, health policy








CE2009285EN.01006701.xml










26.11.2009   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


CE 285/67





Thursday 5 June 2008Rheumatic diseases
P6_TA(2008)0262
Declaration of the European Parliament on rheumatic diseases
2009/C 285 E/11

The European Parliament,
having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,






A.


whereas rheumatic diseases are chronic complaints which cause pain, suffering and disability,










B.


whereas 30 % to 40 % of people have musculoskeletal symptoms, and whereas such symptoms affect over 100 million people in Europe,










C.


whereas rheumatic diseases represent the main cause of disability and premature retirement among workers,










D.


whereas it is estimated that people over 65 will account for up to one-quarter of the European population by 2030, and whereas a majority of people over 70 present chronic or recurrent rheumatic symptoms,










E.


whereas the adoption of social and health policies based on an analysis of the needs of those with rheumatic diseases would reduce the economic and social costs associated with such diseases (1 to 1,5 % of GNI in developed countries),










1.


Calls on the Commission and the Council to:






—


attach more importance to rheumatic diseases in the new Community strategy on health, given their high social and economic costs;










—


encourage Member States to establish, and promote the implementation of, national plans to fight rheumatic diseases;










—


develop a Community strategy on rheumatic diseases and draw up a Council recommendation on the early diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic diseases;










—


develop a strategy to improve access to information and medical treatment;














2.


Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council, the Commission and the parliaments of the Member States.
List of signatories
Adamos Adamou, Vittorio Agnoletto, Gabriele Albertini, Alexander Alvaro, Jan Andersson, Georgs Andrejevs, Alfonso Andria, Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Emmanouil Angelakas, Roberta Angelilli, Kader Arif, Stavros Arnaoutakis, Francisco Assis, Robert Atkins, John Attard-Montalto, Jean-Pierre Audy, Margrete Auken, Inés Ayala Sender, Liam Aylward, Pilar Ayuso, Maria Badia i Cutchet, Enrique Barón Crespo, Katerina Batzeli, Edit Bauer, Zsolt László Becsey, Ivo Belet, Irena Belohorská, Monika Beňová, Sergio Berlato, Giovanni Berlinguer, Slavi Binev, Šarūnas Birutis, Jana Bobošíková, Herbert Bösch, Vito Bonsignore, Josep Borrell Fontelles, Victor Boștinaru, Costas Botopoulos, Bernadette Bourzai, John Bowis, Emine Bozkurt, Iles Braghetto, Frieda Brepoels, Elmar Brok, Danutė Budreikaitė, Udo Bullmann, Nicodim Bulzesc, Ieke van den Burg, Colm Burke, Philip Bushill-Matthews, Cristian Silviu Bușoi, Philippe Busquin, Jerzy Buzek, Milan Cabrnoch, Mogens Camre, Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos, Carlos Carnero González, David Casa, Paulo Casaca, Michael Cashman, Françoise Castex, Pilar del Castillo Vera, Giusto Catania, Alejandro Cercas, Giulietto Chiesa, Ole Christensen, Luigi Cocilovo, Carlos Coelho, Dorette Corbey, Giovanna Corda, Titus Corlățean, Thierry Cornillet, Jean Louis Cottigny, Jan Cremers, Corina Crețu, Gabriela Crețu, Brian Crowley, Magor Imre Csibi, Daniel Dăianu, Joseph Daul, Dragoș Florin David, Chris Davies, Antonio De Blasio, Bairbre de Brún, Arūnas Degutis, Véronique De Keyser, Panayiotis Demetriou, Gérard Deprez, Proinsias De Rossa, Marie-Hélène Descamps, Harlem Désir, Nirj Deva, Mia De Vits, Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra, Jolanta Dičkutė, Koenraad Dillen, Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos, Alexandra Dobolyi, Brigitte Douay, Mojca Drčar Murko, Bárbara Dührkop Dührkop, Árpád Duka-Zólyomi, Constantin Dumitriu, Maria da Assunção Esteves, Edite Estrela, Harald Ettl, Jill Evans, Robert Evans, Göran Färm, Carlo Fatuzzo, Claudio Fava, Szabolcs Fazakas, Emanuel Jardim Fernandes, Fernando Fernández Martín, Anne Ferreira, Elisa Ferreira, Ilda Figueiredo, Věra Flasarová, Karl-Heinz Florenz, Alessandro Foglietta, Nicole Fontaine, Glyn Ford, Juan Fraile Cantón, Armando França, Monica Frassoni, Duarte Freitas, Ingo Friedrich, Sorin Frunzăverde, Milan Gaľa, Gerardo Galeote, Vicente Miguel Garcés Ramón, Iratxe García Pérez, Jean-Paul Gauzès, Evelyne Gebhardt, Bronisław Geremek, Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg, Roland Gewalt, Claire Gibault, Neena Gill, Robert Goebbels, Bogdan Golik, Bruno Gollnisch, Ana Maria Gomes, Donata Gottardi, Hélène Goudin, Genowefa Grabowska, Dariusz Maciej Grabowski, Vasco Graça Moura, Martí Grau i Segú, Louis Grech, Lissy Gröner, Elly de Groen-Kouwenhoven, Françoise Grossetête, Lilli Gruber, Pedro Guerreiro, Umberto Guidoni, Zita Gurmai, Cristina Gutiérrez-Cortines, Catherine Guy-Quint, David Hammerstein, Małgorzata Handzlik, Marian Harkin, Joel Hasse Ferreira, Gyula Hegyi, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Edit Herczog, Mary Honeyball, Richard Howitt, Alain Hutchinson, Iliana Malinova Iotova, Mikel Irujo Amezaga, Marie Anne Isler Béguin, Carlos José Iturgaiz Angulo, Lily Jacobs, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, Lívia Járóka, Rumiana Jeleva, Karin Jöns, Jelko Kacin, Filip Kaczmarek, Ioannis Kasoulides, Piia-Noora Kauppi, Tunne Kelam, Glenys Kinnock, Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Eija-Riitta Korhola, Magda Kósáné Kovács, Miloš Koterec, Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis, Urszula Krupa, Wiesław Stefan Kuc, Helmut Kuhne, Sepp Kusstatscher, Stavros Lambrinidis, Vytautas Landsbergis, Romano Maria La Russa, Henrik Lax, Johannes Lebech, Roselyne Lefrançois, Lasse Lehtinen, Bogusław Liberadzki, Marie-Noëlle Lienemann, Kartika Tamara Liotard, Alain Lipietz, Pia Elda