EU Ministers Agree on Structured Cooperation in Health Strategy

Brdo pri Kranju, 18 April

Structured cooperation in implementing the EU health strategy topped the final day of a two-day informal meeting of EU health ministers at Brdo pri Kranju. The ministers backed a proposal by the Slovenian presidency to have a group of officials deal with coordinating efforts in health between the member states and the European Commission.

This is an unexpected success for the presidency," Slovenian Health Minister Zofija Mazej Kukovic, who chaired the meeting, told the press after Friday's proceedings. "We believe it is a major achievement that we floated this idea at the European level," she said.
She explained that the group would help form strategic guidelines in health in the broadest sense, including in health policies and the integration of the health sector with other sectors.
This should help the member states in implementing "those parts of the strategy setting down that health is an inherent part of all policies".
Mazej Kukovic said the group would primarily be made up of existing groups at the European Commission dealing with health, but instead of meeting only at the expert level, the group will be expanded to include officials from the member states.
According to the Slovenian minister, the decision must still be confirmed by the EU health ministers at a formal meeting.
"We shall not succeed until we have structured cooperation and this high-level group, which will be in charge of promoting the strategy," said European Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.
The Slovenian presidency said in a statement released after today's meeting that the group would enable structured cooperation between the Council and the European Commission, which would be key to achieving EU Health Strategy goals.
Additionally, the group would allow for greater inclusion of individual countries in forming strategic guidelines and setting measures in health.
The other topic of today's session was the spread of superbugs, which have developed wide antibiotic resistance. Mazej Kukovic pointed to the danger of reckless use of antibiotics as well as the rapid spread of bugs around the world. "In dealing with resistance, we must be aware of the fact that bacteria can travel the world, that they know no borders."
She added that one of the main problems currently was that the pharmaceutical industry was not producing new antibiotics as quickly as new cases of resistance were appearing. She said other measures, such as hygiene and responsible use of antibiotics, were thus needed to deal with the issue.
The ministers were also briefed by head of the European Centre for Disease Control Zsuzsanna Jakab, who told them that 35,000 people die annually after contracting hospital bugs. This number is greater than the number of deaths on Europe's roads, Commissioner Vassiliou said citing the ECDC report.

EU Ministers Agree on Structured Cooperation in Health Strategy

More articles from this issue:

Archive