Locatelli, Antonio López-Istúriz White, Andrea Losco, Astrid Lulling, Elizabeth Lynne, Marusya Ivanova Lyubcheva, Jules Maaten, Linda McAvan, Mary Lou McDonald, Mairead McGuinness, Edward McMillan-Scott, Jamila Madeira, Toine Manders, Ramona Nicole Mănescu, Vladimír Maňka, Erika Mann, Diamanto Manolakou, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Sérgio Marques, David Martin, Jean-Claude Martinez, Miguel Ángel Martínez Martínez, Jan Tadeusz Masiel, Antonio Masip Hidalgo, Marios Matsakis, Maria Matsouka, Mario Mauro, Manolis Mavrommatis, Manuel Medina Ortega, Erik Meijer, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, Emilio Menéndez del Valle, Willy Meyer Pleite, Rosa Miguélez Ramos, Marianne Mikko, Miroslav Mikolášik, Francisco José Millán Mon, Gay Mitchell, Nickolay Mladenov, Claude Moraes, Javier Moreno Sánchez, Eluned Morgan, Luisa Morgantini, Elisabeth Morin, Roberto Musacchio, Cristiana Muscardini, Joseph Muscat, Riitta Myller, Pasqualina Napoletano, Juan Andrés Naranjo Escobar, Robert Navarro, Cătălin-Ioan Nechifor, Catherine Neris, James Nicholson, Angelika Niebler, Raimon Obiols i Germà, Jan Olbrycht, Seán Ó Neachtain, Gérard Onesta, Dumitru Oprea, Josu Ortuondo Larrea, Siiri Oviir, Reino Paasilinna, Athanasios Pafilis, Justas Vincas Paleckis, Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, Marco Pannella, Pier Antonio Panzeri, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Atanas Paparizov, Neil Parish, Ioan Mircea Pașcu, Aldo Patriciello, Béatrice Patrie, Vincent Peillon, Alojz Peterle, Tobias Pflüger, Willi Piecyk, Rihards Pīks, João de Deus Pinheiro, Józef Pinior, Gianni Pittella, Francisca Pleguezuelos Aguilar, Zita Pleštinská, Rovana Plumb, Anni Podimata, Zdzisław Zbigniew Podkański, Bernard Poignant, Adriana Poli Bortone, Mihaela Popa, Nicolae Vlad Popa, Miguel Portas, Bernd Posselt, Christa Prets, Pierre Pribetich, Vittorio Prodi, Luís Queiró, Bilyana Ilieva Raeva, Miloslav Ransdorf, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Vladimír Remek, Karin Resetarits, José Ribeiro e Castro, Teresa Riera Madurell, Frédérique Ries, Giovanni Rivera, Michel Rocard, Zuzana Roithová, Luca Romagnoli, Raül Romeva i Rueda, Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, Mechtild Rothe, Libor Rouček, Martine Roure, Leopold Józef Rutowicz, Eoin Ryan, Guido Sacconi, Tokia Saïfi, Aloyzas Sakalas, Katrin Saks, José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, María Isabel Salinas García, Antolín Sánchez Presedo, Manuel António dos Santos, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Luciana Sbarbati, Christel Schaldemose, Pál Schmitt, Inger Segelström, Adrian Severin, José Albino Silva Peneda, Brian Simpson, Kathy Sinnott, Marek Siwiec, Peter Skinner, Nina Škottová, Csaba Sógor, Søren Bo Søndergaard, Bogusław Sonik, María Sornosa Martínez, Sérgio Sousa Pinto, Jean Spautz, Bart Staes, Grażyna Staniszewska, Dirk Sterckx, Catherine Stihler, Ulrich Stockmann, Theodor Dumitru Stolojan, Daniel Strož, Margie Sudre, László Surján, Eva-Britt Svensson, Hannes Swoboda, József Szájer, Konrad Szymański, Csaba Sándor Tabajdi, Antonio Tajani, Hannu Takkula, Charles Tannock, Andres Tarand, Salvatore Tatarella, Britta Thomsen, Silvia-Adriana Țicău, Gary Titley, Patrizia Toia, Ewa Tomaszewska, Witold Tomczak, Georgios Toussas, Antonios Trakatellis, Catherine Trautmann, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, Evangelia Tzampazi, Vladimir Urutchev, Inese Vaidere, Johan Van Hecke, Anne Van Lancker, Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna, Ioannis Varvitsiotis, Yannick Vaugrenard, Bernadette Vergnaud, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Kristian Vigenin, Oldřich Vlasák, Dominique Vlasto, Sahra Wagenknecht, Graham Watson, Henri Weber, Renate Weber, Åsa Westlund, Anders Wijkman, Glenis Willmott, Iuliu Winkler, Bernard Wojciechowski, Janusz Wojciechowski, Corien Wortmann-Kool, Luis Yáñez-Barnuevo García, Anna Záborská, Mauro Zani, Andrzej Tomasz Zapałowski, Tatjana Ždanoka, Dushana Zdravkova, Gabriele Zimmer, Jaroslav Zvěřina, Tadeusz Zwiefka